USANA Health Sciences hosts an award-winning International Convention every year in August. The company turned 22 this year, and celebrated in style with amazing guests, tons of training, wonderful announcements, new sales tools, and more. In this blog series, I’ll cover several aspects of the event.
Part One – The Entertainment
Of course I am going to start here, what did you think? I’m a guy who loves his stage time. I absolutely love it when I get exposed to a new talent and USANA brought plenty to Convention. Let me set the stage for you (pun intended.)
Convention takes place primarily in two buildings in downtown Salt Lake City. The side events are hosted in the Salt Palace, aka the Salt Lake City Convention Center. The general sessions and larger scale events are hosted in the Energy Solutions Arena, home to the Utah Jazz. (Side note: The USANA ampitheatre is located a few miles away. That’s the local concert venue. USANA has the naming rights, but Convention doesn’t take place there (usually*)).
USANA has a house band, made up of employees, including several executives. The band hosts an outdoor festival each year. Guests can dance, enjoy tunes, play sports and games, eat some great food, and enter to win prizes. All proceeds go to benefit the True Health Foundation, an organization established “to provide the most critical human necessities—nutrition, clothing, shelter, medical assistance, and health education—to those who are suffering or in need.” This outdoor party is lovingly referred to as USANAFest, and features plenty of guest singers and musicians. Well, let’s call them entertainers. Some of the guests aren’t exactly singers…but most of them know it.
One perennial guest at USANAFest is country music star, Collin Raye. You may know Collin from his 16 #1 hits, including “That’s My Story”, “In This Life”, and “Love, Me.” Collin has been a partner with USANA for years, and he is an energetic entertainer who clearly loves his time on stage.
From one audio extreme to another, we were completely entertained by the vocal talents of Tom Thum. Tom has an incredible ability to create sounds, tones, and noises with simply his voice (and sometimes his nose). He took us on an audio tour of the many countries he has visited as a performer. He incorporated everything from didgeridoos to dubstep using just a microphone and his range of vocal sounds. For a taste, check out Tom’s presentation from his TED Talks session in Sydney, Australia.
The best visual performance came from iLuminate, the electric visual dance troupe featured a few years back on America’s Got Talent. They were amazing. Not only were they fun to watch up close, but they provided a great entrance for one to-be-named-TV-celebrity (stay tuned for a later blog post on that.)
Saturday’s closing ceremonies featured a full-throttle Utah band called We Are The Strike. The band featured a singer, two guitarists, a drummer, a bassist, and a horn section that absolutely brought the energy. These guys were pure energy. They knew how to work a crowd, they owned the stage, and they filled the room with enthusiasm and adrenaline. Great way to close four days together.
I had the interesting experience of going from crowd member to entertainer following Convention. We landed Sunday in Baltimore, only for me to drive directly to a performance of my own. My band, Just Wanna Play, performed in Bowie, MD. The gig was a blast. For a taste of JWP, check out one of our videos HERE.
Who are some of your favorite entertainers? What’s the best concert you’ve ever seen? Let’s discuss!
All the best,
nK