RVBusiness, March/April 2019

on the general sentiment regarding RVX a market development event that tends to be less about cash and carry show sales and more about selling the camping lifestyle primarily through an unprecedented multimillion dollar media campaign conceived to build consumer awareness during the selling season while driving new customers to dealerships from coast to coast Well were going to be looking at all of the numbers from the show said Crawford who thinks that more dealers will wake up over time to the benefits of attending RVX Aside from the feedback we received on site well be issuing a post show survey to both exhibitors and attendees Well be following up with our board and measuring the impact of the media and well probably be ready to go to market with San Antonio in the next two or three months A lot of the feedback is that they love the show in general she added There was nothing that they hated They loved the Reveal and the Top Tech Challenge Education was great and well be assessing everything and measuring results with the media and Crestview RV Center President and RVDA Chairman Mike Regan For what they RVIA wanted to accomplish I think they knocked it out of the park with the media and the Reveal and the networking Whats missing is dealer participation Thats a disappointment and something they need to look at but Im not sure youre going to get a lot of dealers with a lot of staff people here because this is a busy time of the year for every dealer Its right in the middle of our show season and were trying to kick off our main selling season Otherwise some of the manufacturers hit it out of the park by embracing new technologies and new products They certainly didnt come to sell anything but to showcase new ideas and we need to get all of the manufacturers on that same page Grand Design RV President CEO Don Clark The new RVX Show was a good platform in that it The RV Womens Alliance held a kick off event in conjuction with RVX Organizers encouraged members to support each other how dealers are finding success with the Tool Kit So again this is not a three day show Its not a one and done Its going to be a perpetual market push Hugelmeyer referring to the whole RVX transition also said modifications are to be expected for 2020 Making a change like we did with going from Louisville to RVX to me the greater risk would have been staying in the old model said Hugelmeyer And that was a risk not only for the association but it was a significant risk for the members because they would not see value If you are running an association and to me this is key if the rate of change impacting your members is greater than the rate of change within the association you risk irrelevance Therefore were right now trying to keep pace at the RV Industry Association with the rate of change that is impacting our members and I think were doing a good job of that now Thats going to make us more valuable he continued Were going to create more value for our members and more opportunities for the industry and were going to grow the market cap so that theres opportunity to grow Were not going to pick the winners and losers people are going to figure out how they play within that expanded market cap but thats what were building here right now and thats what RVX represents RVB Newmar debuted its Personnel Lift at RVX a patent pending mechanism that provides assisted egress to and from a motorhome Reflections on RVX 58 RVBusiness M A R C H A P R I L 2 0 1 9 created a lot of excitement and reached out to non traditional RV outlets and news media that we havent really been successful reaching before But I also think everyone manufacturers suppliers dealers RVIA RVDA has learned from the show Anything new needs tweaking and its simply a matter of fine tuning things here and there My hats off to Frank Hugelmeyer and the show committee for pulling it off Thetford Corp Vice President of Sales Marketing Mary Pouliot a member of RVIAs Trade Show Events Committee The show was awesome The layout was wonderful very intimate I was telling folks that I talked to more people at this show than I ever did in a week at the Louisville Show The amount of media that was here and the exposure for all of us has been fantastic What well see now is how that media coverage carries forward so we can get more dealers here next year Forest River Inc GM Doug Gaeddert a former RVIA chairman RVX was a great industry effort to shift paradigms and shake things up from 50 plus years of tradition first class as to overall planning and execution on RVIAs part Obviously though we had feedback that varied greatly and from a pure cost versus benefit analysis its probably tough to justify at this point as an OEM without any changes as it was in the same ballpark as a Louisville from a cost standpoint and the benefits are mostly intangibles As to the future Im sure there will be countless conversations around the industry over the next few weeks It will be interesting as to what the results are and how we continue to improve as an industry together RVB Brandon Galbreath of D N RV Service in Guntersville Ala retained his title as champion following the 2nd Annual RV Technical Institute Top Tech Challenge