Lincolnwood, Ill. -- The International Sanitary Supply Association, Inc. (ISSA) celebrated its 77th year as host of the largest U.S. tradeshow for the cleaning and maintenance industry on October 11-14 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA, USA. The show attracted 12,848 industry professionals and qualified buyers, of which about half represented distributors/wholesalers. The attendance was especially impressive in a year of rampant distributor consolidation and in Atlanta where, historically, attendance lags compared with shows held in Las Vegas, NV, and Chicago, IL. Nearly 15 percent of this year's attendees were visitors from outside of the United States. This percent is expected to be even higher at next year's internationally focused ISSA/INTERCLEAN®-USA, October 16-19 in Orlando, FL.

Technology played a major role in ISSA2000's success. More than 62 percent of pre-registered attendees registered online through the issa.com website, resulting in decidedly shorter registration lines and processing times. ISSA's websites, issa.com and jansan.com, have been averaging more than 30,000 user sessions per month, which increased prior to the Convention. Visitors obtained show information, seminar descriptions, booth locations, and product information prior to the event, allowing them to spend more time on-site attending the educational sessions and experiencing the tradeshow floor. Meanwhile, a majority of exhibitors have already made their booth and space selections for next year's show in Orlando, a process facilitated by ISSA's online technology.

ISSA2000's 707 exhibitors filled more than 249,400 net square feet (23,169 square meters) of exhibit floor space with the newest products, equipment, and services available to the industry. A single unified exhibition area, wide aisles, and user-friendly booth designs made traversing the floor easy-although sheer size and number of booths made for a good work out!

Choosing this year's booth awards proved difficult for the panel of independent judges. But the votes were finally cast and the winners selected as follows:

Best Linear Booth (300 square feet or less): Genpak Corp., Glens Falls, NY.

Best Linear Booth (400 square feet or more): Nilodor, Inc., Bolivar, OH.

Best Island/Peninsula Booth (800 square feet or less): Clorox Professional Products Co., Oakland, CA.

Best Island/Peninsula Booth (1,000-1,600 square feet): The Dial Corp., Scottsdale, AZ.

Best Island/Peninsula Booth (1,700 square feet or more): Kimberly-Clark Corp., Away From Home Sector, Roswell, GA.

Links

• ISSA