This episode of the What the Floor Podcast is extra special, featuring our good friend Teresa Legler, President of the Flooring Association Northwest. She shares the history and plans of the Association, as well as their upcoming events, like golf tournaments, happy hours, and Market Expos. We also tackle the tough topic of tradeshows - are they really worth the time and money? It's time to Walk the Plank and find out!
What the Floor is a T&A Supply Company Inc original production. You can find out more about us at tasupply.com or tasflooring.com. This show is produced by Jose Morales with help from Toni Collier and Jessica Riser. Tell us what you think of the show at wtfpodcast@tasupply.com or #whatthefloorpodcast on social media to let us know what you think.
This episode of the What the Floor Podcast is extra special, featuring our good friend Teresa Legler, President of the Flooring Association Northwest. She shares the history and plans of the Association, as well as their upcoming events, like golf tournaments, happy hours, and Market Expos. We also tackle the tough topic of tradeshows - are they really worth the time and money? It's time to Walk the Plank and find out!
What the Floor is a T&A Supply Company Inc original production. You can find out more about us at tasupply.com or tasflooring.com. This show is produced by Jose Morales with help from Toni Collier and Jessica Riser. Tell us what you think of the show at wtfpodcast@tasupply.com or #whatthefloorpodcast on social media to let us know what you think.
This is what the floor from T&A Supply Company Inc, a podcast for the flooring industry. I'm Holiday Van Erem.
Michael Goria:And I'm Michael Goria. We're going to explore the hot topics of the flooring industry with a little humor and a new set of eyes. Well, good afternoon Holliday, how are you?
Holiday Van Erem:I'm pretty good. I'm excited about my event that I'm going to later this afternoon. So I'm in a good mood.
Michael Goria:Good. Well, that's perfect. Because it's been a little rough. It's the start of the year.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, things have not gone as planned. For me, the coworkers that I work with her plans for how we were kicking January off just haven't really gone that direction.
Michael Goria:Yeah, nor has the weather been great. I mean, it's just the January time.
Holiday Van Erem:Mmmhmm yeah
Michael Goria:So we're gonna, we're gonna get through it.
Holiday Van Erem:I feel like 2023 hasn't started any better than 21, 20, 22 hasn't changed much. Hopefully, we start turning things around here. As we head into February,
Michael Goria:I think we will, it always gets better as we go.
Holiday Van Erem:So we're recording this episode in January, but this will air at the end of February. So hopefully, the weather has changed a little bit and we're in a better mood and things are going a little better direction.
Michael Goria:I'm gonna say we'll be in a better place.
Holiday Van Erem:Yes, I sure do hope so. end of February, one of our favorite local March events is the flooring Association market event. And that'll be coming up just right around the corner.
Michael Goria:Yeah, it's been going on for several years now. And it seems like every year, it gets a little better, we get more engagement. So I'm excited for I look forward to that every year because it's a local thing. It's a little smaller than the big shows allows us to engage with customers. We haven't seen in a while and, and even some of our competitors.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, exactly. So we thought since the flooring associations event is coming up, let's have someone from the flooring Association actually come on the show. And tell us more about what FAN is flooring Association Northwest we're going to call it FAN a lot. That's the shortening of it that most of us are familiar with. But in case you're not, we have the current the brand new president of the flooring association with us today. Longtime friend of T&A Supply Company, Teresa Legler. I want you to introduce yourself because me trying to introduce you isn't gonna go well, you know you way more than I do. So tell us who you are, where you're from, and then how you're associated with the flooring Association.
Teresa Legler:Yeah, thank you, Michael and Holiday. Thanks for
Michael Goria:You bet having me on.
Teresa Legler:Today I'm excited to kind of go through this stuff with you guys. Like Holliday said, my name is Teresa and I have been in the flooring industry now for longer than I'm gonna mention.
Holiday Van Erem:Fair enough
Teresa Legler:Couple of kids and everything grown up, I worked with accents and interiors and I got involved with FAN about four years ago. It's been a lot of fun. I've gotten to meet a lot of people. And one thing I've realized over the years that I really like about this industry is especially from my aspect, being on the dealer side, we see so many reps over the years, and they can cycle through and trickle through. And we don't always know where they end up.
Holiday Van Erem:Well, that's a good point. So I think the But But you go to these events and you see faces that you've known for 15 to 20 years. And you haven't seen them for five or 10 years. And it's great to be able to catch up. And that's one of the things I love a lot about FAN. flooring association is definitely a community thing. We stay in the flooring industry for a very long time. Once you're in, you're in it's very hard to get out. So it becomes a community and kind of a family. Yeah, Teresa, can you tell us and the listeners who aren't familiar with it, What is FAN? who is FAN?
Teresa Legler:I would say we are a networking group. It's an opportunity to get people together to share ideas to collaborate with, honestly, sometimes your competitors, but they become your best resources to talk to. And so it's a really great opportunity to just speak to and reach out to other people from all aspects of the industry on the dealer side on the vendor side, even the manufacturer side and so it's really just a good opportunity to collaborate with everybody and get together and fun events. It's really an in person. That's where we have our most bang for the buck is the in person events.
Holiday Van Erem:So membership wise, it's manufacturers, its distributors, its dealers. Do we have installer memberships and architectural memberships? Still?
Teresa Legler:Yeah, we do have all of those. I just don't know how many of them we currently have actually engaged. That's definitely an area we'd like to focus on getting reengagement and installers especially because there's so much always changing in our industry that it would be great to have them there as our champions of the change.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, more participation from them more voice for the installers.
Michael Goria:How long has the association been around?
Teresa Legler:You know, it's funny, I had to not gonna lie. I had to look this one up. I know it had been about 30 years, but they were formed in 1977.
Holiday Van Erem:Oh, wow. That is way longer than I thought.
Teresa Legler:Yeah, it definitely is. I've actually seen some of the old documentation it's floating around here somewhere, some of the old photos, some of the old directories when they were still printed like the little Bibles that everybody used to use and carry around. There's some from the very beginning.
Holiday Van Erem:Oh, wow, that's fun. We almost want like a some type of museum where it can be seen, we can have it out and displayed.
Teresa Legler:Now, I will probably bring it out at the market Expo that you mentioned, I had that out one year at the table at the fan booth. It was really cool for people to go back and flip through and look through some of the old photos and see themselves 30 years ago
Holiday Van Erem:and see themselves see their family members.
Michael Goria:Like Holliday said, once you're in the flooring industry, you you tend to not get out. And you know, so many people, I've heard stories of people that had been involved for 30 plus years, you know, who have been going to fan events for literally that long. So
Teresa Legler:Absolutely.
Michael Goria:It's a long standing community,
Holiday Van Erem:it's so great to hear, because I feel like especially over the last few years dealing with COVID and everything being virtual, the flooring association is definitely felt some pain there. And it's it's nice to know that there's that longevity there and things are kind of turning around for the flooring Association at this point.
Teresa Legler:Absolutely.
Holiday Van Erem:What are the benefits for joining FANs? So we've talked about how its networking community? What are the benefits that you get from a membership?
Teresa Legler:Well, obviously, you have first access to the events and you get discounted rates, that's always a good thing for people to save some money. There's also generally an aspect of training. And one of the things I like with the website, and we've taken advantage of with accents and interiors, there's even a broader reach with your audience when we're trying to recruit and hire people because there's a hiring function on there. You also have the list and the directory is now online. So you can go on and look to see who your counterparts are. If you're struggling with something or you want to reach out to somebody to collaborate on something or find out what's working from them, and steal some best practices, all of that information is now online and available to you. So aside from the networking, which is obviously the part that people are most familiar with, and the big events, I think there's a lot of behind the scenes things that can be really beneficial for people.
Holiday Van Erem:We've been a distributor member for a long time. And I feel like we always get something out of it. Even if it's just being able to promote ourselves at the market events or sponsor happy hour or provide giveaway items. I feel like we always get at least something out of it. And then there's all of those networking opportunities. And we haven't mentioned the golf tournament yet either. That is a fun event. And we usually sponsor a couple tenths or two, and you're out there all day long. But you get to see a lot of people and it's really nice to be able to hand things out and give them some drinks and feel that community.
Michael Goria:What's uh you know, you're newly president, so I don't want to put you under the gun too much. But what are this year's goals? What are you guys hoping to accomplish this year as a board for FAN? and reengage the whole community in it again.
Teresa Legler:Yeah, well, as Holliday alluded to, it's Absolutely.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah. And I feel like the membership numbers definitely been a challenging couple of years. For any like are higher than they've been for the last couple of years. So type organization come out of COVID, we are very much an in things are going in the right direction. And it's nice to see person organization. And when you can't meet, it's a struggle to continue to find the value and be valuable for your team. everybody coming back. And I've noticed attending the events So one of the things we really want to focus on this year is bringing that value back and getting the in person stuff over the last year each one there's more people, there's back. becoming financially whole and stable. So that we can really be there to put on the training seminars to offer the dinners to do all those types of functions, again, to really get back to the roots of what FAN was originally designed for and to be there as part of the community more people the next one, the more people the next one seems like things are turning around. And like you mentioned, the flooring associations financial woes for the last couple years are very typical for these types of associations T&A supply as part of the NAFCD, which is a regional distributor wholesale Association and same problems. And it's not just the flooring industry association to heavily lean on having in person events to be able to hold raffles and you know, benefit off of people showing up and buying dinner. It's hard to do that over zoom, I think we proved there are some things you can do on Zoom. And some things you cannot
Teresa Legler:Some things you just don't have the reach. And I think it's the perfect time to take advantage of getting back in front of everybody, but then also look at opportunities to continue to make ourselves more and more relevant for the members. That's a big thing is we want to always be staying on top of what they need from us and be able to figure out how to provide that for them.
Holiday Van Erem:What is the best way for somebody who's listening that maybe isn't a member? What is the best way for them to sign up for membership?
Teresa Legler:Honestly, probably the easiest way is to go to the website. There's a link on there that you can do that or you can email into the info email, but the website is probably the easiest and you can get to it through the Facebook page. You can get to it through the LinkedIn page or you can go straight to the forming Association Northwest website and register through that.
Holiday Van Erem:What are the events that the flooring Association has planned for this year so far?
Teresa Legler:so are two biggest ones that we've already kind of touched on, we have our market Expo in March, and then we will have our golf tournament that will be coming up this summer. Those are the two largest ones that I think everybody looks forward to and is has the largest attendance, but we will also be hosting happy hours, we will be hosting dinner meetings and hopefully we'll get some panel dinners or training dinners back on the calendar and be hosting those as well.
Holiday Van Erem:attending those events is the best way to also tell the association, what else they can be doing to assist members if you have ideas of things that you think the flooring Association should be doing the best way to show up to one of these events, stop by their booth or find somebody who you know is on the board and tell them what you think they should be involved in. Because if you don't tell anybody, no one is going to know and nobody can do anything about it.
Teresa Legler:A lot of things, it's also really important to point out that you don't have to be on the board to participate in the FAN stuff. You can be on a committee and not even be part of the board. It's a great way to segue into learning what being on the board entails. But we would welcome committee involvement. There's a number of committees, from the happy hour Committee to the dinner meetings to the golf, there's committees that run all of this stuff, and you don't have to be part of the flooring Association board, you can be a member and be on one of those committees to at least be involved with that way if that's the way you would prefer to do your involvement.
Holiday Van Erem:That's a great point, I'm sure that people don't realize that they don't actually have to be on the board to help out with one of the events and help influence how it's run. And...
Michael Goria:That's really how I got involved was the dinner meetings I started going to those years ago. And they used to be held at the Rainier Golf and Country Club. And it was just so easy to go it was a great time to just, you know, catch up with a bunch of old friends. Sometimes we'd go out before and after. And that'd be great to see those come back.
Teresa Legler:Absolutely.
Holiday Van Erem:So let's talk more about the market Expo. It'll be coming up very soon. You're listening this episode at the end of February. How does the market Expo benefit the vendors and the distributors that are showing out it What does somebody who's purchased one of those booths get out of doing that,
Teresa Legler:it's really beneficial because it's really the only like type event in our area. And it's kind of like a little mini surfaces. And for those of us who don't want to go down to Vegas or can take the time to go down to Vegas, it's a great opportunity for the vendors to showcase some of their new launches that are coming for the year and just reconnect with their dealers, their clients, I can't think of a vendor that doesn't like to walk around and see what everybody else is offering and see what the competition is. For myself, personally, as a dealer, it's wonderful to be able to go to an event and just connect with everybody and see everything all at once rather than having to take the time to drive around or see or schedule individual meetings. So having it all under one roof where we can all spend some time together. And it's fun. I don't know of anybody who doesn't go to those things and have a great time just talking to everybody catching up on everybody seeing all the fun new stuff.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, there's usually a food truck outside for lunch. There's appetizers and drinks and the end part of the event. Everybody seems like nobody has left the flooring market Expo with a frown on their face.
Michael Goria:Yeah. And then typically, I know a lot of people who go out to dinner afterwards, they get a group of folks. And usually it's a mixed group. It's you know, they're pulling from customers and distributors and vendors, and they're all going out and having a good time afterwards as well. So I think it's a, it's a long day, but it's a fun day for a lot of people.
Teresa Legler:when you have that opportunity, it's so fun to have those multiple touches a day that you wouldn't ever typically get in a regular schedule. It's a one stop shop, it's you know, it's like going to somewhere where you can get a little bit of everything you need, whether or not you want to look at new installation techniques, or you want to look at new products that are available, or you just want to talk to a technical rep or a vendor rep or your competitors even. I mean, there's great collaboration opportunities amongst everyone and anyone and I don't care what type of store owner you are, everyone can benefit from that kind of interaction with each other.
Michael Goria:Yeah, absolutely.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah. And usually there's booths giving away prizes. There's fun activities at different booths, just a chance to just complain if you just that one person that really needs to complain, because the vendors probably going to be there. So you can you can complain to all of them at the same time you get hit up every single one.
Teresa Legler:Well, I think that's what I like, even more about, you know, because I've obviously done surfaces, and I've done multiple market expos. And I like the market Expo more because it's my local people surfaces, you may go to that and you may not see any of your local representation down there, or it's gonna depend on who their corporate team decides they want to take. Yeah, when you go to market Expo, it's your local people up here in our local area that are dealing with the same challenges the same weather issues that you know we're dealing with, we can all empathize with each other when we go to those things where you can't necessarily when you go to
Holiday Van Erem:yeah, they don't necessarily know who you Vegas, are and what your pricing is and what your arrangements were and what you have and don't have in your store already. We talked a little bit about getting more installers involved. I feel like I always see a group of installers that comes through and they stop at every single booth, they want to engage and talk with you. And sometimes there's some kind of, you know, apprenticeship thing going on there. What do you think is the benefits for an installer to come to the market Expo?
Teresa Legler:I think it's the exposure to any of the companies that are more geared towards installation products, they can see the new stuff. And often there is some sort of technical expertise there that they can speak to. And they also, I think, like to see what the trends are, that are coming, I don't know of a single installer that doesn't want to know what they're going to be installing, and at least have some knowledge and understanding of that. And so to be able to come and see those products, and potentially ask questions about them and learn about the best ways to do that. Because I know they're not going to want to screw something up and have to go back and reinstall anything. So if you can ask those questions and find that value in that benefit in one place. I think that's a benefit for them, too.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah
Michael Goria:probably similar to the A and D community. Right, as we try to engage them more apt to join fan, it'd be the same, right? See the new trends that are coming new colorations?
Teresa Legler:Yeah, absolutely. And I think as long as all of that is there and available, I don't see why they wouldn't find the same benefit, they can come in and see the pretty shiny things just like the rest of us do. And that's what they they come to those types of events to see and to ask and to touch and feel.
Michael Goria:And I think I know the answer, but I'm going to ask it so people can hear it, it's free,
Teresa Legler:it is free for all attendees, the the only ones paying are the ones that are purchasing the booth. So for all of us attendees, it's totally free to go in and see all of this stuff and have all of this great interaction.
Michael Goria:Exactly. So for people listening, invite, you know, your A and D reps, invite the installers that, you know, it's a free event for the day that they can come and enjoy and usually walk out with swag and hopefully something to eat and drink. So
Holiday Van Erem:yeah
Teresa Legler:absolutely.
Holiday Van Erem:What are the biggest needs for the organization right now, what does the form of association need the most from its members and its board members,
Teresa Legler:like I touched on, I think the committee members is a big thing, because it takes a lot of work. And we are all busy individuals, none of us are sitting around twiddling our thumbs with nothing to do.
Holiday Van Erem:What?
Michael Goria:Come on, you're a mom! So the more people we have involved to help lighten the
Teresa Legler:I know load and share and spread across the burden to everybody. It makes it easier again, you don't have to be a board member to be a committee member. And I think reinforcing that and letting everybody know that is really critical. We need Happy Hour hosts, we don't necessarily have a ton of those scheduled for 2023. And that has by far been one of our most popular events throughout the years. I know everybody loves the dinner meetings, everybody loves market Expo and the golf tournament. But the happy hours have been really successful. And everybody really enjoys those. And I think the vendors who put those on, see a good return on investment, you're getting people into your show rooms, who maybe wouldn't necessarily have gone down there for any other reason before and just the collaboration and networking that can happen. I think another thing that would be really great for us to focus on this year is getting more of the technical training sessions up and running, again, more of the installation type stuff. I know some of the panel dinners that I've been to where we've talked about installation techniques, or what the industry is seeing or challenges that we're all facing have been, I think some of the most beneficial things that we have hosted as fans. So anything training related, I think that's a definite lacking thing in our market.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah. And members that offer those types of services, you can easily just volunteer to offer that service, as you know, as an event, and I'm sure the board would help get it all scheduled. And you just have to show up and do the training.
Teresa Legler:Absolutely, I think that would be a really, really good one for us to focus on this year
Holiday Van Erem:One of the first events that I went to was a floor heating training seminar. Yeah, I took a couple of gals in the office, because we needed to write like a blog about it and understand it more. And let's go to this event and have them teach us what it is I learned a lot. And then I started attending them more often. Because it had there was good content was completely relevant to what we were dealing with.
Michael Goria:Yeah
Teresa Legler:Yeah, it's great when you can get any of those in person demos going. I feel like what you learn, and what you get by being there and listening to others people's questions. So they might ask a question on something that you would never even thought of. But it could be a problem for you that you would experience down the road. And now because they've asked that question, and you've seen it in the demo, you know how to deal with it moving forward.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah. And there's definitely a lot to be said, for watching something on YouTube or reading the installation instructions, a hands on demo where you can either do it yourself or watch someone do it in front of you, where you can stop them, ask them why they're doing it that way. That is a whole different experience. And I know, for me, it makes a huge difference in that replic retaining that information. Definitely, absolutely.
Michael Goria:You know, as we try to engage more people in fan, how do we engage retailers vendors that are outside of our area, so maybe that are on the east side of the mountains or are you know, in the south, you know, far south end of Washington, how do we get them involved? I mean, where's the value for them? I mean, it's hard to come to a happy hour but certainly maybe the more Market Expo or the golf tournament would make sense.
Teresa Legler:Yeah, that's definitely been something we've struggled with even North End versus South End. I know. You know, it can be a challenge, we have several North End dealers that with traffic the way that it is, it's hard to find the time or the the desire to sit in that and make it down for those, that's always a struggle, trying to beef up the resources that we have available to them to provide a value that maybe doesn't require them to go anywhere. Things we've toyed around with in the past is having more training online resource wise it or as we're doing demos or dinners, we should be recording and putting those up for people to view later. They can't make it to those kinds of things, I think the more resource we can offer, that just increases the value that we can provide to any of our members regardless of where they're at. And then honestly, getting people who will volunteer and host things in other areas, whether it be a happy hour on the north end or a happy hour on the deep south and to kind of get some of those people in and just figuring out new ways to engage people who are outside of the typical bubble that we work within.
Michael Goria:Great.
Holiday Van Erem:I want to get a little personal now. Theresa, why did you decide to get involved with FAN? What was the catalyst for you to say, You know what, I am going to do more than just attend events. I'm going to be a board member. And I mean, now you're serving as president. So what is the reasons behind you wanting to do those things?
Teresa Legler:You know, it's funny, because I got a call from Mike Erickson, who was one of our past presidents one day and he said, Hey, we had somebody offer up your name as a potential candidate for the board. I still to this day, do not know who that was. flattered to be asked. And so just having been in the industry, for as long as I have been, I thought it would be a really cool new way to involve myself and do something a little bit different. And I'm just naturally one of those people that likes to be involved and do stuff. Anyways, FAN is not the only board that I'm a part of I like to do, probably more than I should. But I also like being part of seeing where we're going, what we can do. Some of my favorite things are just to go to these events, like I said, and see people I haven't seen in 10, 15 years, and reconnect with them. And if I can continue to help provide that platform for our incoming and growing board members, I'm happy to do that. It's exciting for me, and to keep the next generation of people excited about wanting to be part of fan and growing through our organization.
Holiday Van Erem:So what different positions have you held? Or what committees have you been a part of?
Teresa Legler:When I first started, we were doing a young professionals committee to try to get some of the younger people engaged and fan and get them excited about just the flooring industry in general, because it's not sexy. It's not, you know, it's not a glamorous,
Michael Goria:woah woah.
Holiday Van Erem:that's why Michael got in.
Teresa Legler:You know, it's flooring, and it's a necessity. And it's something it's providing great job security for all of us. But there's ways to make it fun and to get them engaged. And through the years. I've been on that one. But then I've also kind of helped with a lot of the other events. And I've been secretary treasurer. I was vice president last year, and I'll be president this year. So I've kind of gone through the full evolution of the progress through the board.
Holiday Van Erem:Once you're in you're in
Michael Goria:That is true
Holiday Van Erem:But Michael, How'd you manage to get out? So we secretly have deep roots in our association. Yeah, we both do. It's interesting, one of the
Michael Goria:We do. questions. I think that's good for the listeners is if they want to join a committee, or even the board is can you give them an idea of the amount of time it takes I think a lot of people are hesitant, because they go I just don't have time. We all like you said earlier. I mean, we all have a ton of stuff going on and family life and professional life. But can you give people just a rough idea? I know it's different for every position, but kind of what a commitment would be.
Teresa Legler:Yeah, that's one of the great things about fan is it's not a huge time suck. You know, we have quarterly meetings, we have the events that obviously if you're on a committee planning an event, there'll be a little bit more time, but it's not like it's taking away a tremendous amount of time from your day job, you can generally find the time to squeeze it into put in, you know, honestly, sometimes I would say I'm putting in a couple of hours a month when we don't have an event going on, especially when it's happy hour months, because really the vendor who's decided to host that is the one taking on the main responsibility. And we just get to show up and smile and shake hands and, and network with people. So it's not as time consuming as someone might be concerned about. But you still get to be involved and get to do all the fun things and it's just not a real burden to try to squeeze it into your schedule.
Michael Goria:You know, people are so concerned with their time and I get it. I mean, time is important. There's a valuable
Holiday Van Erem:Valuable
Teresa Legler:Time is money
Michael Goria:it's very valuable. The reward that you gain and the friendships and networking connections that you make I think are you know, really worth the time that you can put into
Teresa Legler:Oh, absolutely. I've developed relationships with people I would never have met if not for FAN
Michael Goria:Yeah, absolutely.
Holiday Van Erem:Uh Huh So, Michael, how did you get involved with the flooring Association?
Michael Goria:Yeah, I have. So I used to work for an importer. So I ran an import company for 14 years and sold distribution all over the country. But I was, you know, located here in the Northwest. And so I got involved, just go into the dinners, I attended most of the dinners, and of course, the golf tournament, and then the market Expo came about, and then I decided to join the board to participate. So it was just kind of a natural, you know, progression. What was a little weird for me is I was a vendor and an importer. And so I didn't know a lot of the retailers in the market because I didn't sell to retail I sold directly to distribution. So it was a great way for me to just make a lot of different connections in the flooring industry. It allowed me to learn a lot about the flooring industry, because it's not where I came from. And so it just little by little helped me build and get to know folks and I really enjoyed it. I mean, I just the memories from many, many golf tournaments. And like I said, the dinners at the Rainier Club, just really a lot of fun memories of being with a lot of great people.
Holiday Van Erem:And did you serve in any committees, or we just did your time as a board member?
Michael Goria:I mostly did my time as a board member. I'm trying to remember I know when I first started, I was on a couple committees, but it's been a long time.
Holiday Van Erem:But how much time do you think you spent, like participating in those meetings?
Michael Goria:A couple hours a month, were really you know, and I at the time, I was traveling a lot because I did sell all over the country. So that was what I had available was a couple hours a month and you know, I made sure to do my best to attend meetings but there was times I was in China or you know, across the country so they were very flexible. It wasn't a if you miss a meeting you're kicked out and and maybe you guys have changed under the rule of Teresa.
Teresa Legler:No, no
Michael Goria:The Iron Fist will know it's you know, you miss a meeting. That's okay. You get caught up, you get the minutes and and you keep working on what you're working on. So I found it very flexible. Yeah. How about you Holiday you've, you are now serving?
Holiday Van Erem:I am Yes, it has not been a full year I don't think of being on the board, if I remember correctly, because I took over for somebody who left because they left the industry. So I kind of came in not necessarily at like the beginning of a term. But previously, a long time ago, I used to volunteer on the Expo Committee because I'm in marketing and I had a radio promotional event background. So I used to do events all the time. And it was like I could help with just and it was just a lot of idea generation let's we're going to run through like what our plans are and let you tell us whether or not you think it's a good or bad idea. Maybe an hour a quarter I helped with that. And then I would come to the event and help like sign vendors in. It was easy, I already had to be there came in our early sign people in I've attended a lot of the events. before January, I've been helping with social media. So once a week, I will take whatever, flooring, asociation email that came out, pick something that's relevant out of it and put it on their social media pages, takes me like 15 minutes. And I'm already doing the thing. So it's like one more thing of the same types of stuff, I'm already doing that I just add to it. And then I'm going to be helping a secretary treasurer now.
Michael Goria:Okay, great,
Holiday Van Erem:so that could be a whole different boat. But
Teresa Legler:it's not. It's not
Holiday Van Erem:Again, you can tie these into things that you're already doing, or something that you want to learn more about, and I'm not as comfortable with money. And that is an area that I want to grow in. So I thought was a good opportunity for me to like, dive into it and help out with it, nobody's gonna die over the hill. So it's a great way to learn it is
Michael Goria:it is absolutely and again, that's how these committees or these these associations survive is people volunteering their time,
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah
Michael Goria:there is no paid. Unfortunately, there's no paid board member position,
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah
Michael Goria:it is your it's your giving of your time, to a community and an industry that you have passion for.
Teresa Legler:It's not paid. But I think there's a lot of value that
Michael Goria:absolutely
Teresa Legler:that we get out of it that is not something you can measure in $1 or, or a figure it's you know, it's an intangible that's, that's really worth it getting involved.
Holiday Van Erem:For those people who want to give back in some kind of way, this is a great way to help the industry that you're already in. There's lots of other ways to give back and all sorts of other areas in the world. But this is one that helps you right here at home in the working with all the folks that you normally work with and working with the folks in the industry that you want to meet and that you haven't met yet and you want to know more about it has definitely been valuable to me over the years.
Michael Goria:So the last question that I have is just how do we get more involvement? What what do we need to do from a community in a board standpoint to get more involvement?
Teresa Legler:That's a really great question and something we've been struggling with and trying to work on constantly as the board to figure that out. And I think some of that, like Holliday mentioned is coming naturally through progression out of COVID and people getting back to what their new normal is going to be and feeling comfortable going to events again. Like she said, Our membership is up which is a great thing. We're getting more and more attendance. At events, and I think it's continuing as a newer board this year, to figure out how to reinvent ourselves and how to make ourselves relevant to the industry as it is today and to what changes we see coming and to just really kind of try to stay at the forefront of that so that we are a place they want to come to and use as a resource.
Holiday Van Erem:I'd say invite a friend, if you're going to an event, invite a friend to come with you, if you're going to go to a dinner meeting, you're gonna go to the Market Expo, bring your team and you know, involve with them, even if it's just forwarding the emails that come out to more people on your team than just you talking about it and having it be more of a discussion that is constantly happening. We'll keep it at the top of people's minds.
Teresa Legler:Yeah, one thing I thought about on the way here today, you know, we have our awards dinner tonight. And in the past, and maybe it's been done differently before any of the time I've been involved. But it's always been a Who should we honor this year that's talked about in amongst to the board. And one of the thoughts that I had is maybe this coming year for the 2023 recipients that will recognize in 2024, it should be a member's vote, who are we missing in our our member groups that we should be honoring that we're not even thinking about? I mean, I selfishly nominated to one of the people I work with, and it's going to be a great way for me to get a bunch of people from my company, I think we have 15 plus people that are coming today to honor him once he receives the award. But maybe we should be opening that up to a broader audience and not just limiting it to our handful of board members to come up with those names to nominate for next year. Let's get more involvement. Let's look beyond just the couple of places that we would think about no, and I think that would generate because we're getting so many people that are coming just because of his nomination.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah,
Michael Goria:Right
Teresa Legler:where are we missing opportunities to recognize other people that would generate more interest outside of our normal little area?
Holiday Van Erem:That's a great point. And I think we really didn't talk about the awards dinner very much at all.
Michael Goria:Right
Holiday Van Erem:But it is a great way to have family members come and you know, be part of that with the people that are being honored. And you've got people from the company they work for in the you know, if they were a rep the stores that they used to visit. And it's just a really great way to say thank you to somebody who put a lot of time and energy into the industry, and get more than just the handful of people that always show up to dinner meetings are the same folks that come to the happy hours to broaden that scope a little bit more and make them feel really great about the time commitment that they made to the industry and the things that they did.
Michael Goria:I think the the awards dinner is is one of the really the coolest things that FAN does. Because there's a lot of people like Holiday just said who have put years into this industry and have really made a change in one way or another and there was not a lot of recognition, as we said in the pretty thankless industry.
Teresa Legler:pretty thankless industry.
Michael Goria:Yeah. So to recognize, you know, that individual is a top honor.
Teresa Legler:It's a first year for us, out of necessity to try to catch up from the COVID years, but we have three different people who are receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. And I don't necessarily think that needs to be just a one time this year thing, because I would guess that there's going to be multiple people every single year retiring out of the industry who have been impactful that we should be recognizing it.
Holiday Van Erem:Well, thank you so much, Teresa for spending some time with us today. I think we've taken up enough of your time. But I do want to thank you again for your help with the Flooring Association and everything that you've done for them over the years.
Teresa Legler:Thank you, Michael and Holiday. Thanks for having me on
Michael Goria:You bet Now it's time for walk the plank, the segment where we debate some ridiculous pet peeve that only flooring industry professionals would understand and can't decide on.
Holiday Van Erem:So Michael, like we mentioned earlier, we're recording this in January. It's going to air at the end of February. Yes. For the flooring industry. This is tradeshow season. It certainlyis. And honestly,
Michael Goria:CCA just happened last week.
Holiday Van Erem:Yes. I feel like it starts in November, actually, and runs all the way through probably March at the very least
Michael Goria:April event I think the BFA is in April most years.
Holiday Van Erem:Yes. So we thought since we talked about Flooring Association, we talked about their Market Expo might be a good time to just bring up the subject about trade shows. Do you attend them? Do you not? Are they worth it? Are they a bust? I don't know. So let's hash it out.
Michael Goria:Yeah, I have been to so many. And I've been to them. I guess I could say all over the world because I've attended Domotex in China many times. Are they worth it? I'm gonna say yes. But there's a lot of Asterix there. It's a challenge.
Holiday Van Erem:I think that it depends on who you are. I think there's a whole different subject about like whether it's worth it to pay for a booth space and be a vendor at one of these trade shows. I think that's a whole different story and we are not going discuss that. But just attending these shows, as an attendee, I think you're exactly right. It is not always worth it, it is worth it. If you have a very specific set of plans,
Michael Goria:Yeah
Holiday Van Erem:you follow through with it. And you get as much as you can out of the event. And I don't mean just tchotchkes and free stuff,
Michael Goria:which can be fun.
Holiday Van Erem:Exactly. I mean, if you don't come back with any of those, he might have wasted some time.
Michael Goria:I think it's also important to think about where are you as a company? What are your needs? What are your goals for that trade show, there's yours, you're right, it's not worth it. Maybe you already have the selections that you have for that year, the launches that you want to do. And you don't need to go see new products, maybe the economy is down, and it's just not worth your dollars to fly somewhere and stay in somewhat expensive hotels and spend the money on food. And you need to just go see your customers and have one on ones with all of your key accounts
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah,
Michael Goria:maybe more important that year?
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, that's true. Everyone, every show has a little different attendees and vendors, and it's, you know, different locations, and they're all over the place. Sometimes it's really not worth it to fly all the way to the east coast from the west coast for a few days, when you could wait a month and go to a different one and probably get the same effect.
Michael Goria:Well, I think you also have to be careful flying to the East Coast. Sometimes they're not well attended by West Coast customers.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah.
Michael Goria:And so you have to really weigh, who's going, Who am I going to be able to see there? And if it's all the way on the other side of the country, sometimes the attendance just does not make sense for you to spend those dollars.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, exactly. I'm gonna involv Toni, in this conversation, too, because there are trade shows outside of the flooring industry is shocking. I don't know if anybody knows that. And I know Toni and I, we've attended some together, do you think trade shows are a thing of the past with them being able to be on Zoom? And you know, do them virtually? Do you think it is worth going to and attending a trade show in person anymore?
Toni Collier:Well, I think it's a little bit too about your personality, I think the objective of the trade show or event is important. If you're going like you said to go see specific products, or if you're hoping to launch things or make better relationships with people at, that will be in attendance. That's important. And I think it's worth the money in those cases. But the ones I typically have gone to have an education component to it.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah.
Toni Collier:So in that case, it can be helpful to be in person. But if there's a zoom one, Zoom can be just as effective. But then you lose the networking options there. And there's always, you know, some sort of a Expo Center where you can talk to vendors and things. So the one that I'm like thinking about is a marketing b2b conference that we went to.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah
Toni Collier:I am a person who goes to these specifically to learn, and I don't really care about the networking side of it.
Michael Goria:Right
Toni Collier:You know, I ended up talking to a handful of people where they'll approach me based on questions I asked at the seminars and things and that's fine. But someone specifically asked what I thought about the networking. And did I think there were a lot of excess companies there. And I was like, I didn't really talk to anyone. I'm not there to sell my product. I'm just, you know, in sales support. And so I'm not networking with people to sell our flooring.
Michael Goria:Right
Toni Collier:And in those types of events. Now, the FAN Market Expo, that's, that's a totally different deal. There's some educational opportunities, but we're not necessarily, you know, at 9 to 11, you're in this course or, you know, seminar to learn about a specific thing. It really is more of a networking and product focus show. Yeah, I mean, and that one, I think is totally worth it. If you're in the area, or a reasonable distance from it. It's free to attend. So as long as you have the time and bandwidth to make it there, even, you know, for an hour, I think that is totally worth the time.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah. Okay, Michael, I want to ask specifically about Surfaces,
Michael Goria:Okay
Holiday Van Erem:because I think that of all the trade shows that we all go to, that's the one that people probably are most familiar with, and have either attended or thought about attending.
Michael Goria:Yeah.
Holiday Van Erem:Do you think that Surfaces is still worth attending?
Michael Goria:It's getting tougher. I don't know that it's something that we need to attend every year. I certainly don't think we need to send a large group of people every year. There's less and less selling done at Surfaces and more done ahead of Surfaces and even after Surfaces where you can go directly call on customers one on one, get Surfaces orders, maybe you have Surface promotion still which we certainly have going on right now. And so I yeah, I don't know, I don't know that Surfaces will be something we attend as heavily as we have in the past.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah I feel like there was definitely a time and place where that was the must attend event. Everybody needed to be there. It was a huge deal and I think I think maybe even just over the last five years,
Michael Goria:Yeah
Holiday Van Erem:it seems to be less and less important to people. And I wonder how much of that, though, is that the majority of the folks in our industry attending have been so many times at this point that they just cannot imagine going, again, that they've just aged out, almost have that trade show. And we don't have a lot of focus on sending younger folks and promoting younger folks within those companies and our own organization to go instead of the folks that would normally go who are so done with it?
Michael Goria:Well, I think it's some of the vendors who are now choosing to go direct, and don't have distribution. Um, you know, that's where we used to put a heavy focus
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah
Michael Goria:on sales is is trying to, you know, get sales while we were down there.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah.
Michael Goria:Being that that's changed in the market has changed. I think that you're right, I think they will see less and less attend surfaces.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah. And I feel like, there are certain companies who hold their own events a month ahead of time.
Michael Goria:Yeah
Holiday Van Erem:So it just, I feel like we're not the only ones who probably feel that way. There's definitely less and less reason for distributors to show up, I think,
Michael Goria:yeah, unless you're going to so I would think the one way you would want to do it is there is distributors that go down and rent a ballroom space. Yeah. And show new product and they have customers come by and they have, you know, heavily discounted or likely incentivized, you know, sales, you know, products to sell.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah,
Michael Goria:that if you want to do that now it it costs, it is not cheap. But I have personally experienced, you know, distributors that have been in the past that do very, very well. So, you know, that could certainly change. It's always changing. But COVID I think did show people maybe I don't need to go to Surfaces every year, maybe I go every other year, every third year, and that way, it's a little bit fresher or new.
Holiday Van Erem:And when was the last time that you went to NWFA
Michael Goria:i went to NWFA in 2019 was the last time I went so the year before the pandemic. Obviously, the pandemic hit into NWFA is the national wood flooring association. So it's heavily wood focused, it is wood focused.
Holiday Van Erem:Does it have another focus
Michael Goria:it is it is wood, and it's a great event for those who are who have a heavy focus on wood. There's a lot of education around it. There's a ton for installers, even contractors a little bit but more more. So installers and hardwood distributors.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah,
Michael Goria:really benefit from going and certainly hardwood manufacturers that's that's who would benefit going to NWFA the most
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, well. And there's a lot of also local regional shows like IDA has lots of different regional events that they put on and things like the market expo where there's smaller organizations that are putting on events, I think those are the way to go. If you're gonna go to a trade show, I think there's more value in the smaller local shows now than there is on the large national shows.
Michael Goria:Yeah, it was funny. I was talking to a rep of ours in Hawaii, and there's actually a Hawaii Flooring Association.
Holiday Van Erem:Oh is there?
Michael Goria:I did not know that. And they're doing a get together this Friday. And there's I think about 20 people he said attending and I just didn't know that there was a Hawaii Association. But I thought that was great.
Holiday Van Erem:Toni, are we a member? Have we ever ?
Toni Collier:I'm not paying for it.
Holiday Van Erem:We put on our own show in Alaska every year we have our own trade show that we put on we do our Alaska summer Surfaces feel like it's usually in May it's been you know, hit or miss as to whether it'll always be May, but about that time from every year. And that's always been really well attended to it's again, like a time for them locally to get together and see each other.
Michael Goria:Yeah, and I've had a great experience doing that I got to go when I first started at T&A, and what a great opportunity to get to go meet so many customers in a short amount of time and, and that's where I'll say trade shows can be worth it, whether local or even national is to go and meet people.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah
Michael Goria:Especially if you're new to accompany. Maybe you get to go meet more of those specific customers and get to really establish some relationships because there is a lot of time to network. I come from more of the sales side of the business. And so networking has always been extremely important for me.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, I hate networking. I do not like to meet people.
Teresa Legler:here here.
Holiday Van Erem:I would rather not meet people I always meet people I wish I hadn't met.
Michael Goria:So do you think there's value so a story I have one of the best trade show experiences I ever had was actually NAFCD which I know you've you've attended
Holiday Van Erem:I actually love NAFCD
Michael Goria:so do i so I was selling distribution all over the country and and having a really hard time outside of the Northwest because of course I didn't live here. So I was at a networking event and there was a distributor from this area that we were playing pool and a couple more distributors that they knew came over and we started to play pool. And at one point, I remember standing back and I was like, I'm playing pool with eight different distributors. This is awesome. And I got to know them and we were having beers and just getting to enjoy the evening. And it was like, I definitely made contacts that night. That turned into business.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah.
Michael Goria:So that was an absolute home run for me at that stage. And where I was,
Holiday Van Erem:yeah,
Michael Goria:I mean so certainly there was some payoff there.
Holiday Van Erem:I love NAFCD, like I just said, but I have always felt like the education portion of that event is fantastic. They do a really good job. I always feel like I come away with so much information. And then I think the trade show part that they do is nice, too. It's much shorter. It's like a little evening intro thing. And then a whole day, the next day, I usually don't need the whole day, the next day, I usually fly out pretty early. But this past year, I feel like I got more out of the trade show than I had previously. Because I had set a whole set appointment list of people I needed to go see at very specific times. And I didn't feel like it was just kind of floating around just looking around for things. I had very set things I needed to do. So I think going back to my statement from the very beginning, if you have an agenda, yeah, then you can definitely make it worth it for you.
Michael Goria:Absolutely. So in NAFCD, North American Floor Covering Distributor, yes. Is is the acronym there. It's a great event, because it's vendors and distributors. And so it's a smaller show. We're very focused on just vendors and distributors. And you really get to network with a lot of other distributors in the market, you know, also with some vendors. So I agree with you the education that's come out of that show has been the best I've ever experienced.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah. And I think we can promote one more time, selfishly this time about the Market Expo. Come see T&A supply and Pacific Matt, at the Market Expo
Toni Collier:we've got some fun things in store this year.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah.
Toni Collier:So please
Holiday Van Erem:you're really going to enjoy our booth spaces. So come by and see us
Michael Goria:make the time
Holiday Van Erem:Yes, please do. It's free. We've mentioned this several times. There's food drinks. The most awkward thing to me is the people that walk around with appetizers,
Michael Goria:when do you grab?
Holiday Van Erem:When do I grab? What do I want? What's in that? For me It's very complicated. What is in that is there, I'm just gonna pass and then they're offended if you don't take anything, or they never come by you. There's only
Michael Goria:so hungry like
Holiday Van Erem:it's it's always a long day for vendors. But the market event has always been a great event. from way back when it was up north
Michael Goria:Yeah
Holiday Van Erem:to some kind of the in between years. I think the Bellevue location has been really good for a long time, considerably smaller the last couple years, but I think it was a really great last year, it was just the ballroom, you felt like everybody's in one spot. You're not spread out all over the hotel. And I think that this year is going to be very similar layout. And I think it's going to be really well worth it.
Michael Goria:Awesome. That's great.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah. Especially if you come by the teenage supply booth.
Michael Goria:Yes. Come join us.
Holiday Van Erem:Yes. Can't miss us right inside the main door.
Michael Goria:We'll make it worth your while.
Holiday Van Erem:Mm hmm. All right, Michael. Well, I think that I'm gonna put a poopoo on national trade shows and a star on regional smaller shows.
Michael Goria:I'm gonna give the national shows a pause and promote your regional shows.
Holiday Van Erem:Well, that sounds good. And I'm glad that we're in agreement on that. And I think that's the end of the show. What the Floor is a T&A Supply Company original production. You can find out more about us at tasupply.com or tasflooring.com.
Michael Goria:This show is produced by Jose Morales with help from Toni Collier and Jessica Riser, hosted by holiday van Erem and Michael Goria.
Holiday Van Erem:Tell us what you think of the show. We love to hear what you think of the show. track us down send us an email wtfpodcast@tasupply.com Hashtag with the floor podcasts on social media. If you have our phone numbers just text us Hey, mostly like tell us that we did a good job and everything was great. sounded so good this time. I mean if you have other things to say you can do that too but
Michael Goria:We take criticism
Holiday Van Erem:We do mostly that's what we end up taking. What the floor 2023
Michael Goria:That's right. Let's do it.