“ISSA/INTERCLEAN is the one venue each year that facilitates an extraordinary number of business meetings with our distributor partners and end customers from all over the world, while giving us the opportunity to thank each and every one of them for their business,” said John Swigart, president, Spartan Chemical Co., Inc.
The exhibition, coproduced by ISSA, the worldwide cleaning industry association, and its trade show partner, Amsterdam RAI, attracted 14,123 registrants to the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL, November 4-7, to view the newest products and services available from the show’s 685 exhibitors.
“We met with a number of new customers at ISSA/INTERCLEAN, and it was especially good to see more international attendees this year,” said Christian Cornelius-Knudsen, area manager, Comac, Fimap & Tmb North America. “The show is a great venue to generate new business opportunities, keep up with industry trends, and learn about new entrants in the industry.”
Not only were decision-makers from the industry’s top distributors, building service contractors, and large purchasing organizations present, but more than 800 such organizations were represented that hadn’t participated in the event last year in Las Vegas, NV
Of those new firms, 374 were distributors drawing from the Southeast region, from outside of the U.S., and also from vertical markets, such as the office products, industrial, and food service sectors. Their top reason for attending was to access product lines, market intelligence, and executive education they couldn’t find at any other industry event.
The chance to connect with these new participants and sectors was not lost on this year’s exhibitors. “This was a fantastic opportunity for us,” said Joyce Dudenhoffer, marketing director at Haviland Corp. “We were well positioned to show off our products and meet with our customers. In fact, we closed with more leads and connected with more distributors and wholesalers this year at Orlando than we did last year in Las Vegas! The show was a great success.”
In addition to the exhibition and ISSA’s Convention Seminars, four other industry groups held their annual conventions during the week: the Association of Residential Cleaning Services International (ARCSI), Building Service Contractors Association International (BSCAI), IEHA, and the newest co-location partner Cleaning Trade Equipment Association (CETA).
“This was a great show for us, and we made contact with many quality customers, “said Curtis Braber, a show exhibitor, president of BE Pressure Supply, and vice president of the CETA Board of Directors, seeming to express the sentiment of the co-location partners overall. “And many of our fellow CETA Pavilion exhibitors said they experienced such a great customer turnout that they are already planning to expand their space for 2015.”
The International Window Cleaners Association (IWCA) also hosted safety workshops for the first time during ISSA/INTERCLEAN, while readers and trainees from ISSA’s newly acquired Cleaning Maintenance & Management® and Cleaning Maintenance Institute family of resources joined the event, to further expand the depth of purchasers represented.
In addition to ISSA’s efforts to attract a diverse group of industry influencers at this year’s event, the association also offered more reasons to stay longer into the week, culminating in a double-header of keynote speakers plus industry awards, Friday, November 7. Champion basketball coach Rick Pitino kicked off the day’s activities, and at the close of the exhibition, renowned boxer Sugar Ray Leonard headlined the ISSA Excellence Awards Luncheon.
Companies honored included long-standing ISSA member companies, the 10 ISSA Best Customer Service Award winners as selected by buyers in attendance at the show, and the 10 winners of this year’s prestigious ISSA Innovation Award. The day ended with several seminars and, in all, the line up succeeded in its goal of attracting more attendees to the show floor through its 1:00 p.m. close Friday than in prior years.
More Show Highlights
- Sixteen percent of visitors hailed from 71 countries outside of the United States.
- The exhibition featured leading suppliers from 27 countries.
- Multiple industry professionals received prestigious honors during the week.
- ISSA received an overwhelmingly positive response during the show, when it revealed the new Value of Clean Safety tool, which helps connect cleaning to reduced risk and liability and is free once companies join or renew membership for 2015.
- Many of the week’s seminars were packed to room limits and elicited feedback that the topics and speakers were top-quality and extremely relevant to attendee businesses. Participants can sign up for 24/7 access to this year’s sessions atwww.issa.com/2014seminars.
- Attendees of the ISSA Infection Control sessions, added to address recent outbreaks, received a special Infection Control Response packet to use with customers.
- Many of ISSA’s more than 20,000 LinkedIn group members turned out for an in-person meetup Thursday near the ISSA Resource Center.
- More than 4,000 unique viewers logged in to www.ISSA.com to watch live excerpts from the event. Archived footage and interviews can be viewed at www.issa.com/live.
- To see more excerpts from the show, visit www.issa.com/recap.
Given this year’s positive results, many participants already are looking forward to the next edition of the North American event, which takes place October 20-23 in Las Vegas, NV, USA. For more information on the ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America 2015 show, visitwww.issa.com/lasvegas2015.
