Over 1,800 Guests Attend Batavia Facility Open House.
What do you get when you put together a lot of yellow, 1,815 guests, 100 hosts, all the food you can eat, and unpredictable weather? If you guessed, “A super successful open house at Milton CAT’s new Batavia location,” you’re right.
From the time you walked into the Milton CAT Batavia facility on April 4th and 5th, you could tell the mood was upbeat and this was going to be an informative, but down-to-earth, neighborly event. “We came to check things out, see what was new and also to have fun,” is how one of the guests described the open house, and his pal added, “There was no showing off, but no cutting corners either; it was like Milton CAT was telling us, ‘this is who we are and this is what we can do’ and it was up to us to come to our own conclusion.”
Decisions had to be made! Visitors had lots of choices to make regarding where to go, what to do and what to see. To keep up their energy they could eat as much roasted pig, salad and beans as they wanted.
There were four major components to the event:
Hands-on product demonstrations – opportunities to look at, or operate, the latest model CAT dozers and excavators, Challenger tractors, Metso crushing and screening plants, and Genie lifts, as well as CAT generators and Sullair air compressors.
Operator contests, where participants could show their abilities at tasks ranging from picking up a series of smaller and smaller balls with a mini-excavator and dropping them into a bucket, to running a multi-terrain loader through an obstacle course.
A very well attended product and services fair, a great place to be if you wanted some one-on-one information. For example, you had the opportunity to talk to an expert on equipment safety, learn about parts options including CAT Classic, CAT Reman and NEXUS, take a good look at the complete range of work tools, chat with a representative from CAT financial services, or simply wander among the hundreds of new, used and returned–from-rent pieces of equipment available to construction, aggregate and landscape companies, farmers and municipalities in western New York.
Last but not least, and probably second only to the roasted pig as far as popular appeal, were the small group guided tours. Conducted every 45 minutes and led by Milton CAT personnel, the tours took visitors through the 100,000 sq ft facility, stopping at key areas to get more in-depth explanations.
Tour participants were particularly impressed with the new parts operation. Set up and run using cutting edge software and logistics, this section of the new Milton CAT Batavia facility is a clear proof of the commitment the company is making to support their customers’ uptime.
Another popular stop with visitors across the board was the rebuild area. In order to protect all the elements that go into a CAT Certified Rebuild against contamination, this area of the facility is set up and operated according to regulations as strict as those you’ll find in many “cleanroom” environments – not what you expect to find at a typical equipment dealership!
Since it was a regular workday, visitors had the opportunity to see standard operations going on as well – from buses and trucks pulling in to have their engines checked, to generators being serviced, to new machinery being prepped for delivery, to phones answered and parts being ordered and picked up.
The two day event ended on a high note, with beautiful weather and an even higher number of visitors on Saturday that included children all of ages. Beyond a business affair, the Milton CAT Batavia open house had the feeling of a big neighborly get-together. There was something for everyone – exciting technology to discover, hints and tips on saving money, opportunities to talk one-on-one with industry professionals, some friendly competition, unlimited good food…and plain old fun.