The International Car Wash Show 2023 - Las Vegas

Vegas First

We're fairly well traveled. At least, Mel is. After her stint in the Navy, living full time in England, biking across Crete, and moving all over certain portions of the country, it's a title that can be given confidently. We've never been to Las Vegas, though --- our Midwest dork factor comes out hard in places like this. Pasty skin in a swim up bar and marveling over a sixty dollar check for two drinks is definitely on-brand.

We were lucky enough to have a few good friends guide us around to some of the good spots. We spent a day hiking in Red Rock Canyon, hung out at the Pinball Hall Of Fame, and made the mistake of getting hot pot on the strip (don't do this. Really. Don't ever do this). I'm not going to expound anymore on the city, because you've likely all been here before and know everything I'm about to say --- but it was fun, overwhelming, and weird (some ways better than others). It was also really hard to get around.

Logistics

In addition to everything else, we learned a few very specific lessons in regards to trade show booth vendors. The biggest, and most important one being: Quadruple-check with your trade show booth vendors to make sure that they actually shipped their materials, even though they assured you multiple times over multiple weeks that the materials had actually, in fact, shipped.

We spent our very short layover scrambling on the phone with quick-turnaround vendors in Vegas to print some materials that should have been sent ages prior. We are now calling it a learning experience, but at the time, it was a little stressful.

While we didn't have a booth this year ourselves, we did help several of our customers with their content. It was fun getting to see this work firsthand on the show floor!

The People

Ah yes. People. The People. All of them! Most of them!

The most exciting part, for us, was getting to actually meet some of our customers in person for the first time. We've had these remote relationships for years, but having the opportunity to talk outside of a computer screen was refreshing and fun. Getting to hang out in a more informal environment and hear some of the stories, warts and all, of how they got started in the industry, what led them here, how they used their brains and brawn to build their businesses was extremely fascinating. There are so many different perspectives from so many different backgrounds --- it's really exciting to be part of such a diverse group of people!

Whether it was some of the older connections that we were checking in on, or brand new friends, it was worth the price of admission alone to get a better idea of how we fit in this industry.

What's Next for Us?

We're just continuing to grow. Exponentially. It's a little scary, to be honest.

The show in Vegas this year was a stepping stone for us --- some of the ideas and connections that we came away with have thrown some (friendly) wrenches into how we plan to approach the rest of the year and beyond. It's exciting to be home and, even moreso, to feel invigorated about what we want to prioritize in the coming months and year.

Keep an eye out for more updates --- we promise there's more behind our recent name change that meets the eye. And thank you to everyone who took the time to speak with us during this year's show! It was great meeting ALL of you.

Bye for now.