Nashville Ideas

Last year as a newbie I attended the "Big Show" in Charlotte. It was extremely educational since at the time we had yet to spray our first gallon of paint. Between the seminars and workshops I felt pretty good about the whole line painting idea. Mick and the crew were more then helpfull. The classroom work was good but once we hit the street we quickly made several newbie mistakes. Such as, you don't pop high wheelies backing up with a full bucket (duhhh), you really need to flush out the system ALOT, not just a little bit, what is the best pressure to hand spray curbs and stencils, vinyl gloves on the trailer...yeah, good idea, color changes, and on and on. How would this work for a workshop: There has to be an abondanded K-Mart or something nearby in Nashville, why not a "hands on" day in the lot? Lets all go out in the sun and play and make collective mistakes together under the watchful eyes of the seasoned veterans who can laugh at us and then set us straight. I have learned so many little tricks on my own in a few short months, I am sure that with the wealth of expertese at the event everyone could learn from everyone else. When I went through the exhibits last year I found out that EVERY paint guy had the best product made (not sure how that works) well, let them bring a few buckets out and use them. The same goes for the machine guys. In my other business I make rescue tools for the fire service, I am always more then happy to go use the tools rather then sit in a booth and talk about them. I am sure that same would be true for the spray machine guys. Make a day of it, get lunch catered to the site, just have a round robin static/demo area where we can try every product and then choose what is best for our business. Have a "layout area", a "spray area", a "fix your opps area", a "glass bead area", and a "Hey, can I try that area". What do you all think? Remember: "If you make a mistake it is a learning experance, if you do it again your Fing stupid"

I thought of a few more.... Most efficent way to do a job by yourself, most efficent use of a helper.

Sounds like great ideas to me. When are the dates of the event?

I have stated this before... how about a class on D.O.T regulations, who must, when and what you have to do to comply. Mike InLine Wilmington, Delaware

Any suggestions for Nashville are pointless. There are contract limitations on what exhibitors can do off-site (other than the parties & such) and all the plans for Nashville were "set in stone" last April/March. Many people don't realize how far ahead Cygnus has to plan these things. As soon as one Expo is over they start using their complex programs that calculate seminar attendance vs profit. Then they use that data to decide what is likely to draw the best attendance at the next show and while they do take suggestions from the advisory board & such into consideration for topics all of this is completed by March and every penny down to the sq. ft. of the exhibit hall for the next year to the size/cost of the meeting roms are booked based an their predicted attendance and best scenarios for profit at the next event. Remember they don't give away a "free" magazine -someone (the advertisers) pay for it and the same is true of the Expos. It's a business and Cygnus has many magazines and does many Expos a year with their Expo division besides the NPE's. The are even a "public" part (Cygnus Expositions division) so if I was the national glass & widow makers group and wanted to put together an Expo I could hire them to run it all or part. There are many such companies and most of Cygnus ones relate to their 80 or so magazines for different industries. Like everything times have changed. In the eary days of Pavement when it was owned by a small "family cmpany they took Harold Neal's idea of having shows every year (of course his concentrated on sealcoating & striping-things which he also sold machinery for) and started the NPE's which were VERY "contractor conscious" of what the people wanted. But like everything else in the last 20 years the magazine was sold a couple of times and is now owned by Cygnus-a big cmpany, and the NPE falls under their "Exposition" division and it's business-and business must make monet. Especially since Cygnus went in and out of the "reorganization" type bankruptcy earier this year like many companies have in the economy tey will be closely watching ever$. Not that your ideas aren't good and might make them more money (I have tried for4 years to get them to come to D/FW because there are several convention centers who would compete for them on price and about 1/2 or more of the time they would get lucky and catch one of our winter warm spells and be able to have outdoor events & sessions. --But their "calculations" show they would lose part of the large % of attendees from the NE who drive) I just know they can't change Nashville at this late date, you would need to be suggesting for 2011 and they will be watching Nashville VERY carefully after going through the in & out of the bankruptcy thing and all--this economy is killing most people and I'm sure it's affecting big corporations like them who have stockholders to report profits to. Attendance was WAY down last year and they have made big changes this year to save money where ever possible, because they surely can't afford to lose money and with many contractors I know talking about the terrible years they have had I doubt attendance will be back to like the early 2000's so they will use great care. PS: And if this health care thing passes in the next day or so (which is almost a sure thing) attendance will probably crater because small businesses like yours will be worried about how hard the cost will hit them.

Maybe then it is about time to start having "Round Tables". In the pressure Washing industry we have these Round Tables all over the country where contractors meet, have speakers, have live demonstrations, vendors sponsor the events, give away prizes, show off new products/chemicals, etc.... Most of these events are free for the contractors but the vendors pay for the meeting room, sponsoring their banners on the walls, paying for the food/drinks/snacks during the event and other kinds of things. So far we have had about 8 to 10 of these around the country, most have been free but some you paid for to help offset the cost of the room and/or food for the event. Here is one of the sites for our Round Tables: http://www.nationalcleaningexpo.com Check it out, these Round Tables would not be hard to do, just have people in cities do the logistics, find the room, places to go and do demo's, have some local guys bring their equipment to show off and do the demo's, give prizes to the best rig, most efficient rig, have contests for prizes, etc.... Make this a fun event and they will grow each event and each year.

The NPCA board will be looking into some similar events in the future for their members. However it is difficult because we cannot do anything to detract from the business at the NPE's. Judging by vendor exhibits many just don't have the income for the expenditures these days. One of the most "telling" things last year was in Charlotte. Lee-Boy a #1 manugacturer of paving equipment who has been at every show I have attended since 1991 had a huge booth the last time in Charlotte because their plant is only 20 minutes away. They also had a big party one day with BBQ, music, free booze, etc.with plant tours and buses running to & from the plant every 30 minutes. Last year for the first time since 1991 they didn't exhibit at all. I would imagine with this economy the sale of small to medium pavers/rollers/graders etc. which they make is at a standstill. There are tons of them on the market used in "like new" condition-many wih less than 800 hrs. So why would a contractor buy new when they can save $20K or more buying machine that's 1 or 2 years old and barely used? Many manufacturers are really hurting because of the same thing. The market is flooded with "like new" stripers, pavers, sealcoat equipment, etc. as many business are going under and others are selling off everything that's not totally necessary or things they don't want to make payments on. So it would be very difficult to get vendors to sponsor "free"events like you mention when their ad budgets have been cut so much. Now predictions are that Obama-health will cost the average small business like the people who post here approx. 10% extra on their overhead if not more and IMHO it will put a LOT of smaller companies out of business (the very ones needed to create jobs) because they will be required to provide health insurance for all employees . Something many cannot do. Even the discount health plans like the NPCA has for it's members have been very slow the last couple of years as small businesses cut everywhere they can. It's not that they don't want to offer health insurance but they just can't afford it with their sales so far off. I talked to one striper/sealcoater the other day who said so far this year he had gross sales of 1/5 what he had in 2008 and his "season" was ending. If he can't get by without employees Obama-care will kill him and many other small businesses I know-not just in this business but in all kinds of smaller businesses where they cut health insurance 4-5 years ago because the costs were getting so high. That or contractors will risk running "off the books" and paying (probably illegals) in cash hoping they don't get caught. I did the numbers on what Obama-care would have cost me in 2000 when I had the largest crew and a great gross that year and it would have wiped out the profits (of course I did paving/sealing/striping the whole bit so I had more employees) IMHO it's going to get really rough and events like these will be farther from people's minds with double digit unemployment and the economy killing their sales. The ONLY contractor of 100's I know who is having a "normal" year this year is in Vegas where they are still building but he is seeing the new starts slowing down so he knows it won't last after they complete the current things "in progress" so he's looking to branch out his striping business into other fields just because he sees the slowdown coming even though it hasn't hit there yet.

They used to have a Demo day when the show was in Atlanta. Cygnus cited poor attendance and cost as reason to delete it. I think it would be a great thing to do it again and have been pushing ever since. Best advice to all those with sugestions, contact Allan Heydorn with your feedback. As a member of the PAVEMENT advisory board I do know they value feedback. As Don stated things are planned out in advance, but you never know, more so if there was a huge interest in something. Allan will be around the seminars all show long, I know he loves to chat and hear feedback. He also likes to hear suggestions for new seminars. You can leave those suggestions on the yellow seminar evaluation forms. ALSO VERY IMPORTANT, contact your suppliers and tell them you want to see them at the show, then after let them know you enjoyed seeing them. Many suppliers feel its not important to go anymore...but hey if you are looking at buying equipment, then you know how nice it is to see them.

I go to the npe show every year and I do truly learn something every time I go.The classes I take or just talking to people helps me save money/make money that pays for my trip the next year.Asphaltman is right, they did have a demo day which i thought was great.I would even pay more to see if they had it again.

I would pay more as well...I dont think it would be unreasonable to pay $50 or more, if you could go actually use a bunch of equipment. If Im going to buy something expensive, then it would be worth the cost to demo it. I would also bet if many of us showed enough interest, then suppliers would foot the bill. IMHO