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About CCI
The History of CCI
Having been in the industry since 1981 as a client, a supplier and now as a provider, CCI President Dick Lamade has acquired much experience and knowledge in the area of managing vehicles and people.
After working as a high school math teacher and then a small ground transportation company, Dick worked in the transportation department of McDonald's Corporation. Because of his background in local ground transportation, one of his duties became working as liaison with the supplier who handled most of the convention ground transportation for McDonald's. Taking the chance to learn even more, Dick went to work for that supplier in the early 1990s. Dick helped organize ground transportation for events ranging from hundreds of attendees to in excess of ten thousand attendees.
In the late 1990s, the supplier was gobbled up by a large travel agency, and Dick went looking for work. It wasn't long before McDonald's called and asked him to handle their next Worldwide Convention (he had handled the ground transportation for McDonald's previous seven biennial events) as a contractor/consultant. That relationship continues today on a day by day basis. "That keeps us on our toes. We are only as good as our last event, so we have to prove ourselves every time we go out there. I like that because it keeps us fresh, proactive, always striving for what is best for McDonald's, not giving us any thoughts about resting on our laurels."
In 2000, Dick Lamade started Convention Components, Inc., taking a name which describes what we do. CCI supplies components to conventions. That implies more than just ground transportation, and the implication is correct. CCI will look at any service needed by a client, and will find a way to handle it to the client's satisfaction.
"I have a multitude of examples of our ability to handle those requests that are seemingly outside our swing zone. I was in a pre-convention meeting and the planner was lamenting that neither her team or the hotel, a major chain hotel in the heart of a major city, could not find a foreign language newspaper for their President. He was accustomed to reading that paper from his home country every day. She turned to me and asked me if we could find it. In twenty minutes, I said yes and when/where do you want it delivered every day."
"Another example of our flexibility was when our client was looking for ways to find ushers for their general sessions. Having seen us in action before, they asked me if we would like to bid on the function. We have now handled it at their last 3 international conventions. Our rate was better, but more than any other reason, we make sure the ushers perform as they expect at a rate that is extremely competitive".
"But our forte is ground transportation. We have, time and time again, put together quality shuttle and transportation services for our client. We are agile, flexible and vigilant, always watching for opportunities for problems to arise, handling them before they become problems. We interpret the needs of our client so our vehicle providers feel comfortable in the knowledge that they know what the client wants, not worrying about hidden meanings or objectives. That enables them to perform better on behalf of our client. "
As business has grown, Dick has honed the CCI team to deliver the highest quality convention services to CCI's clients. When CCI is taking care of your convention, you can rest assured that your convention needs will be met by the experienced and knowledgeable CCI team. Please click here to contact CCI or call us at (630) 510-0504 to discuss how we can help with your next convention and transportation needs.