Wow What a Show - Clean Show First Report

The Las Vegas Clean Show, which took place June 11-14, 2007, was one of the best laundry exhibits ever, especially for that portion of the huge, sprawling space that was devoted to the coin and card-operated laundry industry. Attendance was spectacular and there seemed to be lots of business being done. This was a genuinely exciting show of shows for the over all textile maintenance industries. The success of this, or any other trade show, is that exhibitors, attendees and sponsors each are happy with the results. Every one with whom we at the News spoke with seemed to be overjoyed at the quality of people who attended and visited the big variety of booths. In ours, for example, we talked with literally dozens and dozens of western operators and readers who stopped by to say hello. All of the coin laundry related seminars, meetings and events were very well attended. In some cases there was a standing room only crowd soaking up the information. Cocktail parties, annual dinner and seminar meetings gave laundry operators a chance to meet their counterparts from around the world and to share with them ideas for successful business operation and management. The Association''s Annual Meeting was crowded with standing room only. At that meeting, five CLA Board Members were reelected to a three year term. These included Alan -Greenberg, Kenneth Griffin, Bette Holland, Harvey Kantor and Andy Kretz. Their election was by acclimation as no other nominations came in. Directors serve without pay and spend much time away from their own businesses taking care of our industry''s affairs. The CLA staff was, as usual, active in helping members. They are an outstanding group of people who work hard for members and our industry. By the way a number of new members joined the association during the Clean Show. There are six distinctive sponsoring groups that combine to put on the Clean Show every 18 moths or so. This includes the CLA which, this year, held the chairmanship for the event. A good share of the credit for the show''s success goes to Brian Wallace, who is President of the CLA and served as Chairman of the 2007 Clean Show. Riddle & Associates has been the manager for the Clean Show for the past number of shows. They did a flawless job of getting everyone and everything every where they needed to be. As this report is being written, there was not yet a final count on the attendance numbers available to the press, but it did seem that the crowd of attendees was bigger than in years past. It was busy without seeming to be too crowded. The amount of booth and exhibit space did set a record. As proof of the size of the overall show, the CLA''s annual dinner had 525 tickets pre-sold and there did not seem to be too many empty chairs in the huge room. At the dinner, there was an awards ceremony where members were recognized for their outstanding service to the overall laundry industry. Of interest to Westerners is that Ron Lane, all round good guy from Sacramento, California was awarded a plaque for being ''Member of the Year''. Ron is also President of the GSCLA, the Northern California affiliate. Laundry Industry veterans will recall a time when the coin laundry trade booths all fit in a hotel''s basement exhibit hall, and we were sharing the hall with car wash people that had the biggest booths. Now all of the various trade groups have created one of the largest exhibits in the entire world. It was easy to get lost at the Las Vegas Clean Show. Following our own advice, the News staff marked out exactly where we wanted to go for each day of the show, and we were overwhelmed and tired by the time we found where we wanted to get to. The show was that big. Fairly reliable sources told us that if we walked all of the aisles at the show just one time, that we were covering five miles. The brain might not believe that, but the feet sure will. One old timer in the industry has often said that he never went to a coin laundry meeting where he did not earn more income back through the information and ideas he heard than going to the events ever cost. CLA''s seminars at this Clean Show had to be the perfect example of what it is he meant. On Monday the topic was ''The Future of the Self Service Coin Laundry Industry''. On Tuesday, the topic was ''Profitable Vend Price Strategies for Successful Coin Laundries'' and was followed by ''Boost Your Bottom Line,'' a session on 10 ways to make more money. Wednesday''s sessions covered the fluff and fold business while Thursday''s topic was ''Evaluating an Investment in Coin Laundry.'' Seating in the rooms set aside for the CLA seminars was set for an attendance of 750 people and each time the News staff was there, that is just about how many laundry folks were seated there in the room soaking up all that free information. There was so much to see and so many things to do at this Clean Show that it''s hard to report on everything comprehensively and not write page after page. However, there were some unusual and interesting points that our readers should hear about, such as all of the electronics that will affect our industry for years to come. The NEWS will be covering many of these products in the months to come. Also, be sure to check out next month''s issue of Coin Laundry News, as we plan on offering a final report on Clean Show ''07, including the final attendance numbers, the list of awards from the CLA Banquet, and a sneak peak at a few of the new products we found at the show that will be of particular interest to Card and Coin Laundry owners. Finally, our congratulations to the CLA and everyone who worked so hard to make this Clean Show so successful, informative and an all around great experience. We hope you are among those fortunate enough to attend, and if not, you have two years to plan for Clean Show 2009