The 16th Window Cleaning Network Picnic took place last weekend in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

The Picnic is a unique networking event focused more on “natural” networking than seminars. Three days of activities are planned; ¾ of attendees spend more than one day here.

There were 88 attendees in all from 19 states who by all accounts had a great time.

Activities began Friday with lift training, then the Don Chute Memorial Golf charity golf (sponsored by IPC Eagle), an AUWC membership meeting, and the DSC reception in the hotel lounge. Unfortunately the Friday fireworks show was cancelled by the city because of the drought. We kept the bar open longer and Unger picked up the bar tab – it worked.

There were 3 seminars. Dave Webb of International Equipment taught an aerial lift safety class and hands on certification tests. Jeff Scott spoke about – and stressed – high rise training and rooftop safety. These two topics actually mesh together well. Half of Picnic attendees do high rise, and most route/residential window cleaners get high rise leads from time to time.

Gary Mauer discussed his goal of attending Glass Performance Days 2013 in Finland as a continuation of the effort to promote tempered glass quality to the glass industry.

On Saturday we were outside by the JRC Picnic tent by 11:15; weather was perfect all afternoon. John Becker of Ettore prepared an awesome meal – Santa Maria steaks, sweet corn, baked potatoes, salads, watermelon – and cake.

After lunch there were demos of lifts, waterfed pole systems, indoor systems, screen cleaning and pressure wash systems. New products from Unger and Ettore were introduced. The Picnic’s work truck show – where window cleaners park trucks on the lawn and show each other stuff – was a popular networking opportunity

The water balloon/dunk game helped kick off fundraising for another Gary Mauer fabricating debris scratch test seminar at GPD. The day ended with a huge door prize drawing with a ton of prizes from JRC, Ettore, Unger, Titan Labs and a host of other Window Cleaning Network Sponsors. Prizes included 4 waterfed poles, a Weber grill, GPS and Kindle Fire.

On day 3, Sunday, some of us went charter fishing on Lake Michigan – and caught 19 large lake trout and king salmon. Mike Dieltz’s trout is getting mounted. One group hit the giant German Fest in Milwaukee. Another went up to Slinger Speedway – billed as the world’s fastest quarter mile – for stock car racing.

Olympia Resort – site of the Picnic since 1997 – is a 250 room hotel with a spa, pools, golf course, restaurant and bars. A $1.3m renovation project is underway. Next year’s Window Cleaning Network Picnic will held here the weekend of July 27, 2013.

(Always the last Saturday in July.)