(From left) The Three Amigos, George Smith, Rick Iceberg and Ben Jones with Robert Sax.

F2FEC held its annual networking conference March 5-7 in Colorado Springs CO. Our industry always benefits from any forum that brings operators, manufacturers, and distributors together.

As reported in RePlay, “F2FEC: Imagine” closed out last night (March 7) at The Broadmoor resort’s Cheyenne Lodge, capping off a conference that was full of inspirational talks from presenters covering topics such as bias, how they grew their own companies, crafting and reinforcing company culture, providing play opportunities to the mentally and physically challenged and more.

“In surprising news, the Amigos announced that they were hitting the pause button to do their own reflection on the conference itself, not intending to hold F2FEC next year (something hinted at in the presentation of a “pause” symbol next to the “play” triangle of the conference logo). In a final session with industry writer Robert Sax interviewing the trio, they told the roomful of attendees that they intended to hold meetings in order to explore what’s next. In a letter to participants, they wrote:

“While the Amigos are pressing the ‘PAUSE’ for the F2FEC Conference so that we can reimagine how to differentiate and return BIGGER, BADDER, BOLDER, BETTER and DIFFERENT, you simply may not PAUSE in your efforts to make your future realities…the future we imagine is the future we get. Relationships create opportunities, we create opportunities by imagining possibilities and by working together.” They closed with: “BE IN THE NEXT ROOM!”

What this could mean? Putting on an industry educational program is no easy task.  Just ask AMOA, AAMA, IAPPA, and the Foundations Entertainment University Team. It takes a lot of time, money, passion, dedication, and organizational and marketing abilities. F2FEC has done an admirable job of getting the industry’s attention with their tag line ‘Change of Die’. Well, perhaps it should not be taken literally, but certainly ‘Change or Make Less Money’ and then if you are really stubborn, comes the Die part.  My gut tells me that ‘Pause’ just means ‘time out’, but because of the passion the Amigos have for this industry (and it is real), they will be back in a new format as F2FEC 2.0 as the 3 Amigos, or 2 Amigos, or perhaps Uno Amigo..

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR 10 FREE COPIES OF MY ALL TIME BEST ARTICLES