Relocated AREE a hit with attendees, exhibitors
Feature Story
New and improved
While its long-running stay at the Trump Taj Mahal on Atlantic City, N.J.’s Boardwalk was a hit with Atlantic Region Energy Expo attendees, there was no arguing that in recent years the ever-expanding show had outgrown the Taj Mahal’s environs, necessitating a move to a larger facility.
Not wanting to leave Atlantic City, AREE appears to have found the perfect alternative to the Taj as this year’s show, held from May 1-4, opened to rave reviews at the Atlantic City Convention Center.
‘Our move to this facility has given AREE the opportunity to offer a larger trade show and assures that all exhibits … are in a single arena,” said Ralph Amadeo, chairman of the AREE Convention Committee.
Indeed, all of the exhibits, which had been spread over two halls and two floors at the Taj Mahal the past few years, were all contained under one roof at the ACCC, allowing for more than 280 exhibiting companies to take residence in excess of 350 booth spaces, both new AREE records, with ample room available for further expansion. In addition, The Marketplace of New Products and Technology area was afforded a central position on the show floor, while there was also enough room for Marketplace theaters to be set up where those companies could provide video demonstrations of their products.
But the trade-show floor was not the only thing that was bigger and better at this year’s AREE. The always-popular Hospitality Night, after recently resembling bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic at the cramped Taj Mahal, was relocated to The Quarter, a spacious entertainment and dining complex at AREE’s headquarters at the Tropicana Casino and Resort, a short ride from the ACCC. This allowed for a more relaxed atmosphere in which to network with fellow attendees.
The seminar program was also expanded this year, with three specific tracks ‘ Management, Service/Technical and Sales/Marketing ‘ offering a total of 21 educational opportunities ranging from ULSD implementation, home inspections, customer service and selling bioheat.
The show kicked off on May 1 with the second Pre-Convention Golf Outing, held this year at Vineyard Golf at Renault in Egg Harbor City, N.J., and concluded with a Closing Session featuring New York Giants running back Tiki Barber. His talk, under the title of ‘In Pursuit of Excellence: Leadership, Determination and Teamwork,” concluded with this observation, which nicely summarized this year’s new-look AREE: ‘You adjust, you adapt, you come together with other people and they make you better.”
AREE returns to the Atlantic City Convention Center next year with the show scheduled from April 24-26, 2007. l FON
