USM Participates in the SPECS 2009 Trade Show

Once again, USM exhibited at the annual SPECS conference. The conference was held at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida. USM exhibited with its 'big blue' island display that was updated last fall with new graphics to reflect the new USM brand. Despite the current economic situation, the trade show was well attended and reported only a 25% drop in retail attendees.

The thee-day conference included an exhibition hall, networking events, and education sessions. While energy and sustainability were hot topics, show management opted to remove several education sessions from the schedule this year in order to speak about the economic crisis in an afternoon general address entitled 'Outlook 2009 - The Retail Environment as Recession Gives Way to Recovery' by Dr. Marci Rossell, Former CNBC Chief Economist and Co-Host of Squawk Box.

On Monday, February 23rd, USM VP of Commercial, Bob Steinhagen hosted a Facilities Best Practices roundtable discussion about snow removal budget development and service delivery. Other roundtables included grand openings, concrete floor maintenance, and vendor management among others. The session was attended by big box retailers like Lowe's and Home Depot as well as retailers like Rite Aid and Great Clips.

On Tuesday, February 24th, USM Senior VP of Operations and SPECS advisory board member, Carl Nottberg, presented a session along with Curt Picard from Lennox entitled 'HVAC - Planned Capital Replacement: The Roadmap to Successfull Execution.' Over forty retailers and solution suppliers attended the session to learn about implementing an asset replacement strategy for their rooftop heating, air conditioning, and ventilation units. The session outlined the benefits of a proactive strategy over replacing the systems in emergencies. It also covered inventory management for better selection of roof top units. They stressed the importance of retailers understanding what each store has, getting data from their vendors, and taking ownership of the information to really understand when it's time to replace their units.

While the retailer's facilties maintenance contacts present were lower than expected, the construction contacts USM met at the show should prove beneficial for the USM growth strategy. In addition, the exposure at the education sessions will better position USM as the facility solutions leader in this tough economic time. USM plans to exhibit again at SPECS 2010.

Published Date: March 6, 2009
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