The energy in Nashville at The Car Wash Show 2019 was palpable. This year’s Show was, in every sense of the phrase, the biggest Car Wash Show ever held.

Nearly 170,000 square feet of Trade Show Floor meant that around every corner, there were new ideas, new products, new connections and a seemingly endless number of people.

“The Show was great,” said Brian Bath from Innovative Control Systems. “We have been coming to it the last 10-15 years, and the shows have always been awesome. The support staff is awesome, too.”

More than 9,600 attendees were on hand for The Car Wash Show. This year, all attendees were invited to an opening night welcome celebration. “It was awesome,” said Bath. “It was different, as everyone gathered in the lobby [and outside the Music City Center] instead of on the show floor. There were lots of opportunities for people to mingle and talk.”

This year’s show featured several new opportunities for attendees. “We wanted to make sure that this Show continues to be a source of inspiration and energy for our attendees and exhibitors,” said Kim Vinciguerra, International Carwash Association Vice President of Events. “We are always looking at ways to enhance all of our event offerings. We’re excited about the success of this Show, but we’ll be trying more new ideas next year when we’re in San Antonio.”

New this year was the inclusion of member-only Peer Power Hours, available to members of ICA, AOCA, WCA, ACWA and BOVAG.

“I like this format with the panel of ideas and sharing real experience,” said Larry Nelson of Blue Cow Carwash in Washington.

One session that drew major crowds, no surprise, was a peer power hour focused on incentivizing employees in subscription sales. During that session, Mike Black, owner/operator of Valet Car Wash, shared how his washes climbed to 5,200 memberships in just three months.

“We put it on the manager’s shoulders,” he said. The competition between the sites was motivating and that they only reward the top three. They now consider themselves “a membership company that happens to wash cars.” He said they track everything now – even if a member goes to a competitor. As soon as they drive out of the car wash, they send them an email offering them an unlimited plan.

“It was awesome to hear their experiences specific to success,” said Erin Dreeszen of Autowash Showroom in Colorado.

For non-members, there were plenty of education opportunities on hand at The Car Wash Show 2019. Those with basic passes had access to all Quick Hit programming as well as all Partner Solution Sessions. If you had a premium pass, you gained additional access to the Premium Education Program, which featured high-end speakers across four distinct content paths to help focus your learning.

“We put a lot of energy into making sure that our education offering provided strong access for all show attendees,” said Claire Moore, International Carwash Association Chief Content Officer. “With the Premium Program, we went all in on helping operators tackle a specific content area like Marketing or Talent Management and were especially intentional about how that all worked together in sequence, with large scale Impact Sessions on the front end and with a Wrap Up Session at the end to help attendees take home actionable items to be immediately applied to their operations.”

Another new ad to this year’s show was the team of illustrators who were capturing ideas and key takeaways from both casual attendee interactions and education sessions via large visual boards on display during the show. The displays proved popular, as one attendee received the boards to put on display at their wash for the team.

Car Wash Hall Of Fame

Since 1962 International Carwash Association has been inducting individuals into its Car Wash Hall of Fame. At The Car Wash Show 2019 Tom Essenburg, CEO of Quality Car Wash, Tommy Car Wash Systems and Tommy’s Express Car Wash, joined the list of distinguished inductees.

“I am honored and humbled,” said Essenburg. “I’ve had many mentors over the years and many of them are in this room.”

Essenburg has spent the last 50 years visiting washes around the world, playing host to visitors at his business, sharing ideas, innovating in the industry, and building a company culture that is notorious for employees with long tenure. He’s been a major part of the advancement of the car wash industry and has done it all with great humility. “For us to be able to drink the water,” he said. “Someone had to dig the well.”

Tommy Car Wash Systems is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and Essenburg said, “In my whole 50 years, this is the most exciting time ever. I believe our industry is on the verge of a breakthrough.”

Best Booth Award

The Brian Campbell Best Booth Award celebrates the booth that is selected by attendees as their favorite during The Car Wash Show. This year, Sonny’s The CarWash Factory was the fan-favorite, repeating its win from the last time The Show was in Nashville in 2016

Sonny’s CEO Paul Fazio said that the recognition and award was a “nice surprise.” According to Fazio, the booth design was something they’d never done before and everyone was excited to see how it would look. “I am glad they won it,” he said. “The team worked really hard to bring this vision to life. Brian means the world to us and so does this award.”

Brian’s favorite booth feature? The signs. “I like the monster themes in the signs,” he said, with a grin that was wider than the ones used on the signs!

Annual Member Meeting

Over the past year, if you were to look at the highlights of what ICA has been involved in, there has been a common theme: “They are all in the theme of bringing people together,” said ICA CEO Eric Wulf during the Annual Membership Meeting.

Exciting, but not the only thing exciting in the car wash industry – especially lately. Have you heard about the new option on some Mercedes models? A car wash mode!

If someone needs help and is facing an issue that could potentially affect others in the industry, ICA is right there, too. For example, a car wash in Tennessee was fined more than $2 million over sales tax issues. “It was a material threat to the whole state,” Wulf said. ICA helped raise nearly $200,000 through the formation of a Tennessee chapter to help with the sales tax legislation. In the end, the battle was won and express car wash models in Tennessee are now legally exempt from charging sales tax.

The Annual Meeting is also when the new ICA President is introduced. Richard Enning, President of Mr. Wash will be leading ICA this year and bringing with him something no other ICA President has. “I am really proud to be the first European president of our Association,” said the Essen, Gemany based Enning.

Enning is excited about the opportunities available when the car wash community can come together and act as one. “We all face the same problems and issues, all over the world,” he said.

He pointed to the new car wash mode option for cars. While many users don’t yet know how to activate it, it is an incredible first step for car washes and manufacturers. “The ice is broken,” said Enning. “Now, we just have to rally together to melt it. I ask everyone to put up a sign, ‘Activate your car wash mode.’ If they don’t have this mode or don’t know about it, that will spark them to ask car dealers and manufacturers about it.”

That can activate an entire population of car wash ambassadors. “We can only create this kind of pressure as a group,” Enning said. “The more we can partner around the world, the stronger we are.”