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The No. 1 attraction at the A.R.A. Orlando show will be the assembly of exhibiting companies displaying the rental equipment that will energize your inventory — and profits — in 2001. Come to the 45th A.R.A. Annual Convention and Rental Trade Show Feb. 26 to March 1. You won’t find a rental-product display to compare anywhere else on earth!
If you’ve never attended the A.R.A. show, you’ll feel like a kid at the Big Top the first time you set foot on the show floor. Its size will astonish — the 650,000 square feet of floor space would cover almost 12 football fields. And its showcase of displays will dazzle — the thousands of rentable products come in the sizes, shapes and options to suit your customers, whether they’re contractors, do-it-yourselfers, entertainers or brides.
The exhibitors will show you the latest models and technological improvements of the products that have earned the “tried-and-true” reputation for rental profitability. Traditional rental products range from cranes, boom lifts, skid-steers and demolition equipment, to carpet cleaners, sod cutters, insulation blowers and pressure washers, to glassware, costumes, dance floors and tents, to everything else in between.
Some exhibitors will be there to show you what’s new — the possible rental money-makers of the future. For example, if your field is party/ events, you’ll find a product at the Orlando show that creates snow — the illusion of a Winter Wonderland in your customers’ backyards or places of business.
Others will demonstrate the latest innovations in rental-business management: a system to clean equipment and parts, which can be custom-designed for the inventory you rent; a training program for the people on your staff who deal with heavy-equipment rental customers; a tracking system that provides information about the location and condition of your vehicles and equipment to increase efficiency and prevent theft.
Many of the manufacturers who exhibit at the show use the opportunity to generate ideas for new and improved products from the rental people they meet. They support the industry by adapting equipment designed for other markets to the needs of rental businesses and their customers.
Financial commitment supports member services
Many of the products and services A.R.A. offers its members are made possible by the exhibitors’ purchase of booth space for the show — the largest single source of the association’s income. An A.R.A. associate member may purchase
a 10-by-10-foot space for $1,250, and a non-member exhibitor pays $1,500 for the same amount of space. In Orlando, there are nearly 3,500 10-by-10-foot booths in the show, and all have been sold. Generally the show generates about $3 million in net profit, which A.R.A. applies to member benefits.
Baron
Lyhne, A.R.A. associate member director-at-large, offers several rough estimates of the financial commitment that vendors make to display their products and services at the A.R.A. show. Because of the huge number of variables associated with costs, Lyhne notes, it’s impossible to generalize about the real expenses of any exhibitor.
According to Lyhne, a modest exhibit with a single 10-by-10-foot booth attended by two people incurs expenses in addition to the booth that include carpeting, electricity, material handling, freight, hotel, airfare, per diem and literature, for an estimated bare-bones price tag of about $5,000.
A company that purchases a 20-by-30-foot booth booth with furnishings, sends eight people and adds a few extras can easily spend $35,000. A large exhibitor could conceivably spend in excess of half a million dollars to present its products to the equipment rental industry, Lyhne says.
Record number of exhibitors, new companies
A.R.A.’s 2001 show sold out of space in August with a record 835 manufacturers and suppliers, ensuring an excellent display of rental products and services on the show floor in Orlando. Of these companies, 156 are first-time exhibitors at A.R.A.’s annual show. The 2000 show in Anaheim held the previous record, with 780 exhibiting companies.
The highest percentage of these new companies (46 percent) will exhibit in light construction. Twenty-five percent will exhibit in the party/event section; 17 percent in heavy construction and 11 percent in building maintenance and
grounds keeping.
According to Allison Box, vice president of conventions and meetings, the A.R.A. show has two major goals: to offer rental dealers the best possible market to buy equipment, and to offer exhibiting companies the best possible market to sell it.
“Rental dealers attend A.R.A.’s show to replace old equipment that’s been profitable, as well as to find new equipment that will rent well,” Box says. “They do business with the suppliers they’ve grown to trust over the years, and want to see new companies with new ideas, too. Since the first A.R.A. show in 1955 — held in a hotel meeting room — the show has grown, with room for established suppliers and for new companies.”
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