By Scott Costa
The 2013 IEC Expo brought together manufacturers from across the country to show off their products to Independent Electrical Contractors in Portland, Oregon.
The event took place in the Oregon Convention Center, which was the perfect size for the manufacturers to set up some elaborate displays for the people who attended.
NAED also set up a booth with the intention of informing contractors about the CEP program. A Certified Electrical Professional is an inside or outside sales rep who has completed the NAED sponsored course and can provide that information to contractors when they make a purchase. Many of the contractors who stopped by the NAED booth and were not aware of the certification said they would begin looking for it from their distributor.
One of the bigger draws at the event was an elaborate booth set up by Southwire, which allowed contractors to see a wide variety of products actually put to use inside the convention center. A steady flow of attendees stopped to see the products and ask questions throughout the day.
Also, Thomas and Betts was the only company that set up a large truck as its booth. The truck opened up to display a wide variety of products, and also drew a large crowd.
While many of the manufacturers had “goody bags” for the people who stopped at their booths, Platt took it a step further by putting their give-aways inside a 5 gallon bucket. While it may seem cumbersome to carry around throughout the day, there were a number of people using them to load up on products.
Eaton scored big points by building a re-charging station right into its display. People who needed to re-charge their cell phones would stop and listen to what Eaton had to offer while they waited.
Klein Tools had an elaborate display that proved its testing units can withstand getting wet by floating one throughout the day in a container of water.
And in what is believed to be a first, Madison Electric set up a webcam to live stream the events at their booth back to their home office. Madison called the experiment a success, saying employees back home called the live stream “smooth” and they were able to hear the conversations going on at the booth. Madison says there are plans to expand the live streaming of their booths at future events, but wanted to evaluate this one before deciding.
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