The Opening Ceremony

Since BU is being held in San Antonio, there is a "Western" theme.  We were encourage to dress in "Western" garb.  I'm a Jew from NY, what do I know about "Western" wear?  Apparently, not much!  There were many cowboy hats and Western shirts around.  Several groups of employees from various stores wore matching t-shirts and and cowboy hats.  The group from Canada was the most vocal, cheering in the lobby and waving the Canadian flag.  One member of the group confessed that their red cowboy hats came from a dollar store, but they glitzed them up with crystals in the shape of a maple leaf.   One of the Canadian reps allowed me to take her picture.  Her earrings were wonderful!

We all shuffled into the tremendous "Lone Star Ballroom" for the opening ceremony.  The regional reps stood on chairs waving the letters representing their districts.  Here's our rep, Gayle:

The ceremony  opened  up with a country western group that two-stepped across the stage and gave a rousing performance of some popular county songs (including one of my all time favorites "All My Exes Live in Texas"):

This performance was followed by a wonderful Mariachi band.  What made this band so special is it was made up entirely of women!  Their costumes were beautiful, a bright salmon/pink color and their music fantastic!  Here's a video of part of the performance - not the best quality - I shot it from my iPhone:

The cart that was rolled out at the end of the video was a display of the new 500 series machines - more on the new line in a future post. 

Oh, we have a present from BERNINA!  Every dealer received a very nice glass frame personally handed out by HP Ueltschi, the owner of BERNINA international:

 This would look nice on one of the Koala cabinets!  It reads:
"The heart of BERNINA is the talent, passion, brilliance and caring of the BERNINA dealer.  Thank you for your dedication and the countless ways you make BERNINA great".

So much for the opening ceremony.  Tuesday is filled with Creative Clinics - demos to stimulate our creative juices (and yours truly needs a real kick in the butt to boot up the creativity).  Until Tuesday, see ya!