Saiger and Yeadon

[Mikey P]

Besides you two, did anybody else show up for The Experience?

What's changed from last year?
Is there really "hands on" demonstrations or are only the instructors hands getting all touchy feely..?
How many companies are outside?
Is there a buzz in the air?
Are the Segway crew wearing "I hate Tony" t-shirts?

 

[HydroDude]

Going up for trade show today...

 

[Desk Jockey]

I think Jimi planned to be there for the "Experience"!

 

[Shawn Forsythe]

 

[Shorty]

I thought they canned "Scary Movies".....

 

[Mikey P]

Now I see why Mrs Ladwigs wears the pants.

 

[Mark Saiger]

Not as many people I would say as past, but things are good in Florida especially when it won't quit snowing at home! Hands on demos are good. Show hall had good showing. Live demos there too. Fun place to be and I guess you could say it's what a person makes of it. Networking is always great. We are enjoying it. Spent some time with Billy Y. I will let him know this post is here. Just came across it logging in with a cold drink in hand! Mmmmmm.
Have a great one everyone!
Mark Saiger
www.saigers.com

 

[billyeadon]

About the same as lasy year. Probably 100 fully paid registrants. First hour was busy but it is just too darn nice out on the beach to stay inside long. A lot of good hands on demonstrations everyday.

 

[Mikey P]

100

Good Lord, maybe "Larry's Fest" would have been a better name choice...


And how much did the vendors pay to participate?

 

[Desk Jockey]

Shhhheeet that's not many I bet they lost their ass!

That show never has made much sense, it never has had Vegas numbers.

Experience it once and you won't go back?

100 people? I've see more people waiting for kettle corn in front of Lowes on a Saturday morning!

 

[Mikey P]

Lmao..
We got a cleaner here who sells kettle corn on the side

Way more than a 100 and he ain't having Jennifer Wilkerson emailing me every day and no full color spreads in the Lower magazine all year long.

I'd love to know what the vendors are paying

 

[Desk Jockey]

I'd love to know what the vendors are paying

This time? Twice as much as they will next time......if there is a next time.

 

[Mikey P]

Time for Toots to sweep in and behead the Segway

 

[Desk Jockey]

LOL

I knew that "Toots" was going to come back to haunt me.

 

[Mikey P]

I feel guilty charging what I charge for my 100- broke dicks for MFs


Im betting its three or more times as much to get Experienced..

 

[Mikey P]

keep in mind Vegas last year had what looked like 300 or less.



and yet *** has 50 thousand plus readers each month.

Where are all these carpet cleaners coming from?

 

[rwcarpet]

Wow....kinda just like I thought he would look like! But I though Jimmy was bald??

 

[Desk Jockey]

keep in mind Vegas last year had what looked like 300 or less.



and yet *** has 50 thousand plus readers each month.

Where are all these carpet cleaners coming from?

and just think how many more readers they would have had, had they paid for all the dinners at the Industry Dinner a few years back.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I feel guilty charging what I charge for my 100- broke dicks for MFs


Im betting its three or more times as much to get Experienced..

Experienced alright....experienced in what not to attend next year!

 

[The Great Oz]

An event like this can work for a small turnout if the expenses are in line with that turnout. If the expenses are in line, the cost to exhibit should also be in line, and if the exhibitor is told to expect a small turnout they can't be upset when they get one.


The ICRA leadership knows that the Florida Connections was always a low-turnout money-loser that made exhibitors unhappy, so it's hard to understand why they decided to do exactly the same thing and hope for a different result. A show in Vegas carries even more cost and liability for the organizers, and given ICRA's limited industry support could lead to severe enough losses that it would bankrupt the organizing assoications. If they survive Vegas they'll have to compete with the new IICRCA show, which has the bank account, credibility and the industry backing to dwarf even the best years of Connections, so I hope my friends in the ICRA member organizations are paying attention.

 

[Desk Jockey]

It didn't seem like the wisest move from an outsiders perspective. However as you mentioned they knew what they were up against going in so I would assume they were keeping a tight hand on the purse strings, no lavish parties, limo's or Segways.

I think I'd have went back to the well and hit Lost Wages one one time and built up a little momentum first.

 

[harryhides]

The sold out RIA conference in Vegas that I attended, started 2 days after the Experience - billed as "The world’s largest expo for cleaning and restoration equipment, tools, and products".
RIA had the largest turnout in their history at over 800 attendees.
It was held at Planet Hollywood which was a pretty good venue.
According to the folks that exhibited at both shows, I was told that a 10x10 booth at the Experience cost over $1,200.

Play your cards right, Mikey and your next Fest can also be the worlds largest .............................

 

[Desk Jockey]

I saw that, 800-attendees the most ever. Wow!

 

[doylebloss]

I belive Bill was referring to the amount of fully paid registrants for the seminars. That appeared to be sightly down from last year. The exhibit hall was very busy on Thursday and slower than last year on Friday. However, Saturday had at least double the walk-ins from last year, including a lot more local cleaners and restorers. Saturday was a very pleasant surprise for many of the exhbitors. Most of the hands-on events were well attended when I got away from the booth.

We will see when we peruse the total attendee list in a couple of weeks. It is always fun to delete the exhibitors, press, "consultants", instructors, gurus, and "general hanger onners" from any event list ever put together in our industry to see how many day in and day out folks were there who actually do cleaning and restoring. All in all, my guess is that total seminar and trade show attendees were about equal to last year. I will be glad to provide you with numbers from any event we exhibit at where they at least bother to give us a list of attendees after the event is over. In the south, we used to call that "correcting the preacher's count. " The weather was perfect.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Thanks for the offer Doyle.

I really don't keep up with it attendance for either of the programs other than the irony of being touted as the World's Largest expo and only 100 or even 200 show up and yet 2-days later RIA has 800 attendees.

That's the tough part about putting together events like that, you just never know where people want to go. It seems like Clearwater is a definite no, for all it takes to put on a show, that one has never compared to Vegas in attendance.

I'm just blow away by the 800 at RIA, that's truly amazing! I've been to some of the RIA/WLS events and they were always well attended but 800? Wow! Must have been the venue? Sounds like I missed a good one! : (

 

[The Great Oz]

The RIA event had some things going for it: a really good program (as usual) exhibitors that felt a connection with the organization and went overboard to promote it, and an issue that reminded the members why they need a strong association - the ThermaPure patent trolling lawsuit. Top it off with a staff that seemed to be invisible unless they were needed (there were no emergencies that showed) and everything just flowed.

It was a good venue as well. Newly renovated Planet Hollywood in the middle of the strip. It turned out to be a little too small for the number of vendors that wanted in though, so it looks like they're going to need a bigger space next year.


PS: The two events shouldn't be compared though, since they're targeted to different people at different levels. There's no question the place to be if you do more than just offer "a man and a fan" for restoration is the RIA event.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Thanks Bryan!

I heard they had 500 last year so it's definitely growing sounds like the place to be.

Lots of heavy hitters there....the rest of us "a man with a fan" companies had to stay at home and read about it.