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2016 ICA Car Wash Show

DiamondWash

DiamondWash

Well-known member
I wasn't able to attend but what I have been hearing it was a great turnout with a lot of hands-on and a lot of educational seminars how does the show in Nashville compare to show locations in the past such as Chicago or Las Vegas was it better or worse? from the pictures I saw it looked busy busy busy and people looked happy happy happy.
 
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As a vendor I thought the show went well. I absolutely loved Nashville and regret not being able to explore it more. I didn't think the attendance was as strong as in some other years, but the people who stopped by our booth (Istobal) were asking the kind of questions that buyers usually ask. You never know till you see the check clear, but I thought I sold three automatics. The event center was a neat building and as usual the food there was pricy and poor quality with hardly any place to sit once you bought food. The size of the show seemed about right meaning you could see everything in one day. And as usual there was no shortage of poor sales people. That's not unique to our so called industry, but you would think that when someone is looking at spending north of 100K on a machine you would run into more professional people. It's been interesting to see the same faces at different booths.
 
I thought what i saw of the show was very good. I haven't stayed in Nashville in a long time, it was a pretty neat place, even if you don't like country music. Yes, food on the show floor stunk, but there were plenty of choices near out hotel and downtown. Attendance at show looked pretty good to me. It was good to see some of the forum guys again.


I didn't see you Mac, wish I knew you were there at Istobal. I would like to have take a closer look at the cloth unit. The rep that came up while I was looking at it was a little "over enthusiastic " :)
 
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The Show was well attended and many of the attendees seemed interested to at least find out more about what was available. I think the food and entertainment after the first day was good. Could have had a few more places to get drinks and food but it was pretty good. I do have several complaints for the organizers. Why didn't they have separate places for vendors and attendees to register - especially for those that pre-registered except for "Century" members? I agree about the food and places to sit. They used to have drinking water all around the show floor but not this year. The only vendors that had an area to relax a bit was set aside for "Century" members. How about the rest of us poor slobs? All vendors should be important to a show. Why the "Century" members crap? For what they charged for booth space you think they could have provided a garbage can for each booth. There weren't even that many large cans around the show floor.
 
What really gets me is that with all of this technology around and everybody having a smartphone, tablet or whatever there aren't a lot of pictures/video coming onto Facebook or Twitter even YouTube showing off products anymore from Manufactures, social media is a really useful tool to promote business but you have to use to make it work.
 
Nashville was my first carwash show ever in 8 yrs in the business. I learn more from the forum then the show. As a self-serve owner, I feel the industry is more catered to the tunnel owners. I might go back to Las Vegas in 8 yrs when my daughter is old enough to enjoy the city. I will try to go to the SE show in Orlando though for a tax write off. The craze seem to be a lot of Blendco knockoff. Every chemical company now have hyper concentrated chemical containers with an alkaline mixer.
 
Actually I thought this Show was better than the ones the last few years. Tunnel and automatics are the largest exhibitors because they create the lion's share of revenue but I thought there was some good booths for self service operators - just not a lot of them. Although I did not attend any seminars I heard there were several pretty good ones available. I thought the Touch 2 wash setup for a self service was pretty neat and I am sure there will be several others come our with similar ideas. It involves putting an app on a cell phone where customers can pay for their time and also allows operators to set up a type of club card set up and even use the customer base for some marketing. Also saw some LED strips that could be mounted on the floor to replace reflectors in automatics. Like most industries true innovations don't come around very often. Seems like copying things is more the rule.
 
cfcw, if you would like a more relaxed showing of the friction machine, just hop on down to south FL. I'll give you a tour and sponsor an adult beverage or two. Actually anyone that wants to see one and talk to the owners are always welcome. Could not make it to the dinner, just too much going on.
 
I used to attend every year between 1995-2006 or so as a vendor. Always worked our booth the ENTIRE time and never got to enjoy the show. Loved the interaction and income but always felt left out. Since then I've gone a different direction and have purposely not attended because I was sick of Vegas, San Antonio, and Chicago. Nothing there for me. I saw Nashville as a fresh opportunity and took a friend. We went as attendees with the agenda set at getting everything that was offered on the itinerary. Mission accomplished. We hit all the outings and sessions we wanted, and took advantage of The celebration, keynote address, and tours. We didn't have enough time on the floor. No way to see it all in one day. I was thoroughly impressed with the offerings and really needed another day to see it all. There were a couple vendors I intended to see that we never got to. I did encounter a few overzealous salesmen, but I move past those guys and get to the right person. I found competent people in every booth. Can't speak for the expo food. We ate before and after the expo times. Opening celebration was great. Keynote breakfast was great. Speaker was great. Show was great. Tour was great. No complaints at all. Glad I went. Thank you ICA. Job well done
 
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