President's Message: The Show Must Go On

In the immortal words of the band Queen, “The show must go on.”

And the 2020 NASGW Expo and Annual Meeting is going to happen. We continue to see movement and changes in the re-opening of our economy and in hotels, event spaces and pretty much every other business and service you can think of. This is true now in many states.

In the case of the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, TX, they are actually going to be hosting some fairly large events in July, August and September, long in advance of our arrival. The hotel has developed protocols regarding events at their facility. We’ve posted information from the hotel, along with a whole host of information on a SPECIAL COVID-19 webpage as a part of our NASGW Expo website. You can find it here: https://nasgwexpo.org/covid-resources#.

In fact, the state of Texas recently updated their COVID-19 re-opening information to specifically include the fact that indoor venues may open to meetings and events at half-occupancy. Given the size of the exhibit hall that will host our show, and given the average attendance is somewhere between 1700 and 2000 people, we are going to be well within the bounds of this current “social distancing” protocol.

It’s important to keep in mind, these restrictions are likely to significantly change again before our event… we hope of course they’re gone altogether. But at this point it’s anyone’s guess as to just how they’ll change.

We know you all have questions and want the latest information. We’ll be updating our Expo website  frequently in the coming weeks and months as more information becomes available. If you have ANY questions about current guidelines or information related to COVID-19 and its impact on our show, please refer to https://nasgwexpo.org/covid-resources#.  

So here are some key takeaways I’d like to leave with you today regarding the NASGW Expo for 2020…

1. We are having the Expo. It will be as “normal” as the guidelines allow us to be in October.

2. Numerous distributors, manufacturers, manufacturer representatives and sales and service members, have indicated they plan to attend, they plan to participate, and they are excited about the opportunity to get together after so many months apart.

3. NASGW continues to have new members and new exhibitors join the association and purchase some of the remaining booth space we have available. (Hint… there’s not much left.)

4. A few companies, for a host of reasons, have opted not to take part in this year’s event. We understand. We want everyone who travels to our show to feel safe and welcome. In conjunction with our show floor setup experts at Freeman, the team at the Gaylord Texan hotel, and our entire NASGW team, we’ll make it as comfortable as possible for you to enjoy the show. If you are not interested in taking part in larger gatherings yet, we want you to know that we will miss you, but we do understand.

5. If you are one of the few companies who have not yet paid for your booth space, I’d ask you to take care of this as soon as possible. In early July, we will do our final show floor schematics and if we haven’t heard from you, or received your payment by July 1, we will be forced to cancel your space and send you an invoice for the required deposit amount. If you have questions about your booth or your booth contract, please refer to the Exhibitor Rules & Regulations For other questions you can’t find the answer to on our Expo webpage (nasgwexpo.org), please give us a call at the office.

6. Registration is open and registrations have been steady. If you’d like to register, or are interested in hotel information, it too can be found on the NASGW Expo website.

7. Finally, and I clearly do not even remotely expect this to happen, but If, in the unlikely event we are forced to cancel sometime closer to October due to new restrictions or rules put in place by government or health authorities, just know that NASGW will make it all “right” with each of our members.

We are excited to host you all again for our annual NASGW Expo. We’re looking forward to seeing you all in Texas! I’m excited about the opportunity to see many of you again face-to-face and look forward to the good times!

Until next time,

Kenyon Gleason
NASGW President