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A Valencia landscape company made news early in the week when some of its employees got stuck in Bermuda because of all those JetBlue cancellations - and it got me wondering (well, it was more like questioning) why some local company was gallivanting to Bermuda in the first place. Well, Landscape Development CFO Tim Myers told me all about it. Each year, the company has a business retreat for many of its employees (not just the guys in suits) that covers strategy and goals, as well as providing an opportunity for folks at various levels of the organizational ladder to schmooze and just hang out. Over the years, they've gone to Singapore, Montreal, Victoria and London, among other locales. Myers talked up the retreats as an important business event - not some boondoggle. The JetBlue cancellations required Landscape Development to shell out another 83 to 90 grand for bookings on other flights. Myers say JetBlue is reimbursing the company $68,000 in cash, plus 94 roundtrip tickets. By the way, he says that with the group discount and off-season rates, Bermuda was a pretty good deal.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.