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In response to my most recent post regarding Fastener Fair 2018, John Butler asked the question, “Will this show decrease the attendee numbers for Vegas”?  Interesting question, and one I am sure has been thought about by more than just a few individuals.  John’s comment was timely in that I was just thinking about the show in Vegas.  In fact, I just spoke with Morgan Wilson of Emerald Expositions checking in and asking a few questions about this year’s Vegas show.  Even before John posted his question, I had a lot of thoughts on this and related topics.

When I was asking Morgan about the Vegas Show, it occurred to me that there are several other events or shows I will be attending before that show.  Of course, I will be attending the 10th annual Distributor Social on May 17, held by the North Coast Fastener Association.  Always a great night!  Then I will be traveling to Chicago in June to attend the MWFA Table Top show, followed by the NFDA ESPS meeting.   And while that does fill up a few weeks in my schedule, it got me thinking about all the other fastener association events that different individuals are attending.

Right after Fastener Fair, a lot of people headed out to Arizona for the Pac-West meeting.  Next, I believe SEFA has a conference starting on Tuesday in Alabama.  After that, grab a plane over to Dallas to attend the Southwestern Fastener Association Conference & Expo on May 2-4.   As previously mentioned, the NCFA has the Distributor Social on May 17 (which happens to be the same day as MAFDA’s spring Golf Outing).  If you plan to attend that and then also golf in the Pac-West golf outing you will need to take an overnight jet as the golf outing takes place on May 18.  Quick trip back home to do laundry before you need to fly back to Chicago for the Mid-West Fastener Association Table Top and NFDA ESPS meetings.  And just so you know, if you plan to go to the New England Fastener Distributors Association Scholarship Golf Outing you have a scheduling conflict because, according to their website, the golf outing is on June 7.   Just so you know!  After that, you might catch a break until you make your way to Montana on August 9 for the Pac-West Fall Conference (which happens before their Fall Dinner Meeting & Vendor Showcase on September 11 in CA).   Need to pencil in a quick trip out east to attend the MFDA’s Golf Outing on September 17.

Now, if this were 2019 (and that’s a big IF) you’d be bumping up against the Vegas Show, because in 2019 it will start on September 17.  But, it’s 2018 so you’ve got another month before you need to think about that.  Not sure what other fastener association events are going on in October before the Fastener Show.   I’m certain that I missed a few but I’m done googling all the fastener association websites to look.  There should be one central clearing house for all of this.  John Wolz of Global Fastener News does a good job and there might be others too.  The Fastener Industry Coalition website is pretty good but it is up to each association to turn in their events in order for it to get on the site.  Would be nice to see it all in one place.

So, here’s a nagging question – how on God’s green earth does a national sales manager even attempt to get to all (or many) of these events?  It’d be a full time job!  How much time would you have left to actually visit customers who do not also attend these events?  Never mind if your company is a STAFDA member or has other niche shows to attend for specific industries.  Throw in your Fastenal Show, a Grainger event or an open house for one of the large national multi-location fastener distributors.  Brass fittings guys have several other shows they must attend.  Wire Rope hardware guys have to go to AWRF.  There are a lot of shows!

And, of course, none of this takes into account travel plans for those people who attend shows in Taiwan or Stuttgart.   Don’t forget to leave some time to take advantage of  the variety of fastener training events offered by the Fastener Training Institute or other associations.

At some point there will need to be greater cooperation between all the groups that throw these events.  Business has been good the last few years and that always seems to boost trade show & golf outing attendance.   Business is cyclical and if the economy slows down in the next few years I think some of these events will not be well attended.  Maybe we will see some consolidation or maybe some groups will just offer less events.

As a member of the fastener industry, if you are in a position to write off business travel you certainly have a lot of cool places you can travel.   On Facebook & Twitter, I see a lot of the same individuals who either get to attend a lot of these meetings and shows or are expected to do so as part of their job.  In either case, that’s a lot of frequent flyer miles & hotel points!  Still, I’m betting there are a lot of individuals who would vote for a few less events and a little more pooling of resources.

Below are some stats from FFUSA as provided by show management.  Again, I think it was an excellent show and Cleveland was a great choice for the first show.  There are a LOT of fastener distributors in Ohio and the surrounding states and clearly they showed up.  Great job, will be anxious to hear about plans for Detroit in 2019.

•       255 exhibitors

•       28,500 sold sq. ft.

•       Over 2000 Registrants

•       Top 5 US attendee states:  Ohio- 46%, Michigan, Illinois, PA, CA

•       Over 26 international countries represented

•       Over 700 attended the Rock Hof Party

•       Great turn out to the Education and Keynote panel

Top industries represented:

•       Aerospace, Automotive, Agricultural/Off-Highway

•       Civil Engineering

•       Construction

•       Distribution

•       Maintenance Repair

•       Electronics

•       Energy

•       Hardware/Furniture

Fastener Fair USA was held in Cleveland, Ohio over the past three days.  I’m probably going to be a bit biased as Cleveland is my home town and the convenience factor cannot be ignored.  Still, I think the show was great, especially for an inaugural show.

There were a lot of attendees from Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky.  Speaking with show management during the show, they confirmed there was a lot of activity from those areas but they also assured me they will share demographic information with me in order to see who else was in attendance.  Let’s be candid – I recognize the people from Ohio and the surrounding states whereas I cannot immediately identify people from Missouri or Connecticut.  It will be interesting to see the statistics.

What was impressive about this show was the number of individuals that were being sent by local distributors.  Many companies sent between 5-10 people so it was just not just the owners and managers at this show – it was also the “worker bees” who do not always get invited to other show.  Must also acknowledge, the show did have some feeling of being a regional show, but what a good region to attract.  The Midwest is still very distributor strong – there are a LOT of distributors in these states and a ton of them showed up.  Prior to the show there was quite a bit of advertising that end users were being invited to the show.  I know there were some there but not near the number of them as there were distributor participants.  Once again, maybe I did not recognize those individuals to know who they were, and this is where I’d invite some of you to participate and share what you saw.

I attended the opening panel discussion on the “Future of the Fastener Industry” and I liked it a lot.  Based on the feedback from the panel, two of the major challenges our industry continues to face is attracting young talent into our “less than sexy” industry and training individuals in our industry.  Fastener associations offer fastener training classes (North Coast Fastener Association is offering a print reading class with MWFA’s assistance the morning of May 17 before our Distributor Social, just in case you are fortunate enough to be returning to Cleveland for that event) and companies sometimes offer training, Brighton Best being the one I hear of most frequently.  But, I must repeat, training just keeps coming up over and over as a concern for the industry.  I spent some time to with John Wachman and Jo Morris at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and we discussed the Fastener Training Institute and the great work their organization does.  The number of classes and webinars they offer is impressive and very, very important to our industry.   Please consider supporting this group by participating and even donating.  They do great work but it is expensive to keep the organization running and growing – and we really need them to keep up the good work.  But, we will take this up another day.  Back to Fastener Fair…

The traffic at the show was really good.  As is usually the case, Day 1 was much more active than Day 2 but there were a lot of big name companies walking the aisles even on Day 2.  National VMI distributors sent a lot of people there even on the 2nd day.  Quite honestly, I got to spend more time with some people at the show than I am usually able spend at them when I visit.  The atmosphere was very casual and the show was a good size to hang out in the aisles without being overcrowded.  Again, I’m not sure how many distributors came from the east coast or further west of, let’s say, Indiana, but I can assure you if you sell to any of the large VMI distributors or many of the large catalog houses throughout the country – their people were there!!  And that is a great think for the show.  If you can attract decision makers then you will certainly attract suppliers.

Finally, I think the choice of holding the show in Cleveland turned out very good.  The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame reception was as good as one could hope for.  They had a band playing in the main area (Tim Vath of Solution Industries played bass for the band, adding a little fastener connection to the festivities) and everyone seemed to be walking through the museum taking in all the exhibits.  It was a great night.  Afterwards, people scattered for dinner and headed out to any one of the many great restaurants Cleveland has in the downtown area, all within walking distance or a short Uber ride.  Even the night before the show started, a large group of maybe 50-60 fastener people gathered at Punchbowl Social to do what fastener people do – network and share a cocktail or two.

All in all I think it was an excellent show. There were many suppliers from Asia, and I don’t know if they saw the traffic at their booths that some of the U.S. based suppliers were enjoying but that is something I’m sure they will discuss with Show Management.   I’ll share more later but wanted to get out my initial thoughts — and I welcome you to respond with yours!

I’m not an expert on tariffs but I do keep my ear to the ground to hear what is rumbling.  A note that passed my desk pointed out that President Trump’s next proposed round of tariffs would, in fact, affect HTS code 73181600 – the code for “Nuts made of Iron or Steel”.    That is correct, there could be a 25% tariff on hex nuts imported from China.  Folks, that a lot of hex nuts!  In fact, that might just be where a lot of all hex nuts you buy and sell are coming from.

This announcement was just made in the last few days. The Department of Commerce announced Section 301, which looks to impose a 25% tariff on some 1,300 HTS codes (import codes).  According to what I read, Section 301 relates to intellectual property that the US Department of Commerce says Chinese companies have stolen from USA companies.

Section 301 is still in the draft stage and the government is seeking public comments before a determination is made in May.   So, it is not a done deal yet.  But be aware, if this goes through you could be looking at a 25% increase in your price on nuts made in China.

See the following link:  https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/04/06/2018-07119/notice-of-determination-and-request-for-public-comment-concerning-proposed-determination-of-action

I’m looking forward to the Fastener Fair USA show in Cleveland.  It’s pretty much in my backyard so I’m very curious to see how it goes.  I can report that almost every distributor I talk with in NE Ohio, and many from MI are attending.  Doesn’t hurt that the reception at the end of day one is at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  If you’ve never been there, I think you’ll like it.  Lots of cool stuff.

While traveling this week I was catching up on some Fully Threaded Radio episodes.  Always great stuff on road trips.  Just this morning I was listening to an interview with Charlie Kerr (Cleveland guy!) talking about tariffs.  Charlie always has strong thoughts (don’t want to call them opinions) on topics, and the tariffs were do different.  When he was asked how the tariffs will play out and how they will affect the fastener industry he acknowledged there is incomplete information and it is nearly impossible to predict what the affects will be.  He said predicting how they will affect business would be like picking a perfect bracket in the NCAA tournament (by the way, kudos to John Butler who won the Fastenerblog Tournament Challenge).

Fastener Fair has a lot of different programs including one session talking specifically about the future of the fastener industry.  Guessing maybe some of the panel participants might have a thing or two to say about tariffs and countless other unpredictable things going on today.  But I got to wondering…what’ll we all be talking about in the aisles of the Fastener Fair show?  What are the hot topics right now?  Import prices going up?  Are they stable yet?  Who’s buying who?  Just saw where Endries bought out my good friend Terry Delia when they acquired Branam Fastening.  Any other acquisition chatter out there?  How about personnel changes?  Lots of recent changes lately from the very top positions at organizations as well as with purchasing, sourcing, sales people.

Each year as we are gearing up for the Vegas show you can almost anticipate what topics people will be talking about.  By that time of year, you’d also have a pretty good idea of how the year had gone and might already be speculating about the next year.  This April show might throw us off a bit but I’m sure the aisles will be buzzing.  And then we get to hang out at the Rock Hall!  No complaints with that.  Heard there will be a band playing with some industry ties!  Rock & Roll!