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The National Ice Carving Association was excited this year to host its Trade Show in the biggest convention city in the world, beautiful Las Vegas. After some talk of hosting the show there at the poker table last year in Boca Raton, Florida and Ryan McDougall's willingness to offer has host, this became a reality. There was a little hesitation this year, because of the industry downturn, but we stayed the course and produced another fantastic show. It was important for us and our membership to move this show around to different areas, so that everyone has an opportunity to join, learn and network.
We had close to fifty attendees, with international guests from Mexico, Canada,Denmark and people traveling from 16 different states. This years focus was on “The Business of Ice” which was a topic on everyone's mind. We took some suggestions from previous years attendees and recruited many new speakers, some of whom were not tied to the Ice industry. This gave many of our attendees a unique perspective and new way to look at their own business practices. A big thank you to the Las Vegas Score chapter who helped make many of these presentations possible. If you don't know about SCORE, Google them, there is probably one in your area that is willing to help you out your small business, and the best part is it is free! We also had the special pleasure of a presentation from one of the Nations premier party planners who gave some great insights and tips on how to sell ice at events.
Ryan McDougall's presentation on “Portable Ice Lounges” was another crowd favorite, with lots of great pictures and valuable information, thanks Ryan for being so open with your information. Other highlights included a drawing seminar titled “"How to conquer the fear of drawing to release your creative ice sculpting potential" led by Paul Germain of the Academy of Ice Carving and Design and Mark Davis an instructor at the Le Cordon Bleu presentation on Ice food displays. If that wasn't enough, Ken Burkemper of Ideas in Ice gave everyone some much needed tips and new ideas for booths at bridal shows and Dean Carlson gave a us a positive perspective in a bad economy.
At the reception on Monday night we inducted three new members to the hall of fame. Glen Motley, George O'Palenick and Vivat Hongpong. Glen was present to accept his award and he was truly touched by the honor of being inducted in the NICA Hall of Fame. Congratulations and thank you to all of this years Hall of Fame inductees.
After the Hall of Fame presentation, the raffle was next and everyone was at the edge of their seats. This year Dean Carlson and Ben Rand of I-Sculpt stepped it up and donated one of their new Trim-Saws as the big prize of the night. Last years donation of a Clinebell Machine by Mike Clinebell of Clinebell equipment helped us reach a milestone of $10,000 in the scholarship and education fund and this years list of prizes were sure to get us well on our way to $20,000! The Trim Saw ticket was pulled at the beginning of the raffle so that everyone had an equal chance at winning, but the final winner was not announced until the end. Mark Tempel of Alexandria, VA was the lucky winner of the Trim Saw. Many other great prizes were won, thank you to all those who donated. Please support those who support us.
We then ended the Trade Show with a field trip and tour of Mandalay Bay's own Ice Lounge Minus 5. A big thank goes out to Julian Bayley and Ryan McDougall for making this possible. For those who don't know this Julian and Ice Culture built this Ice Lounge. It was a first for many atttendes to visit an Ice Lounge and a good time was had by all. It was truly a fitting end to another great Trade Show. Don't miss an opportunity to increase your knowledge and business network by attending a NICA Trade Show.
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