From Feb. 28 through March 1, the Southwest professional carwash community gathered in Arlington, Texas, for an event hosted by the Southwest Car Wash Association (SCWA). The 2016 SCWA Convention & Car Wash EXPO’s theme was “Better Stronger Together.” With a variety of educational seminars and exhibitors to visit, the attendees stayed busy during the three-day event.
SCWA President Eric Warden promised “three days that will challenge you — motivate you — build you and refresh you. We are pleased this year to present the largest SCWA EXPO ever, including two [exhibit] areas. From the expo … the premier education … [and] the networking to the exceptional hospitality, we look forward to providing a true experience for you.”
Some highlights of the show included: the CEO forum, state and networking discussion tables, carwash investor basics session, general session/awards presentation, keynote address by Captain Richard Phillips and much more.
According to Chuck Space, SCWA’s executive director, this year’s attendance was slightly over 1,600. Also, the show included 287 booths in two exhibit areas.
“We sold out of booth space in late November (90 days prior to the expo),” added Space. “We also had the largest attendance ever of carwash operators. The carwash attendee who traveled the longest distance was from Kuwait. We had the largest ever number of states represented by actual carwash operators attending — 28, which included Hawaii, Washington, California, Oregon, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee.”
According to Space, this year’s event even had the largest number of first-time attendees ever, including both exhibitors and also carwash operators.
“The feedback has been amazing,” shares Space. “I have received emails from both attendees and exhibitors using the words ‘awesome’ and ‘fantastic,’ [as well as] ‘great convention and show, lots of wonderful energy.’”
Don’t miss next year’s 2017 SCWA Convention & Car Wash EXPO, which will be held Feb. 26-28, 2017, at the Arlington Convention Center and Arlington Sheraton Hotel.
For more information about the event, please visit www.swcarwash.org.
Below are some photos from this year’s event.
