NEW ORLEANS — The 2013 edition of the Clean Show—officially the World Educational Congress for Laundering and Drycleaning—closed Saturday night after three full days of exhibits and educational programming at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
Based on observations and comments from a sampling of exhibitors, the first two days were the best attended and had the greatest show-floor activity.
John Riddle, president of management firm Riddle & Associates, reported after Thursday’s opening day that attendance had already reached the 10,000 mark predicted before the show. The following day, he said it could take his office a week or more to tally the final numbers and determine if the New Orleans show exceeded Las Vegas’ 11,200 registered attendees in 2011.
Exhibition space was up approximately 8% from what had been budgeted, according to David Cotter, Clean ’13 chairman and CEO of the Textile Care Allied Trades Association (TCATA).
Dry cleaners, coin laundry owners, textile services operators, on-premise laundry managers and other attendees had the opportunity to see the latest products and services offered by 420 exhibitors and to sit in on educational seminars spanning a combined 40 hours.
For the first time, Clean hosted afternoon educational sessions right on the show floor, and some of them drew standing-room-only crowds.
The next edition of Clean will convene in Atlanta in April 2015. The Clean Executive Committee is waiting to gather feedback from exhibitors and attendees regarding this year’s three-day show to decide if the 2015 show will remain three days in length or shift back to the traditional four days.
Show sponsors are the Association for Linen Management (ALM), the Coin Laundry Association (CLA), the Drycleaning and Laundry Institute (DLI), TCATA and the Textile Rental Services Association of America (TRSA).
Four of the five sponsors organized educational sessions, as did the American Reusable Textile Association (ARTA), the Canadian Cleaners and Launderers Allied Trades Association (CLATA) and the European Textile Service Association (ETSA).
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