Machine/Supplies Vendors Form Trade Group

MINNEAPOLIS – A group of machinery and supplies are looking to have a bigger voice in the hard-surface-industry’s trade events.

More than 40 U.S. and European-based companies are now part of the Stone Equipment and Supply Alliance (SESA), with an April 28 announcement stating the groups purpose as “communicating a unified voice regarding industry events and tradeshows.”

Representatives of the two main hard-surface shows in the United States – The International Surface Event (TISE) and Coverings – said they’ll be talking with the group soon.

SESA also announced its initial board of directors, including Mike Schlough of Park Industries as president and Rick Stimac of BB Industries as vice president. Ivano Tirapelle of Commanduli NA is treasurer, while Nick Wadenstorer of BACA Systems is secretary.

“This is a great opportunity for stone equipment and supply companies to make the trade-show experience better for both exhibitors and fabricators,” Wadenstorer said.

The group also hired Jon Lancto of Big Fish Consulting to facilitate communications.

Lancto noted that some of the companies now in SESA discussed forming a group for several years, but a side-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic – the rescheduling of 2020 trade shows – led to taking action. TISE moved from late January to mid-June in Las Vegas, while Coverings reset its 2020 Orlando event from April to early July.

“I think what got us to the tipping point was when they were notified that Coverings would be in July, right after TISE in June, and the move-in date would be the July Fourth weekend,” Lancto said. “They’re having to tell their employees that if they’re going to attend, they have to work over the holiday (for show setup) in non air-conditioned space. There was never any kind of communications with any of these companies.”

SESA members are also voicing concerns on a variety of other issues, including location and coordination of stone-related vendors at the shows and associated costs, such as the movement (or drayage) of equipment and materials to booth spaces.

Dana Teague, vice president/Design Group at Informa Markets, the owner/producer of TISE, noted that the company is scheduled a call with SESA this week to learn more.

Taffy Events Strategies, the producer of Coverings, will also be following up and having a meeting with SESA, said Elena Grant, marketing director.

“We look forward to collaborating with them and just learning more about what they’re doing,” Grant said. “Stone is important to Coverings.”

Stone-industry vendors traditionally played a large role in trade events, including the formation of the StonExpo show in the late 1980s. StonExpo was sold in 2004 to the Hanley Wood business-to-business (B2B) media company; Hanley Wood subsequently sold its entire events business to Informa plc in late 2014. The show continues now as the StonExpo/Marmomac Americas component of TISE.

A previous stone-machinery trade group – the North American Stone Machine Association – formed in late 2003 and endorsed a rival stone-industry event, the International Tile and Stone Show (ITSS). The ITSS flourished in the mid-2000s and became a factor in the StonExpo sale to Hanley Wood, but fell victim to the Great Recession later in the decade.

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