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ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America 2010: One Week, One Industry
Lincolnwood, IL, USA – Exhibitors and attendees alike responded well to ISSA/INTERCLEAN® North America 2010’s efforts to bring the entire cleaning industry together for a single week of networking and education this November 9-12 in Orlando, FL, USA.
“I am pleased with the high volume of very positive comments I’ve personally received from exhibitors, regarding the top quality of the attendees at this year’s event,” said ISSA Executive Director John Garfinkel. “We also received many compliments on welcoming the largest event for building service contractors into the growing family of co-located conventions held during ISSA/INTERCLEAN week.”
The Building Service Contractors Association International (BSCAI) Annual Convention was co-located with ISSA/INTERCLEAN for the first time this year, adding to the 21 percent of first time, non-exhibiting attendees who were drawn to this year’s event. BSCAI’s co-location also helped ISSA/INTERCLEAN reach this year’s record-high building service contractor (BSC) participation of nearly 2,000 contractors.
BSCAI joined the International Executive Housekeepers Association (IEHA) and the Association of Residential Cleaning Services International (ARCSI), which hosted their annual conventions, as well as groups such as the Professional Retail Store Maintenance Association (PRSM) and Orlando International Facility Management Association (IFMA) Chapter that hosted regional events. Many distributor marketing groups also hosted their members during the week.
This convergence of events resulted in a gathering of 13,585 top industry professionals from more than 70 countries. These attendees had the opportunity to meet with the top 630 suppliers from across the globe, including 131 new exhibitors.
Most notable is that almost 20 percent of those new exhibitors were from countries outside of North America. Many participants also commented that the exhibit hall was busier on the second and third days than they experienced in 2009, which is reinforced by attendees who reporting during their registrations that they planned to spend more days at the show than last year.
“We were very surprised and thrilled that the traffic through our booth was higher the second day,” said James Young, director of sales training for Karcher North America, Inc.’s Windsor brand. “We felt it was a very solid show for us, especially taking into account the weak economy. We are confident this bodes well for next year’s show.” Other exhibitors were pleased with the strong international attendance at this year’s event, a testament to the hard work of ISSA’s tradeshow partner, Amsterdam RAI and ISSA’s international offices, which have developed numerous alliances around the world—and across borders.
“We always look forward to the ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America show,” said Bill Sleeper, president of Georgia-Pacific Professional-North America. “In addition to having the opportunity to meet with key U.S. distributors and end customers, this event provides us with the opportunity to meet with our Latin American customers, which is very important as we are working to fully align our business in Mexico with the rest of our North American business.”
In addition to the many Latin American ISSA members present in Orlando, also participating were representatives from such international organizations as the Italian Association of Distributors in the Professional Cleaning Industry (AFIDAMP), the British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc), the British Cleaning and Support Services Association (CSSA), the Polish Cleaning Association (PIGC), the South African National Cleaning Contractors Association (NCCA), and The Word Federation of Building Service Contractors (WFBSC).
Exhibitors were not alone in their reaction to this year’s event; attendees also were pleased with the opportunities ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America 2010 afforded them to share ideas with peers from around the globe: “This was my first ISSA trade show, and I was not disappointed,” said Geoff Shearer of Apex Cleaning Supplies, Moorabbin Australia. “I came away with a lot of excellent information and many good ideas to implement in our company. I listened to many exhibitors that were proud of their products, and I gained a better understanding of the future direction of ‘green’ products.”
Another noteworthy increase was that of US non-exhibiting “local” attendees hailing from southern or eastern U.S. states and neighboring territories. More than half of US non-exhibiting attendees were from the region, reinforcing the reason why ISSA/INTERCLEAN continues to rotate through multiple locations, including the southeast. “Our goal is to create the best return on investment for our exhibitors and that includes exposure to as many customers and partners as possible,” said Garfinkel. “We typically see one-third of our attendees coming from the region when it is in the southeast, so we were even more pleased that we were able to increase that number this year to provide new opportunities our members may not have found in other recent locations.”
Special Events & Education
A special opportunity for this year’s show participants was a chance to hear former Britain and Northern Ireland Prime Minister Tony Blair. Roughly 5,500 people were on hand to hear Mr. Blair’s assessment of the world economy and his comments on the importance of supporting industries such as ours as a way to increase jobs. Blair also answered a series of questions submitted by ISSA members and shared some of his own professional lessons in the hopes they would help attendees succeed in their own positions.
This year’s ISSA Educational Conference had an impressive turnout, specifically drawing 15 percent more distributors than in 2009. This year’s conference was built based on the requests of ISSA members and past attendees, including the ability for them to submit specific questions to each speaker to ensure they would find the right answers.
The ISSA educational sessions featured a strong line-up of mainstream business consultants, including Dean Lindsey, Kelly McDonald, Bob DeStefano, and Michel Theriault, joining attendee favorites, such as Michael Marks, Joachim de Posada, Jim Pancero, and Steve Ashkin. Football great Joe Theismann shared his insights on facing challenges with an enthusiastic crowd in the Wednesday general session. Meanwhile, Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) technical training workshops on carpet care and hard floor care sold out as did the Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) Certification Expert and Expert Renewal workshops.
Special Recognition
ISSA’s expanding CIMS program announced a new milestone in Orlando when it recognized more than 60 companies that were newly certified, recertified, or had added the new Green Building designation to their portfolios. The program doubled its participating companies in 2010 and —another milestone—the number of ISSA Certification Experts trained to help organizations meet the program’s criteria topped 600 with a new class of experts completing their training in Orlando.
Multiple companies also celebrated their 40th, 50th, or 60th years as exhibiting “Star” members of ISSA. Amrep Inc.; Oreck Corp.; Sheila Shine, Inc.; and The Dial Corp., A Henkel Co.; joined the Star 40 group while Earth Friendly Products and Milwaukee Dustless Brush-Gordon Brush Wisconsin, LLC celebrated 50 years. Rubbermaid Commercial Products, Inc. was recognized as celebrating its 60th consecutive year of exhibiting as an ISSA member.
ISSA also presented four prestigious awards during the week. Two individuals received the Jack D. Ramaley Industry Distinguished Service Award: LeeAnn Nowling, ISSA’s convention director who will retire after 35 years of service to the association, and Robert “Bobby” Cohen of Daycon Products, Inc. The Manufacturer Representatives’ Distinguished Service Award was given to Steven Schultz of LagasseSweet, and the YES Industry Special Achievement Award recipient was Robert “Bob” Robinson, Sr. of Kaivac, Inc.
About ISSA/INTERCLEAN
ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America is The ONE SHOW you can attend to network with high-level executives as well as gather the information you need to better manage your distribution company, building services company, or facilities department. ISSA and its tradeshow partner, Amsterdam RAI, produce ISSA/INTERCLEAN shows around the world, with an annual event each year in the United States. Other ISSA/INTERCLEAN shows are held in the Netherlands, Poland and Mexico. For more information, visit www.issa.com.
Upcoming events include:
ISSA/INTERCLEAN Central & Eastern Europe, May 18-20, Warsaw, Poland
ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America, October 18-21, Las Vegas, NV, USA
About ISSA
The leading trade association for the cleaning industry worldwide, ISSA has a membership that includes more than 5,500 distributor, manufacturer, manufacturer representative, building service contractor, in-house service provider, and associated service members. In addition to the industry’s largest cleaning shows, ISSA offers the popular Web site www.issa.com, educational products, industry standards, periodicals, and legislative and regulatory services that specifically focus on the professional cleaning industry.
The association is headquartered in Lincolnwood, IL, USA, with regional offices in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Leicester, United Kingdom; Monterrey, México; and Shanghai, China. ISSA also works with more than 75 associations, alliances, and government agencies around the world to represent the cleaning industry. For more information, visit www.issa.com.
Contact: ISSA Market Outreach Director Dianna Bisswurm
At dianna@issa.com; phone 800-225-4772 (North America) or 847-982-0800