I
had the opportunity to attend my first NPF (National Postal Forum) hosted in downtown Phoenix last week, and I’d like to tell you all about my adventures and share some of my favorite photos. Everyone that was there for the first time got a blue dot on their badge, and I wore that blue dot on my badge proudly! Thank you so much to OPTiMO Information Technology for letting me be part of the 2022 NPF team, it was a blast!
Before I get into all of the NPF excitement, I have to say my favorite part of the event was getting to meet everyone in person. I’ve been working remotely for OPTiMO Information Technology since 2019 and the majority of my co-workers are located on the east coast so I haven’t met everyone in person yet. It was pretty exciting to see more than a head and shoulders on a video call after 3 years. Hello, you have legs?!
It was also really exciting to see all of my team’s hard work on display, whether it was up on the screen or in the printed materials in the hands of everyone around the conference. This is going to be the week everyone gets their postcards from NPF guests, and I couldn’t be more proud that I got to help with that. Not to mention, getting to dust off some of my print skills. One of the things that stuck with me during one of the presentations [Data + Delivery = A Stronger Mail & Packages Proposition for Customers by Dr. Joshua D. Colin, Jeffrey Johnson, and Thomas Foti] was when Thomas Foti mentioned how USPS is the ONLY company that touches EVERY business and EVERY home. Granted, I knew this to be true, but hearing it said in that way, really blew my mind. So, it made me even more proud that our company gets to be part of this organization and gets to come up with new innovations. Here are some photos of the work we provided for NPF.
I saw many different presentations given during the 3 days I attended. Most of them were focused on possibilities and ideas for small businesses, but it was very good information to hear and to see what questions people had. The one thing I learned was people are ecstatic about Informed Delivery and actually knew what it was, which was pretty cool. Maybe I’m biased, but the presentation Bob Dixon and Fernando Mello gave on all of the new Informed Delivery innovations coming down the line was my favorite! There were so many people that wanted to join the presentation that they had to turn people away, it was that cool! The OPTiMO team wasn’t late by any means, but we were the last few people to get access to the presentation room because it was already packed. I believe they had to request another presentation time so everyone could see it. That’s a pretty big feather in our cap if you ask me! A special shoutout to Bob Dixon for giving me his chair so I was able to join, and talk about cutting it close. Here’s a photo of the packed room, I wasn’t kidding!
I really enjoyed getting to meet and visit with everyone at the different booths and tell them about Informed Delivery, Informed Greetings, and Informed Images. I was able to convert several people and got them to sign up right then and there for Informed Delivery. Whoo-hoo, a win for all of us! So, it wasn’t just me walking booth to booth grabbing candy and brand printed loot, even though I did get a lot of goodies. Funny, some of the booths had games and I was able to dust off my amazing high school golf skills and won all kinds of things. I should have bought a lottery ticket that day because I was on fire with good luck. Possibly, it was the lunar eclipse that turned the moon into a stunning blood red color that gave me good luck? Either way, I’ll take it!
Did I mention games? We were able to play USPS’s version of Pac-Man which was a lot of fun and had some great USPS trivia too. I did pretty good at 12,900 points and stayed in 3rd place for quite some time. They also had a NASCAR game and I stayed in 2nd place for a good while with that too. I’ll post some photos so you can see the amazing scores that I’m proud of along with some beautifully decorated booths. I’m used to doing event photography so having my tiny little phone was something else, I tried to snap some good photos to share with you.
On the last day, I had some spare time so I went to the pop-up USPS store they had in the front of the exhibiter hall and got some cards to send and that was when I learned about the fancy NPF cancellation stamp they had available. A cancellation (or cancel for short; French: oblitération) is a postal marking applied on a postage stamp or postal stationery to deface the stamp and to prevent its reuse. Cancellations come in a huge variety of designs, shapes, sizes, and colors. I ran back to the store and got a blank envelope with a stamp so I could have one for my scrapbook, yes I still scrapbook. When I arrived at the table I met the nicest lady who stamped my envelope and also tried to sell me on Informed Delivery. When she did that I gave her the biggest smile and told her my team is working on that project and I knew all about it. She was SOOO EXCITED and shortly after our conversation, other members of our team came over to get their postcards stamped and joined the conversation. Minutes later another person from her table joined and it turned out he was the one who designed the stamp! We were both so excited and we ended up getting a photo together of us holding the postcards showcasing our designs. Small world and perfect timing!
As my 3rd, and final, day at NPF came to an end we were enjoying the end-of-day reception, and guess who was there too? It was Louis DeJoy, the United States Postmaster General! When you do work For USPS that is pretty exciting and comparable to seeing Daniel Radcliffe at Comic-Con. So, I decided I was going to seize the moment and attempt to meet him and get a photo. After talking with several security officers I was able to get my chance to meet him, whoo hoo. My amazing team stood on the sidelines taking endless amounts of photos, so I’ll have some to share with you. I’m not sure how I’ll get the fancy photo but the experience alone was pretty cool. Funny, I forgot I was wearing a badge with my name and city on it because he said “hello, Heather” like we were old friends which was really nice and made my day. Then he asked if I walked to NPF because he noticed my badge that said I live here in town, hahaha. It was pretty funny and such a memorable experience that I will never forget.
All-in-all I had a wonderful experience and I am overwhelmingly grateful for the experience. I hope you liked reading about my adventure and enjoyed some of my photos. I hope I get to go again someday.
PS Best dressed honorable mention to those who had the cool USPS shoes. I ordered a pair yesterday so I can have them for any future work events, I am pretty excited
.