Last week, some of our team attended HD Expo at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas. Going to tradeshows is a key way for our team to interact with vendors both new and current, discover new products, and maintain active connections in the industry. In fact, we value tradeshows so much we have an entire article about it. Let’s take a look and recap our experience last week!
HD Expo Kick-off
We had about 13 people from our team in attendance, coming from Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, Orlando, Atlanta, Dallas, and Denver. Starting off the evening of Monday, May 5th, our team arrived in Las Vegas and attended the VIP welcome reception, various dinners, and just took this chance to reconnect with friends and colleagues we haven’t seen for a few months.
On Tuesday, May 6th, we started the first full day of the show floor with a team breakfast before everything really started. With a remote team located all across North America, it is always great to have conferences and times like this where we get to gather together, even though this is just a portion of our team. A full day of walking the show floor ensued, and our time at HD Expo officially began!
At the Trade Show
The first day of a tradeshow is always exciting. There’s a certain energy in the air as we walk the floor and get the lay of the land, are seeing people we haven’t seen for a while, connecting with others in person for the first time, finally connecting faces to names, and seeing all the intricate booths that take so much time and energy to come together. There is so much to see and do, so many people to say hi to, and it’s sometimes overwhelming knowing where to start!
At 4:00 on Tuesday, Mark Friesen was part of a panel discussion with other Purchasing professionals called “Meet the Purchasers: Bridging the Gap Between Vision and Execution.” We deeply appreciate the opportunity to be part of the discussion, and able to share the insights that we have from our side of the industry.
Following a long day on the show floor, our team typically splits up in a few different directions to attend some dinners, and evening events after the show closes. In a city like Las Vegas, there is no shortage of unique places to eat. Day two follows much like day one, with more conversations, happy hours at different booths, and making sure we were able to see the entire floor.
Key Takeaways
While at these events, we’re able to have so many discussions with others in the industry including Hotel Owners, Owner’s Representatives, Project Managers, and Designers to name a few. It’s an important time to share what we’re seeing from each of our sides of the industry and our perspectives.
Overall, the general outlook was positive, even with the ever-changing tariffs. That topic surprisingly wasn’t brought up a lot, at this point we are all just aware of what’s happening, and working to stay ahead of it as best we can. We heard from teams that are growing, and the transaction market seems to be bullish, which is always a good sign for the industry as a whole.
It is so hard to see everyone, even across several days. I hope we were able to catch you and say hi if you were in attendance, and we’ll see you at the next show!
