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Get ready for The Experience
CLEARWATER BEACH, FL — The Experience Conference and Exposition will be held April 18-20 at the Clearwater Beach Hilton.
The Conference and Expo will feature more than 100 exhibitor booths, live demonstrations in the exhibit hall and educational programs featuring advanced training, marketing classes, live hands-on cleaning and restoration programs and roundtable discussions.
The Experience will include a new platform of education utilizing a combination of written materials, classroom training and hands-on demonstrations.
The hands-on demonstrations will be expanded and used to further research, teach and instruct how to apply what is learned in the classroom.
Powr-Flite hires product manager
FORT WORTH, TX — Powr-Flite has announced the hiring of Eric Hickman as a product manager.
Hickman has nearly 20 years of experience in the professional cleaning industry, previously working for New System Janitorial and Maintenance Supply in the St. Louis area, as well as National Sanitary Supply and Unisource.
Hickman's key duties at Powr-Flite will be product management, development and training and communications with distributors and end users.
“We have managed to put together a very dynamic team here at Powr-Flite. We know Eric will be a welcome addition,” said Gary Pelphrey, vice president of marketing.
Why the IICRC created a council of associations
Editor’s note: The following information is provided by Tony Wheelwright, president of the IICRCA.
VANCOUVER, WA — The purpose of a trade association is to promote the business interests of its members. The purpose of a technical organization, such as the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC), is quite different — it is to provide certification training programs and to develop standards.
For 40 years, the IICRC has been the “face” of and has united the inspection, cleaning and restoration industries. Sixty thousand technicians are certified registrants, but only several hundred are represented by the dozen or so trade associations that own the Institute. The Institute is adept at developing certification programs and ANSI standards. It has partnered with several other organizations to develop standards and training programs and continues to do so.
But it is not, and cannot be, a trade association. So in October 2012, after years of planning, the IICRC formed the International Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Council of Associations (IICRCA) to meet the unmet trade association needs of the cleaning, restoration and inspection industries.
How will this help you and your business? Generally speaking, the benefits the IICRCA will provide fall into three categories. Following is a brief description of each. In subsequent articles I will delve more deeply into each category.
To provide tangible, bottom-line benefits
By pooling resources, we can collectively do things that we cannot do separately. We will provide our members with a variety of excellent networking opportunities and offerings. We will develop and offer specialized training programs and webinars. We will sponsor trade shows and technical conferences. We have negotiated with vendors for discounts and special offers for our members on products and services that will result in significant savings worth far more than the cost of membership.
To support associations
The IICRCA is a council of associations. The IICRCA will work with and support all affiliated associations to promote each other’s interests. The concept is simple: 2 + 2 = 5. By working together synergistically the sum is greater than the whole of its parts. Some of the ways this will be accomplished are through cross promotion and pooling of resources for research, lobbying and in trade shows or technical conferences. Additionally, each affiliated association and franchisor member can collaborate without losing its unique individual identity.
There are scores of trade associations serving the greater cleaning, restoration and inspection industries. Some have a few hundred members while others have tens of thousands. Smaller, specialized associations are limited in what they can accomplish.
However, as part of a council of associations, they can develop and promote legislative and regulatory agendas on state and federal levels, help members with marketing strategies, reduce business overhead costs through better insurance, better software and other collaborative programs, and bring the talents and expertize of all affiliated associations into one arena.
To increase consumer awareness
Together we can develop position statements and educate both legislators and the media on issues involving the cleaning, restoration and inspection industries. This information is then passed through to the public through legislative or regulatory action and a variety of media channels.
The worldwide digital communications revolution, such as with social media, has opened up vast new avenues for low-cost consumer communications. Together we can develop a skillful strategy that taps into the power of a worldwide army of members to raise awareness and educate the public. This will bring results that in the past would have cost millions of dollars.
Our agenda is ambitious and the potential for benefitting the industries we serve is great. I hope you will join us. For united we stand!
For more information on the IICRCA, visit its website: www.IICRCA.org.
