By Andrew Ardizzi
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| OARA’s trade show and convention hits Toronto from March 28 to March 30. |
Toronto, Ontario — March 26, 2014 — Recyclers and industry partners are converging on Toronto this weekend for the 2014 Ontario Auto Recycling Association (OARA) convention and trade show.
“It’s the chance to showcase the industry and the association to everybody, and it allows us to demonstrate what we do,” says OARA Executive Director Steve Fletcher. “It’s the number one chance for us to communicate information between one another.
“The hall really becomes its own information centre.”
Altogether 56 exhibitors will be attending the 2014 OARA convention. Among them are 11 new exhibitors, including:
- BAAN Powertrain Corp.
- Buffalo Engine Components
- Counts Business Consulting
- F.S.T. Solutions
- Glencoe Auto Recyclers
- Northshore Manufacturing/Bullrite
- Power-DB by SolexD
- Sellick Equipment Limited
- Safety-Kleen Canada
- Tonolli Canada
- WEN Industries
When it comes to helping all of the new faces integrate with the old ones, Fletcher says each delegate will be given a passport pamphlet containing the contact and convention location information of all exhibitors attending, in addition to a handy floor map to help delegates move around.
“We’ve printed up these guidebooks with everyone’s contact information and we encourage them to travel from booth to booth to meet everyone else at the show and get their books stamped,” Fletcher says of the initiative, which OARA has encouraged for the previous three conventions. “Later when they come back with a filled passport they’re entered into a draw for some great prizes, plus they get to keep the book and contact list within the interior.”
To further encourage delegates to chat with one another, OARA convention organizers will also have a lunch area set up in the heart of the show floor, which Fletcher says is another opportunity to sit and chat with other delegates.
“A lot of times people will leave the convention to go out and get food. Having the lunch area is a great meeting spot in the middle of the show that lets people come together and discuss the convention,” he says. “It lets us focus it all together and creates an organic place for people to talk to each other.”
As the convention has expanded, Fletcher says it’s begun to grow through word-of-mouth to the extent that exhibitors have begun to look at OARA’s convention as a launching ground for new products and services, while also drawing attendance from members of other provincial recycling associations and different government agencies.
“It’s a total value-add,” he says. “It’s great when you get to the point where government recognizes you and wants to take part in the industry’s discussions.”
OARA’s 2014 trade show and convention will take place in Toronto’s Airport Marriott Hotel, located at 901 Dixon Rd., and runs from March 28 to March 30, 2014.
For further coverage, please read “Rainwater headlines OARA 2014 as special guest speaker” on collisionrepairmag.com. We’ll also bring you full reports from the Convention. Watch collisionrepairmag.com for special updates starting March 28, 2014.
To learn more about OARA’s 2014 convention itinerary, please visit OARA.com.
