In years past, renderers’ conventions were traditionally held in large hotels in accessible cities, with consideration given to travel and accommodation costs. This was important to suppliers as well as members. Suppliers provided “hospitality rooms” where members gathered, ideas exchanged, and business was done. The hospitality room was the center of the action.
Now suppliers are becoming reluctant to provide the rooms because the costs are high in these resort hotels and the customer attendance is down.
With conventions being held in vacation resorts and more emphasis placed on the golf course than on the business aspect of the convention, the suppliers are pulling back. I might say many companies are doing the same. At the last convention, of the top three companies with plants in the central area, one company had one representative and the other two companies were not represented at all.
In closing, I will admit that I am like the citizen that never votes and then complains about how the government runs, but like that citizen who pays his taxes, I pay my dues, so my point is, conventions were better in the past.
Jim Kruger
President, Kruger Commodities
Omaha, NE
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August 2002 Render