Stone Show Changes Continue

Although 2004’s stone-industry shows ended last October, two competing shows continued to make news right up to the end of the year.
ITSS Expos, producers of the International Tile and Stone Shows, announced in December that the National Training Center for Stone and Masonry Trades (NTC) will develop and produce education sessions at the three events slated for 2005.
“We are extremely pleased that NTC has joined with ITSS to provide world-class educational seminars at all ITSS events in Las Vegas, Miami and New York,” says Richard Caires, ITSS president. “We offered our first seminars at ITSS-Las Vegas this past October, and the positive response warranted expansion of the program. NTC and its founder, Fred Hueston, are well-known in the industry with an excellent reputation for delivering the very best in educational programs.
“Mr. Hueston will structure a comprehensive series of seminars on important stone-related subjects deemed most interesting to attendees, and will bring together industry leaders as speakers,” Caires adds.
As with the original series at Las Vegas last year, all 2005 ITSS educational sessions will be offered free of charge to show attendees.
ITSS also received the backing in late November of the North American Stone Machinery Association (NASMA). The organization of capital-equipment companies endorsed the ITSS events in Miami and Las Vegas in 2005; the group previously endorsed the Las Vegas show last year.
NASMA includes AGM USA, Z. Bavelloni U.S.A., Breton USA, CMS/Brembana North America , EuroStone Machine/Pyramid Supply, International Machine Corp., Marmo Meccanica USA and Salem Stone.
Hanley Wood LLC, the new owners of the StonExpo event, literally made its first major move last year by changing the dates of the 2005 event from mid-November in Las Vegas to Oct. 20-22. The Dallas-based company, which bought the event from the StonExpo Federation last October, also announced that 2005 exhibitor rates will remain the same or possibly be lower than 2004’s schedule, with lower prices for large-volume exhibit space.
Hanley Wood also noted that a slate of industry groups would remain as official sponsoring organizations, including the Marble Institute of America Inc. (MIA), the American Monument Association, the Canadian Stone Association, the Elberton Granite Association, the National Building Granite Quarries Association and the Northwest Granite Manufacturers Association.
StonExpo 2005’s original dates of Nov. 10-12 would’ve overlapped ITSS-Las Vegas 2005 on Nov. 11-13. At Stone Business presstime, however, the ITSS Website showed the November 2005 dates removed for its Las Vegas events, with a note of “dates to be announced.”