Orlando, Fla.—“The show has exceeded our expectations in multiple ways,” said Tamara Christian, president of National Trade Productions (NTP) and show director for Coverings, about the market’s 2004 edition, which took place here at the new exhibit hall of the Orange County Convention Center from March 23 to 26. “The move-in has always been very complex for this show,” she explained, “but we were able to make some changes that really seemed to have smoothed the process for many exhibitors. We were ahead of time, had the show put together earlier and had a lot of exhibitors telling us it was much smoother for them. We have been very pleased about that.

Most of the companies here last year have returned.” With a keynote address by Steve Forbes and an appearance by HGTV’s Michael Payne, host of “Designing For The Sexes,” who spoke before a capacity crowd, the show had some star power, as well. “We have received only positive feedback for that,” Christian said of the opening general session, which featured Forbes’ take on the economy and an awards ceremony. “We thought that was a great way to kick off the show.” NTP developed a broad array of special events to appeal to distributors, retailers, fabricators, architects, designers builders/remodelers and installers including contractor workshops, special interest group forums, appreciation nights and exhibitor-sponsored events.

“I think we we’re all concerned with new management,” said Svend Hovmand, president of Crossville and newly elected president of the Tile Council of North America (TCA). “But everything was smooth coming in. Everyone seems pleased. We’ve gone through the first year with new management in a pretty positive way.” Bart Bettiga, president of the National Tile Contractors Association (NTCA), commented on the new workshops, appreciation night hospitality and the overall recognition of the contractor’s role in the tile and stone community. “Multiple contractors approached me saying that due to the success of this show, they’ll be bringing more of their colleagues to Coverings next year.” “The presentation and look of Coverings far exceeds anything I’ve ever seen at previous shows,” said Don Halvorson of Forensic Tile Consultants in San Diego. “The show is fresh, new and fantastic.” “We couldn’t be more pleased to hear so much positive exhibitor feedback, indicating that this has been one of the most organized, smoothest running shows in more than 15 years,” said Christian.

“We consider that quite a feat, since more than eight million pounds of freight were moved into the Orange County Convention Center to set up the show.” While the show’s overall traffic seemed to be down a tad over previous years, companies saw who they needed to see and generally all seemed pleased with the business they did during the event. “We’ve had good traffic,” said Tom Graham, vice president of sales for Florida Tile, one of the busiest exhibitors at the show. “The traffic we’ve had have been very complimentary about our products and the direction we are going in. They seem pretty bullish on the state of the ceramic tile business and where it is headed this year. It’s been a good show for us so far.” “It’s hard to tell what the attendance is like,” said Mike Ward of EFC America, the U.S. importer for Gres De Valls of Spain.

“We have, in my opinion, the best sales force in the industry. We always set our appointments for the show and we always seem to be very busy. When the attendance is down, we have a good show anyway, but it seems to me that the foot traffic is up. “We have a couple products that are really stealing the show,” he explained. “One of them is from Gres De Valls called the Tuscani series, which we took from concept to product in approximately 45 to 60 days. I don’t know of anyone else that has done anything that quick. It is a full package—it comes in 13X18-, 6-, 9-, and 9X18-in. sizes, and mosaics, inserts and more. The other product doing well and creating quite a stir is the Lina series from Realonda.”

“The market is going really well,” said Victor Dols of Ceramica Decorativa, “it’s not very busy in terms of number of visits, but we met with previous appointments we had made, so it’s been excellent so far.” Dols admitted, with the proximity of the Coverings and Cevisama shows, it is “really annoying for the Spanish companies that the Cevisama show in Spain and this one are so close, but strictly for logistics reasons because they have to ship the materials here about a month before the show which means that they have to prepare two different booths at the same time, one for Spain and one for here.” This conflict of shows will be alleviated next year, as the dates for Cevisama have been moved to early February while Coverings moves to early May.

“This show has been going well for us,” said Paul De Chene of the United States Gypsum Co. ( USG). “The leads we’ve had have been very good; quality people more than quantity. The show has been better for us this year than last year but we have a relatively new product—Aqua-Tough underlayment—so we have a bigger customer base. There is more awareness of our product so more people are stopping by our booth simply because the product is more established.” Rick Baldini, president and CEO of Aqua Mix, who was introducing a new Restoration product line at the show, said the event started off slow for the company but got increasingly better. “Yesterday morning [day two], we had people line up six to eight deep for our demos. It was fantastic.”

He also commented on the absence at the show of several companies, including Laticrete and Mapei. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t want to be here as it is a chance to see their customers. The comments I’ve heard from them are, they’ve already got their distributors established, so they’re seeing their wholesalers in private venues. They may not have new products to show to existing customers, so they’ve found [being here] wasn’t the best return on their investment. I haven’t figured out yet if they’ve made a good or bad decision.”

Florim USA was another company that did not exhibit at the show. Having already exhibited at Surfaces in January, the company is looking into the possibility of hosting its own “home trade show” at its Tennessee headquarters, according to a company spokeswoman. “The show was good for us,” said Enza Baccarani of Italy-based, Elios Ceramica. “We saw many people. All our customers came but, generally speaking, I think there is less overall traffic than last year.” “The show has been wonderful so far,” said James Mayo, marketing manager for Brazil-based Eliane Ceramic Tiles. “We’ve had a lot of traffic, volume as well as sales. It’s been phenomenal.”