Las Vegas always sizzles == and the past week was no exception. It was over 110 every day. But the heat didn’t slow the enthusiasm of the parking pros who attended the International Parking Institute annual conference and expo at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and convention center.
The exhibitors outdid themselves the new booths, exhibits, and entertainment. Paylock returned with a take off on cable news (PNN instead of CNN), T2 transplanted a forest into their booth, AmanoMcgann brought in brick walls, Passport had a gambling hall, TIBA showed two towers instead of one, Skidata wanted to be remembered for high tech, Parking Soft was huge and it went on and on.
Even PT doubled the size of our booth and invited tired attendees to take a load off in comfortable patio furniture, imported from California.
As is the case at every show, every year, the reviews from the exhibitors was mixed. The larger exhibitors were unanimous in their praise for the traffic and the show. “Great, Fantastic as usual, lots of leads and traffic” were quotes I heard throughout the three day event.
Smaller exhibitors were less enthusiastic as they commented on times when traffic was low or nonexistent. “With so many people in attendance how could we go five or ten minutes with no one walking by the booth?”
That might be a miscue on the part of the IPI planners. The show was big, huge, elephantine. The venue was also. The floor was laid out to fill the room. A 40 foot plus wide central aisle welcomed attendees, and 10 or 12 foot wide side aisles meant plenty of room to wander. But it also meant that a huge crowd could be lost in a huge room.
I found the food unusually good for such a venue and there was plenty of it.
The IPI is the unchallenged leader in the Parking Trade Show race. It attracts the largest and most expensive exhibits. Its professional staff does a journeyman’s job. It has grown with the industry and rightly so. A couple of little changes and a really good show could become great.
JVH
3 Responses
In IPI history, this show had:
– the largest number of attendees
– the largest number of exhibitors
– the most showroom space
– more countries represented than ever
– ground-breaking accomplishments for sustainability (first ever certification of green garages), program accreditation launch, Park Tank (focusing on innovation pitches), exceptional key note speakers (John Martin, CEO & Founder of GenerationMatters, Gordon Price, Director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, and Filling the Glass author Barry Maher)
– the largest class of Certified Administrators of Public Parking
– the inaugural awardees of the IPI Lifetime Achievement Award (Michael Swartz, Dorothy Harris, Doug Holmes, Tim Haahs and Larry Donoghue)
– Professional recognition awards, Awards of Excellence, Marketing and Communications awards
– Green Garage Assessor training
– the inaugural Young Professionals in Parking meeting
– 66 exceptional educational sessions
– multiple facility tours
– exceptional media coverage highlighting the best innovation and technology available in our industry
– and on and on and on
There’s a lot that goes into the success of the world’s largest and most successful parking conference and exposition and IPI leadership, the host committee, staff and its volunteers should be proud of their accomplishments. And you can be sure that this organization takes improvement seriously. “Advancing the Parking Profession” isn’t just a fancy tagline, it’s a calling that each volunteer, staff and partner associated with IPI takes seriously.
CLJ
Casey:
Thanks for the update. Its so seldom we get any information from the IPI this is refreshing. Keep it coming.
All the best
JVH
As a small but emerging software leader in the Parking Industry, OmniPark was very pleased with the traffic and quality of leads at the IPI show. We were over in the 1000 aisle which concerned me, but we did have plenty of attendees at our booth almost consistently.
On a personal note: I don’t like these huge shows. I find PIE to be my best show, not only for leads, but for the intimacy that it provides to get to know potential customers and speak with existing clients. It is a warmer atmosphere where “getting lost in the crowd” is not even an option!