Spring and SUmmer NTCA Workshop tour:
NH Tile Distributors, LATICRETE, Syverson Tile & Stone
NH Tile recently hosted a NTCA Workshop at its Pembroke/Manchester, N.H. location. Eighty-seven people attended the event, which included NTCA training director Gerald Sloan giving a PowerPoint program and hands-on demonstration.
Regional director Jim Carlin, president of JJ Carlin Tile, from Freeport, ME., noted, "We ran over on time because the audience wanted to see more of the hands-on and cool tools!"
Some contractors drove two hours after work from Maine to attend the event, which included a good mix contractors, retailers and designers. Three New Hampshire contractors joined the association as a result of the workshop; Fowler Tile and Stone from Milford, AD Ceramic Tile from Marlboro, and Artistic Tile from Nashua.
The LATICRETE event, held at company headquarters in Bethany, Ct., had 58 attendees, including LATICRETE personnel, distributors, retailers and contractors. Ted Thomas from Allen Tile, a new NTCA member from the Cape Cod area, brought two of his employees. Maine contractor Bill Vincent drove over fou hours to attend. Connecticut contractor, Connecticut Stone Supplies from Milford joined at the event.
The great success of these two Northeast NTCA Workshops are prompting consideration of workshops in Massachusetts and Maine for 2009.
Syverson Tile & STone also hosted NTCA Workshops at two of its South Dakota locations in May: Sioux Falls, and Rapid City locations in May. Over 100 people attended the Sioux Falls event, with over 57 in Rapid City.
Kristi Myhrer, Rapid City branch manager from Syverson, said the group of tile setters, builders, sales people and architects and designers "appreciated Gerald's real-life experiences in the field and the hand-on demonstrations - to be able to actually see coverage on a tile." Myhrer also noted a "big interest in people becoming 'certified' at the CTEF courses. I've handed out probably 10 brochures on the classes to interrested parties."
The good response and turnout in a small region, "showed that this kind of training was long overdue in the area," Myhrer said. "We were so happy to have both experienced and new people to the industry get something out of the training. It reached a broad audience and everyone that attended took some knowledge home! We would - and plan on - sponsoring one again."
Another bonus was that Syverson was able to bring product reps together with customers to get their questions answered, according to Myhrer "We also saw an increse in the higher-quality setting materials being used. The Black Hills area has talented people in all of the building trades (including tile) and our housing market is growing unlike so many other places so we've seen an influx of people moving here from other areas where the markets have dropped significatly. It's hard to trust a new contractor of any kind to the area when you can't see their work or have anyone local to give you a reference."
Similar results were experienced by the over 100-crowd in the Sioux City location. "A blend of contractors, retailers, and distributors all showed great interest in new tools and products, new materials and the TCA Handbook, especially information about large format tiles," said NTCA's Sloan.
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