soapy
Senior Member
I just returned from the WCA trade show hosted in San Deigo. It was a huge gamble for the WCA to move out of Las Vegas and try a new venue. From what I saw and experienced it appears to have really paid off. Preregistered attendance was up 20% and on the first education day they had another 160 sign ups. With the second day trade show sign ups it looked like attendance will be up between 30 to 50% compared to last years Vegas show.
To me the highlight of the show was on the second night when the WCA hosted a party on the USS Midway aircraft carrier. The entire ship was devoted to the WCA party with tours around the ship that brought out a great sense of patriotism. There was also a awards ceremony on the ship and one of the people honored was JJ of the Self Service Carwash News. I thought this lifetime service honor was especially fitting on the Midway since JJ is a veteran of Veitnam and the Midway served a large mission there. JJ could not be in attendance and Lisa Lyons accepted the award for JJ with a tear in her eye.
One of the classes I attended was on car wash values. To boil it down simple the appraisers said that on average the SS carwash now sells for 5X of gross sales. Also noted was that land more than $12 per foot is too expensive for a SS car wash. They again highlighted the trend to express washes and advocated the conversion of full service washes to express. They also stated that SS conversion to express washes offered value to SS washes.
International Detailing classes were very well attended with over 30 people taking the day long classes.
To me the highlight of the show was on the second night when the WCA hosted a party on the USS Midway aircraft carrier. The entire ship was devoted to the WCA party with tours around the ship that brought out a great sense of patriotism. There was also a awards ceremony on the ship and one of the people honored was JJ of the Self Service Carwash News. I thought this lifetime service honor was especially fitting on the Midway since JJ is a veteran of Veitnam and the Midway served a large mission there. JJ could not be in attendance and Lisa Lyons accepted the award for JJ with a tear in her eye.
One of the classes I attended was on car wash values. To boil it down simple the appraisers said that on average the SS carwash now sells for 5X of gross sales. Also noted was that land more than $12 per foot is too expensive for a SS car wash. They again highlighted the trend to express washes and advocated the conversion of full service washes to express. They also stated that SS conversion to express washes offered value to SS washes.
International Detailing classes were very well attended with over 30 people taking the day long classes.
