CRA Ontario serves up tabletop show

Richard McConnell, left, from Trinitec Distribution shows Lawrence Gingrich from Broadline Equipment Rentals a Kapro contractor grade level at the CRA Ontario tabletop Show held in London.

The Canadian Rental Association (CRA) in Ontario combined its annual awards banquet with a tabletop show in January. It was the first such venture for the association, which has been striving to provide its members with a variety of venues in different locations for its monthly meetings. The event in January featured a tabletop show for manufacturers and suppliers along with a world-class comedian/hypnotist, who headlined the social event.

Neil De Jong, president for CRA Ontario, says that organizers were pleased beyond their expectations, especially with the support they received from supplier members who reserved a booth at the tabletop show. “We didn’t get as many rental operators from London but we were pleasantly surprised by some who did come from farther away areas of the province to attend,” he says, adding that the board chose London primarily because of the venue. “The board had checked this site out some years back and felt that the pool, water slides and atrium would be a great environment for rental operators and suppliers to bring their families. London was also chosen by our general commitment to move events geographically to represent Ontario as a whole.”

Gord Mills from Stratford Farm Equipment Limited found a creative way to get several Bobcat “model” machines on his table.
Liam Devine, left, from Husqvarna Construction Products shows off the company’s new K 3000 Electric Cut-n-Break to Paul Van Staveren from Stayner Rental Limited and his son Peter, who was able to attend the event held on a Saturday.
Jim Freeman, left, from Rentquip Canada is presented the 2009 Supplier of the Year Award from CRA Ontario president Neil De Jong.
Ken Malott from Kensal Rental Services received the Rental Professional of the Year Award.
Larry Lisoy, left, from Larry’s Rentall is presented with the Image Award by CRA Ontario associate director Lloyd Smith, from Echo Power Equipment (Canada).

The event was designed as a meet and greet to give rental operators and suppliers a chance to socialize and do business in lieu of a full-blown equipment show. “We have for quite some time now considered doing a table-top type show. Our board supported doing a full trade show every other year and felt that a low cost event for the suppliers might work in the off year,” he says, adding that this was a nice fit with the success of the CRA meetings and tours held at rental shops and supplier facilities.

 “It helps to set our awards night in a more formidable setting. We are committed to offering the regular members and associate members a place to meet. We continually attempt to incorporate con-
temporary ideas and tweak what was successful to be better the next time. We feel a certain need to be consistent,” he says. “As we gather feed-back we will assess whether we will do this again. Our initial findings support a repeat event.”

The CRA Ontario will continue to add variety to its regular meetings for the rest of 2009 with a Next Generation meeting on March 25, and a rental store tour of Stayner Rental, near Collingwood. Its next major event will take place in September as it celebrates the 40th anniversary of its golf tournament, which will also coincide with a CRA national board meeting.