National Petroleum News (NPN) has been the independent voice of the petroleum industry since 1909 as the opposition to Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. So, motor fuels marketing and retail is not just a sideline for us, it’s our core competency.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/230121
RETAIL OPERATIONS By KEITHREID The NACS Show/PEI Convention Saw Strong Attendance and Innovation NACS/PEI 2013 in Review A nother year and another NACS Show/PEI Convention has come and gone. The NACS Show took place Oct. 12-15 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. NACS has held an annual meeting every year since its founding in 1961, but it wasn't until 1976 that the meeting included a full-scale expo, which was part of the meeting every two or three years. The annual meeting became the annual NACS Show in 1993. The Petroleum Marketers Association of America has held its Fall Meeting as part of the NACS Show since in 1995 and PEI has held its annual meeting as part of the NACS Show since in 2002. Today, the NACS Show is rotated between three cities: Chicago, Las Vegas and Atlanta. For NACS/PEI 2013 the event was particularly strong and showcased the strength and vitality of the 10 NOVEMBER/December 2013 motor fuels and convenience industry. More than 22,000 attendees were at the show, which featured a record-setting 396,000 net-square-foot expo. Total attendance was 22,263, with 7,874 classified as "buyers" (retailers, wholesalers and distributors). This count includes Petroleum Equipment Institute buyer registration. Attendees from 63 countries were at the NACS Show, with total international attendance reaching 1,939 delegates. The size of the NACS Show exposition increased 4 percent over 2012, featuring a 396,000-plus netsquare-foot expo with 1,160 exhibiting companies — of which 195 companies were new to the NACS Show. Exhibitors also invested more in their NACS Show "spend" this year by increasing overall booth space (5 percent over 2012), onsite meeting space and show marketing opportunities. Extending the value of the expo to both retailers and exhibitors, the popular Cool New Products Preview Room featured 283 products and services, including from 52 firsttime NACS Show exhibitors. On the information and education front, the event featured three days of general sessions and 58 educational sessions. The educational sessions alone drew 12,000 attendees, averaging more than 200 attendees per session — the most ever recorded. Reflecting the growing international scope of the event, the general session was translated into Portuguese, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese and select educational sessions were translated into Portuguese and Spanish. New this year to the NACS Show were three evening networking events. Replacing the traditional welcome reception, approximately 2,000 show attendees joined their peers at the NACS Show KickOff Party at Atlanta's Restaurant Row on Saturday, Oct. 12. On Sunday and Monday, two evening events took place immediately following NACS Show expo hours and attracted more than 2,000 attendees each: the NACS Show Tailgate Party and Convenience in Motion — 2014 NACS Show Launch Party. Further enhancing networking and peer-to-peer interactions at the NACS Show, participation in the Ambassadors program increased 13 percent over NPN Magazine n www.npnweb.com