I just returned from 24 hours in Las Vegas where I attended World of Concrete 2021. It’s the first trade in Las Vegas in a year and it was great to see customers and exhibitors back.
The West Hall was also open for the first time and it’s a gorgeous addition to the Las Vegas Convention Center.
In this episode, I share my impressions of the show and how it relates to the building industry. I also give a shout-out to the brands and media who showed up and worked the show. It was great to see all of you!
Transcript of the episode.
Timothy
I did a strike mission event 24 hours in Vegas, got in late last night, went to the show all day today, which is Tuesday, that first day of the show, and met with some good people and just headed back to LA.
So it is, I don’t know, maybe 11 tonight, and I figured I would a lot of things have been kind of popping in my head here and just thought I’d get on tape before it kind of settles too much tomorrow in the days get started.
So basically, I wanted to give kind of an overarching, my overarching feel on the show, maybe the state of the industry in general. And not excuse me not not getting to your products and give me specifics. I saw the show, but more, you know what the show was like, like if you weren’t there? what you thought of it, if you missed out, did you miss anything. Um, so I just dive right into that.
The show was definitely much smaller. And my initial thoughts going into it was I kind of, you know, I didn’t read too much about it, I was maybe thinking maybe it’s gonna be, you know, big, maybe people are really, they’re clamoring to get back out there. They’ve been, you know, kind of cooped up for a year.
Honestly, business has been great for, you know, most of these, these two manufacturers, these builders, so things are booming. But you know, understandably coming back to a trade show, there’s maybe concerns with who’s going to be there, their customers there. Maybe there’s COVID concerns.
But, you know, Las Vegas, Nevada opened up June one. And today’s June 8, this was the first trade show, back after everything closed down after the pandemic. So that was actually kind of exciting to be a part of the convention center has a brand new West Hall, which if you ever been to the Las Vegas Convention Center, just it’s really dated. They have it’s dark, it’s there’s just really nothing to kind of write home about. It’s um, it’s, you know, it needed updating. And they spent the last year building this new West Hall. It’s beautiful. The, the hall is kind of standard, but this huge kind of lobby area is gigantic, big windows, it’s very bright is a huge screen, really things that you’d expect from Las Vegas, and actually any other city that has a a modern and contemporary Convention Center. So that was great. All great to see. And I think that, you know, worked out well for them.
People were excited to be there. The show itself, like I said was on this, it was small. Things were shifted over to the West Hall and the North Hall. There was nothing in the Central or South Hall and the main parking lot where they do all of the outdoor displays, events. That was very small. They had they moved a bricklayer event over there the competition, much smaller. They didn’t have the stands that I saw. They didn’t have the big, you know, scaffolding that they normally have for viewers. And Bosh was there. They had a big display, but they didn’t have a tattoos, it just wasn’t buzzing as much. There’s definitely more Bosch people wandering around, as opposed to, you know, pros, contractors, home builders. hilty, who also usually has a big booth, they were there, but they were not the same presence. They’ve had a much smaller size. They had some small demos. That’s it Makita they heard bailed out the last minute. So definitely all that’s all that was smaller. inside. Same thing. There was plenty to see. But you know, definitely I did it in a day and I came back and I will see there’s always more to see. But I feel like I I covered it. I got what I needed.
So it was also you know, it was great. I had heard that some of my colleagues in the blogging, blogging world, Instagram influencer world, we’re not going to be there. So I definitely miss seeing my friends, Dan and Eric from tools and action. Clinton Kenny from Pro tool reviews, but I did. I did randomly bump into Stanley and he’s got a great YouTube channel. I’ll link it here. I saw Paul and his family tool pig Mr. tool pig. And their son was there and we’ve got some great videos in the in the Bosch booth. So always great to see them.
And it was Oh, and my friend not a Griffin Ramsey. She’s a chainsaw artist. I’ve had her on the podcast before she was there. Usually she’s actually working in Swenson she’s usually carving this time she was walking event. So it’s great to have some time to sit and chat with her after the event. Because normally she’s covered in sawdust and working and doesn’t have time. So great to see Griffin. There. also missed connecting with who else was not there trying to focus on Actually, I should focus on people who were there.
But my friends Brian and Kathryn, who take it back. Some of these boosts they went up to they had really great displays. They had great. They had great demonstrations, and hey, I’m on to a grave I’m on Instagram, I’m doing stories, I want to give him a shout out. I say what’s your handle on Instagram? Even to this day? 2021 they do not even Instagram? Or they said, you know, we’re thinking about it we’re not we’re trying to find the right person, or that person is not here to tell you about it. It’s kind of amazing that that mindset that people are still not doing that especially considering the the people like like Paul Toolpig that are walking around usually Murray from crew construction is there. And they’re kind of missing out on all these guys who’ve incredible reach much more so than than traditional media. But But anyway, um, so you know, going to my buddies, Brian Stearns at ring of fire and Kathryn Emery, they are amazing at getting brands exposure. So I’ll link to them as well down here. You’re a manufacturer, you don’t know where to start. Definitely know connect with them. But going back to the show, again, it’s it’s not the low turnout is definitely not indicative of the home. homebuilding industry, as everybody knows, is just booming. It’s red hot. So if you didn’t make it, I don’t think you really missed out on everything. I really say kudos to the brands and to the the manufacturers who were there who were servicing their customers who, who made the trip out there. I’m glad that they were there. But mostly didn’t really miss much. I think next year we’ll be back on track. And if you were there I am glad I went I even though it was I didn’t really get much sleep. I’m glad I went again always great to connect with with friends and with the toolmakers. And I was actually also like to see the new West Hall.
So in Vegas is is is back and booming. It was great see construction everywhere I drove by the MGM sphere, as big round kind of dome. I don’t know what it’s gonna be maybe an event space. But I didn’t want to look at that Allegiant stadium where the Raiders are is just, you know, magnificent looking. I can’t wait to check that out. I’m actually going to Arizona BYU football game in September. So I’m excited to see that. But Vegas is back. tradeshows are going to be back. And yeah, we’ll have concrete Hey, congrats to them for pulling it together for not, you know, making making the show happen, even though it’s probably not, you know, what they had hoped for it expected. I’m glad they did it. And you know, the people that weren’t like myself will remember that they were really the first ones to kind of break that barrier to kind of say, Hey, we’re doing it. We’re out here. We’re spending the money. And we’re going to we’re not going anywhere. So congrats to them.
But that kind of, I guess wraps up what I want to say tonight. Again, I’m totally really tired. I’m probably I delete this later. But yeah, thanks for listening and more. episodes coming soon. I’ve got a couple big projects that I can’t wait to tell you all about. And they are going to hopefully, there’ll be this year. And you’ll hear more from me from Tooele crave. Johnson Hudson is still happening too. And built by kids as well. So again, I’ll follow up with kind of a more brand overview of all the things that that I’m doing, but anyway, we’ll have concrete. It was great. It was small, but I’m glad I went.
