AVI Systems’ Ashton McGinnis Wins #BLC2017 Hashtag Contest

Youngest honoree chronicles three-day experience from golf outing to her stint as breakout session presenter—and everything in between.

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Although Westbury National sales manager Brock McGinnis missed the NSCA Business and Leadership Conference for the first time in many years, his influence was all over the list of winners in this year’s Twitter hashtag contest for the 2017 edition in Phoenix.

McGinnis’ niece, Ashton, of AVI Systems earned top honors for her social media prowess, tweeting 140-character pearls of wisdom using the hashtag #BLC2017 73 times during the three-day event.

McGinnis joins an illustrious group that also includes her uncle in 2014, Kourtney Govro of Sphere3 and All Systems in 2015 and Advanced AV VP of sales and marketing John Greene in 2016.

Here are a few examples of Ashton McGinnis’ championship tweeting form:

Commercial Integrator is NSCA’s media partner for its 19th annual Business & Leadership Conference. Find continuous coverage here. 

 

Greene actually out-tweeted McGinnis in terms of pure volume before, during and after BLC 2017 with 87 tweets in three days and many more leading up to and following the event, but McGinnis earns this year’s prize for her ability to sprinkle fun among several lightbulb moments during the keynote sessions, as well as her willingness to engage with those who retweeted or quoted her tweets.

She won despite not being able to tweet during her breakout session on the final day of the conference, when the stakes were highest and the push for tweeting supremacy was at perhaps its most furious.

As if Ashton’s win wasn’t enough pride for her uncle, imagine the smile on his face in knowing the man who essentially took his place at this year’s BLC, Westbury account manager George Puthenkulam, finished just short of the younger McGinnis with almost 70 #BLC2017 tweets from March 2 to 4.

Verrex director of global managed services Michael Shinn changed jobs since last year’s BLC but his tweeting fingers didn’t slow down too much. He finished third with almost 60 #BLC2017 tweets, some of which harkened back to the 2016 BLC, when Shinn knocked over the event’s awards table—twice.

 

Each of this year’s Twitter hashtag contest winners will get a customized NSCA and Drunk Unkles swag packet, featuring authentic Unks apparel and VIP treatment at the upcoming gig in Orlando during InfoComm 2017 on Wednesday, June 14.

For those who are worried Greene is going home empty-handed this year despite outpacing the rest of the competition with his tweets, fret not. We’re giving him a Twitter lifetime achievement award, and from this day forward, the winner of this annual contest will know they’re getting the John Greene Award.

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Craig MacCormack is a veteran journalist who joined Security Sales & Integration in June 2023 as web editor. He is also the former executive editor of Commercial Integrator (2011-2021).

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Comments

  • Upset Subscriber says:

    This article is horrible, I’m sure Ashton is a wonderful and hardworking person but I couldn’t care less if she is related to Brock McGinnis. I’m sure she would prefer to have accolades and articles written about her without referencing her uncle. Craig, I implore you to find new inspiration and publish articles with actual value to the readers.

    • D. Craig MacCormack says:

      Thanks for your comment, Jim. Clearly, this is Ashton’s accomplishment and she’ll reap the rewards that come with it, including having her name in the headline of this piece and VIP treatment at the Drunk Unkles show at InfoComm 2017. I made a reference to Brock because (1) Ashton is his niece; (2) Brock’s co-worker, George Puthenkulam of Westbury, finished second in the heated #BLC2017 contest and essentially replaced Brock at the event this year; and (3) Brock won this contest in a prior year. Brock is a major player in this industry. I decided to have fun with a fun topic. I’m sorry you’re upset.

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