Blog posts tagged with 'glass stemware'

I've finally had a chance to sit down and summarize our amazing week at The Rental Show 2013 which took place last week at the Sands Convention Center in gorgeous Las Vegas, Nevada.

Paris Hotel and Casino	Bellagio Hotel and Casino

Our trip began the day after a massive snow storm hit eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. Our home base in Toronto had more than 18 inches of snow while the Newark and New York City regions had 6 to 8 inches of the white stuff. While it wasn't snowing on Saturday, our departure was not exactly uneventful. Due to the massive storm, all of Friday's travellers were still in the airport waiting to depart. And planes that were normally in the air flying, were stuck on the ground under several inches of snow. After about five hours, which seemed like an eternity, our plane was finally brought to the gate and we departed snowy Toronto for sunny Las Vegas.

This year was our 8th year of exhibiting at the ARA Rental Show and we had our biggest booth ever. At 20ft x 30ft it was one of the larger booths in the Party and Special Event section of the show floor and we were right in the thick of the action. We were right beside Ben Shipper and his company EES (also known as Event Equipment Sales) from Chicago. Just a couple of booths away was another leader in our field, Palmer Snyder. Both of these companies are first class organizations that we are strive to emulate, both in the quality of our products and the level of our service that we offer. We spent all day Sunday setting up our booth so we could display all our products in the best light possible.

Ben Shipper visiting the NES Booth	Bill and Dennis Talking to Booth Visitors

During the 3 days of the Rental Show we saw many of our current customers and had the pleasure of meeting with many new people. Laura and Bruce from Allied Equipment Rental in Michigan were very pleased to see us again after missing last year’s Rental Show, and were interested in adding to their inventory of Tall Folding Cocktail Tables and Folding Counter Height Bar Chairs. We first met Bruce and Laura more than 2 years ago and they are seeing lots of customer interest in the NES Reliable Plastic Folding Tables and Chairs that they have in their inventory.

Early in this year’s show, a lot of customers told us about how impressed they were with the quality and durability of the products we have to offer. We have talked extensively about the weight capacity of our Resin Chiavari Chairs and regularly tell our Customers they will easily support 500lbs of weight. In December, we decided to put this claim to the ultimate test and placed more than 1,000lbs on one of our Silver Resin Chiavari chairs. The chair came through with flying colours. So we were very happy to have Brian from Handy Special Events in Saskatoon bring Shelby from Over the Top Tents & Events of Eagle River, Alaska to our booth to show him our Resin Chiavari chairs. Brian purchased our Gold Resin Chiavari chairs in the summer of 2011 and was so pleased with how they have performed for Handy Special Events, that he was selling our Resin Chiavari chairs to Shelby without any help from any of Bill, Diana, Jonathan or myself. What a great customer and product testimonial!

We also saw quite a few customers from California who were impressed with the quality of our new plywood folding tables. As many party rental customers know, California is a highly competitive market with many party rental suppliers in a race to provide the best and lowest possible price for their products. As they have aggressively reduced the sales prices for their products they have also been reducing the quality and durability of the products they sell such that many of them are no longer rental tough products.

With our bigger expanded booth we had a larger selection of our product lineup including all our newest table top items such as our Serenity Crystal Stemware, our Eclisse Wine Glasses, our new Polar White dinnerware line, our 3 different sized Wing Bowls and Sloped Bowls along with our tried and tested Quadrato and Ovali dinnerware lines. Having all of these products available gave our rental customers an excellent opportunity to check out what we have available and make decisions about adding these highly durable porcelain products to their inventory in the spring.

At times we were so busy in our booth, we had 2 or 3 customers waiting to speak with one of our 4 staff. It looks like we may need to seriously consider bringing another staff member for the 2014 Rental Show. If you weren't able to get to the show and you'd like to get a copy of our new catalogue, please fill out this form and we would be happy to send one out to you asap.

It's that time of year again. That's right, it's time for The Rental Show in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. The National Event Supply Trade Show Team managed to fly out of snow-bound Toronto on Saturday, only 5 and half hours later than they'd planned and got to The Sands Expo and Convention Centre to set up our booth. This year, we have the biggest booth we've ever had and it's filled with our fantastic NES Reliable Plastic Folding Chairs, our durable NES Wood Tables, and several new product lines like our Eclisse and Copa Glassware and our Polar White dinnerware. Our NES Trade Show Team will be on hand to help answer any questions that you may have and to show you all the great features of our many products. So, if you're in Las Vegas for the show, head on down to booth 4072 and talk to Dennis, Diana, Bill, or Jonathan and find out why you always win with National Event Supply!

We've been working on our website revamp for the past 3 months, and have finally managed to get things tested and up on our live site. We've gotten rid of the bright green sidebars from the previous version, and have updated the base to make the website more friendly for touchscreen based devices like the Apple iPhone and iPad, the Blackberry Playbook, the Microsoft Surface, and Android based phones and tables. With the new website framework, you'll be able to see larger pictures of our products by clicking on links or the picture itself. We think we've gotten most of the bugs out, but if you do run into any, please do let us know!

While we achieved our goal of making the website for touchscreen/mobile device, we're still in the process of making our website bilingual. We're currently working on putting together a French version of our website, complete with all the bells and whistles. Stephanie has put together translations of all of our website pages, and we hope to be able to launch the French version of the website by the end of February. We'll be updating our blog, our twitter feed, and our facebook friends when the French version of the site goes live.

As always if you're interested in a quote for any of our products, or you simply have a question, please feel free to drop us a line. Just as a reminder, February 18th is Family Day in Ontario, and as such we will be closed that day. Our Ontario-based shipping partners will also be closed that day, so if you are looking for products that week you may want to get your order in early.

As one of Canada’s leading Party Rental suppliers, we try to make sure that we have sales representation from coast to coast across Canada. To help us with sales representation we signed a strategic sales agreement with AE Sales Group 2 years ago which gives us sales coverage in western Canada (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Northwest Ontario) and with their partner Certified Sales we also get coverage for the Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and PEI. Every few months I get the chance to travel with one of the AE Sales team members to do some joint customer calls in various locations across Canada.

This past week I was once again in Vancouver, this time so that we could exhibit at the BC Foodservice Expo at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Since I was already in town I thought this was also a great opportunity to meet a few of our customers in the surrounding Lower Vancouver mainland area. Tony Shelling, one of the partners at AE Sales and I travelled throughout the Vancouver lower mainland area on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so we could meet with a few of our customers and in couple of cases to deliver a free NES Reliable Tall Folding Cocktail Table. Two weeks earlier we exhibited at the CRA BC Regional Show and for those customers that met with us at our booth with a post card that we sent our prior to the show, we were giving them a NES Reliable Tall Folding Cocktail Table for FREE. We had such a great response that we ran out of tables at the show and had to deliver a few this week.

The first customer we met with on Tuesday was with Peggy and Angie from The Rental Network in Squamish, BC. As Tony and I were meeting with Peggy and Angie, they were squeezing in a quick lunch and answering customer phone calls the whole time we were visiting which was almost 2 hours. They were pleased to hear that we are bringing in a new size of NES Wood Folding Table that is 8ft x 42 inches wide and we will be stocking it in Vancouver (as well as Toronto). The Rental Network have a bunch of tables that they have custom made that are 8ft x 40 inches wide that they call Harvest Tables. Tony and I saw their Harvest Tables and they are absolutely gorgeous.

On Wednesday we met with Shane and Kwin at Salmon Rentals who were interested in talking to us about our NES Reliable Resin Chiavari Chairs. Since we had just shown these chairs at the BC Foodservice Expo, Tony and I stopped by our Vancouver area warehouse (which is on Annacis Island) to pick up the sample NES Reliable Resin Chiavari Chairs to show Salmon’s Rentals. Everyone was impressed with how durable our NES Reliable Resin Chiavari Chairs are while still maintaining their traditional elegant look. Later in the day we then went to see the new showroom and warehouse location for Pedersen's Event Rentals. Pedersen’s were just in the process of completing their move from their old Burnaby location back into Vancouver where they had been 14 years earlier. The new location fronts right on the Fraser River and gives the Pedersen’s lots of room for more growth.

On Thursday, we were visiting a bunch of our Customers in the Port Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, Langley and White Rock. While we were in Maple Ridge, we stopped in to see Denise and Dave at Bob’s A to Z Rentals. Denise was ecstatic with how quick we were able to ship their order of NES Wood Folding Tables and NES Reliable Plastic Folding Chairs from our Vancouver warehouse in the fall of 2012. While thanking them for their business, Denise mentioned she was interested in seeing some of our Hotelier Dishes and our Eclisse Glass Stemware. In Langley, we stopped in to see the team at Turkey’s Party Makers to show them a range of our highly durable dinnerware lines with them being most interested in our Ovali Line as well as our newest Polar White Dinnerware line.

This was our 4th year of exhibiting at the BC Foodservice Expo and each year we see a few more of our Customers throughout the Vancouver region. Outside of Southern Ontario, BC has been our largest base of customers. Now that we have a physical warehouse presence in the Vancouver region, our customers are excited that they will be able to purchase a wide selection of our NES Plywood Folding Tables, NES Reliable Plastic Folding Tables, NES Reliable Plastic Folding Chairs, and NES Resin Folding Chairs. With their close proximity to our Annacis Island warehouse, many of them will be able to pick up directly from the warehouse while others will benefit from much lower shipping rates.

"Vancouver Skyline And Stanley Park" courtesy of Rosemary Ratcliff / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Last fall I gave you 5 reasons you NEED to go to The 2013 Rental Show in Las Vegas. With the show a week away I thought now would be the perfect time to list some booths that you should visit while you are at the show. Each of my selections focuses on a different aspect of the Party/Special Event rental sector. The first focuses on table top items, the second on tables and chairs, and the third on tents (aka making sure everyone stays dry).

The first booth to see is 10 Strawberry Street in Booth 3269. 10 Strawberry Street has established themselves as one of the leaders in table top with their catalog filled with a wide variety of items including flatware, dinnerware, platters, bowls, chargers, and glassware. They take pride in offering a diverse selection of product lines, from a variety of manufacturers, many of which have Special Events in mind. Many of their porcelain designs are unique in the market place which helps to separate your rental company from your competitors. Need another reason to stop by their booth? Last year Ten Strawberry Street had a pretty impressive booth, but for 2013 they went even bigger, 30 feet x 50 feet Big! That’s bigger than most houses, who wouldn’t want to see that!?

The second booth that you should check out is McCourt Manufacturing in Booth 3061. McCourt Manufacturing has been exhibiting at the Rental Show for more than a quarter of a century which definitely shows they have some great products. McCourt Manufacturing offers a variety of tables and chairs that are designed to withstand the rigors of the rental industry. Better still they are one of the last manufacturers that still make many of their products in the USA and do so while still maintaining affordable prices. The combination of high quality, affordable products with a great variety to serve your needs makes McCourt Manufacturing one of the booths to see at The Rental Show 2013.

The final booth that you should go take a look at is Warner Shelter Systems Limited in Booth 2865. Warner Shelter Systems Limited is a leading tent design and manufacturing company that makes both portable and semi-permanent tent structures. Their products range from the Peak Marquee Tents (pop up tents) to the GIGA-SPAN Series (clearspan structures). Founded in 1970, Warner Shelter Systems Limited has the expertise to help you with your tent needs.

Once you visit these three booths you may want to add some others to your list, don’t hesitate to stop by to see National Event Supply in booth 4072. If you can't make it to the show, why not request our catalogues? Simply fill out this form, and we'd be happy to mail you a copy of our latest catalogues.

This is the fourth year that we've exhibited at the BC Foodservice Expo. In past years we've seen a lot of cool things and met a lot of interesting people. This year we've been looking through the exhibitor list, the seminars, and other events that are being held and have picked out the three that we're most excited by.

The first thing that we're going to want to visit is the Coffee Roasters section located right beside the BC Chef's Association Hot Chefs Competition stage. Our Trade Show team is passionate about their coffee and I know they're going to want to explore that area and learn all that they can about the art of roasting coffee as well as sample the brews available. If you're passionate about your coffee, I'd highly recommend visiting the exhibitors and learning how good coffee can be. And if you need larger coffee mugs to serve your customers their morning caffeine jolt, we have you covered with coffee cups in 10oz, 16oz, and 20oz sizes. We also have cappuccino bowls.

Second on our list of things to see is the Winery and Microbrewery Section located right beside the seminar stage. Who wouldn't want to visit booths where you can sample some of BC's finest wines. And no one on the Trade Show team is going to say no to trying an interesting microbrew. If there's one thing the trade show team like more than good coffee, it's an ice cold beer. And if you happen to be looking for something to serve the wine in, we have our Serenity Crystal Stemware, our Copa Glass Stemware, and our Eclisse Glass Stemware. We also have beer glasses available in our Eclisse Line.

Finally, we highly recommend checking out the BC Chef of the Year Roasted Competition, The BC Chinese Chef of the Year Competition and the Hot Competition! Junior Chef Challenge. I have to admit that I spent an inordinate amount of time watching the Food Network over the Christmas Holidays (12 hour Iron Chef America Marathon? Don't mind if I do!). This is just like the Food Network, only live! We've been lucky of the past couple of years and our booth has been right next to the stage so we've been able to see a lot of the competition. If you need a break from visiting booths and are interested in seeing top chefs' techniques and meal ideas, this is an incredible way to spend some time.

If you're at the show, we hope you'll stop by our booth (138 & 140) and take a look at our products. We'll be showing off Polar White which is an incredible dinnerware line which we've just introduced. In addition, we'll have our other dinnerware and flatware lines available for viewing. Hope to see you at the show!

Coffee Cup Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net