Once a year in a fantastic place called Las Vegas, well over FIVE-DOZEN of the premier, independent Office Movers from North America meet to discuss the process, progress, and future of the Commercial Relocation Network.  Most people might assume that a CRN meeting in Las Vegas of that many Office Movers at one time could lead to a super-sized repeat of the Hangover movie, but in truth it's a very serious (but enjoyable) opportunity for the best-of-the-best to spend some time talking shop.  Movers are completely devoted to the Craft; we truly look forward to new types of building protection, we get excited about the prospect of sticky-back move labels being replaced by RFID tags; and more than anything, we always worry about the state of the economy and the ever-changing expectations of our valued Office Moving clients.  Details like these might seem a little dry; but it's how we improve the services that we offer.  Office Movers like to be ahead of the curve, we like to lead in process and technology; and that's why there is a CRN.  The Commercial Relocation Network allows for the best Office Mover in New York, a world of sky-scrapers that can climb from nine to ninety-plus floors, to brainstorm with the best Office Movers from Houston, Toronto, Miami, Seattle, etc.; we all speak unique dialects of Office Moving and practice our craft with a nod toward local expectations.  If you look closely you might find that the Office Moving world can be a varied and chaotic place: a Wonderland, growing and shrinking all at once.

Kevin Crofoot (Houston), Matt Taylor (Boston), and Mike McMillin (Milwaukee), and I (New York) took the opportunity after a day of CRN meetings to toss around our concepts of where Office Moving was going.  My worry was that the "traditional things" for Office Movers to move were shrinking, and rapidly: it was like we were Alice in Wonderland and we'd turned into giants in a small world, after eating that little cake.  I told them that everything was shrinking and offered up stories of the impersonal work-spaces in some of the booming Asian cities where early-bird employees vied to be the first into the office to gather up their portable worktable to rush over to plug in their computers near a window to get a good view for the day.  No files to move, no cubicles to build, no computers to disconnect or reconnect.  And I followed up with, "and NYC isn't too far behind"; the floor-plate, space allocation per employee in New York was rapidly passing below 100 Sq ft.  I described the way we did things in a "shrinking" New York: the high-speed,  "rough-and-tumble" of the Big City, what packing materials we used, the asset-tracking we deployed.  I guess I was playing "Chicken-Little" to the group.

Now, the fantastic thing about the Commercial Relocation Network is that there aren't any blinders in our group; no one just blindly follows.  The Best, by definition I'd say, don't follow - But we do listen.  Kevin Crofoot couldn’t have had a more different view of Office Moving in Houston.  Kevin lives in an expanding world that grows out horizontally, not vertically into the sky.  I was amazed to hear about his "crazy" world of large, single-person offices and about the cultures of the Office Moving clients in Houston.  As each of us spoke about our markets, and how our services have changed to suit the chaotic swirl of Office Moving Progress: furniture-renovations, carpet-moves, data-center and PC's, FF&E, hospitality, shredding, document storage, and on and on.  It began to dawn on me that I (aka: the cynical Chicken-Little from Manhattan) was in a world of wonderful opportunity and resources.  The Commercial Relocation Network is a Wonderland of Solutions for Office Moving.  When the best Office Movers on the Continent come together to share, what they're sharing is our "Solution-base" to all of these completely different, local challenges that our wonderful clients come to us to solve for them.  We improve the breed; we innovate by cross-pollinating.  This can only happen when CRN Office Movers come together.

…And while it may be true that certain things in our CRN Office Moving "Wonderland" may be shrinking a little - What is certainly growing (like wild fire) is our capacity to serve our clients with the very Best Office Moving Practices, developed and then shared among the CRN professionals in each of our unique, local markets.  And that sharing is one of the great, unparalleled values of the Commercial Relocation Network.

 

Martin Towey
Executive Vice President

Clancy-Cullen Moving & Storage Co.
Business Relocation and Logistics Management

310 Tiffany Street
Bronx, NY  10474
800-223-8340  / 718-828-3000 ext. 312
973-886-2445 Cell  / 718-861-7640 Fax

mtowey@clancy-cullen.com