By Marcelle Dibrell
With the swim season officially over, pool service professionals can take advantage of the slow season through attending the regional trade shows that occur from January through April.
Attendance at these trade shows provides numerous benefits for small business owners and their employees through networking opportunities, new product exposure, and just about countless educational opportunities.
It can be difficult to quantify the value of developing relationships with other industry professionals. But trade shows provide a perfect venue for face-to-face meetings with potential industry partners. Trade shows offer a space for developing relationships with other experienced service professionals who can help advance your business. Trade shows provide a place for creating contacts with manufacturer representatives who can provide personal education (and perhaps special deals) on the products they sell. It’s a good idea to pay special attention to the exhibition schedule for social events like parties, lunch breaks, and other gatherings that allow mingling among other industry leaders in a relaxed setting and potentially exchanging contact information.
Trade shows also offer a venue to become exposed to new products, which can not only make your job easier, but can also wow your customers. Walking the exhibit hall floor, you may have been totally unaware that there was a specially designed brush that sticks to the pool walls allowing for less muscle-work. You may not know about that strange acid replacement chemical that you can actually touch. You might not know that there is a spa purge that has EPA certification to truly eliminate biofilm. Manufacturers of these products and more can be found at regional tradeshows where they are working to create brand awareness.
And for both business owners and their employees, these shows provide a one-stop shop for just about every kind of certification available in the pool industry, from CPO certification to new pool start-ups, providing service pros the credentials needed to rise above the competition. For those already certified, the shows feature compelling seminars on the latest science as it pertains to everything pool related, from water chemistry to hydraulics and electricity. For those who do installations and repairs, there are manufacturerbased classes on pumps and heaters, UV and ozone systems, and salt water chlorine generators. For business owners, there are seminars on marketing, internet strategies, codes and regulations, sales tips, liability concerns, and much more.
In other words, these shows can provide just about everything needed to run a successful pool and spa business. This issue of Service Industry News features all the pertinent information currently available for the major regional pool and spa trade shows occurring in 2023.
These include four shows sponsored by affiliates of the Pool and Hot Tub Alliance. These are the Mid-American Pool & Spa Show, Jan. 16-19 in Indianapolis, IN; The Pool & Spa Show, Jan. 24-26 in Atlantic City, NJ; the Everything Under the Sun Expo, Feb. 24-25 in Orlando, FL; and the Southwest Pool & Spa Show, Feb. 8-11 in Houston, TX.
Additionally, other major shows are also scheduled across the country, including the Desert Pool & Spa Show, Jan. 19-21 in Phoenix, AZ; the National Plasterers Council Conference, Feb. 8-10 in Coronado, CA; the Western Pool & Spa Show, March 23-25 in Long Beach, CA; and the National Water Safety Conference, Feb. 13-16 in Colorado Springs, CO.
We will also cover the IPSSA Region 7 Table-Top Show, on Jan. 28 in San Diego, CA.
Later in the year, we will cover the Pool Industry Expo in Monterey, CA, and the International Pool, Spa, & Patio Expo in Las Vegas, NV. Because these shows occur in September and November, they are not covered in this issue. Watch for details on these shows as they approach.
