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NATRE
North American Tire and Retread Expo:
New Orleans Event Faces the Challenge to Maintain Exhibitor and Attendance Levels
The North American Tire and Retread Expo took place from April 19-21 at the Ernest N Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the second in a series of six annual shows committed to by organisers Latin Expo Group, who also organise the Latin American Tire Show held each July in Panama.
When the new event in New Orleans was launched last year it was, at least in part, billed as a replacement for the now defunct Louisville show, which was last held in 2003 but was once the largest retread show in world.
This year’s exhibition was smaller than last year in terms of exhibitor numbers, largely due to the fact that
It was standing room only during the retread panel session
Latin Expo Group CEO Gustavo Lima cuts the ribbon to open the North American Tire and Retread Expo
there were fewer Chinese new tyre exhibitors, a fact which many would perhaps describe as a good thing, and, by and large, the nascent exhibition continued to be supported widely by the North American retreading sector.
The appetite is clearly there amongst suppliers for an exhibition for the retread market in North America. The quality of people who attended the show, both from the
US and from some of the neighbouring Latin American countries, was very good and several exhibitors we spoke to reported excellent business with those people who visited their stands.
The only problem was there wasn’t enough of them, and therein lies the challenge for the organisers. The actual number of attendees at the show was not very high, and this gave the impression of a show that
LARGE PROJECTS REQUIRE STRONG TEAMS
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T : F : E :