Pennsylvania Roundtable

[John T.]

It looks like the PA folks will get there Roundtable up and running for sometime late February. I will give further details sometime next week as soon as I get them.

Stay tuned.

[aph111]

Did it ever get put together??

[John T.]

It came close and I know Tom Vogel from PA is very interested in hosting it. Give him a call.

[jnoden]

I am from PA and although I am fairly new to the business, I would be interested in the round table. How do these work and what is usually discussed?

[ReflectiveClean]

Round tables are a geat way to gain knowledge in your service based business. I started in this business as a window cleaner and joined the International Window Cleaning Association (IWCA). In attending thier conventions, I have always found that I learned just as much at the round tables as I did the seminars. As my business is growing, and I am expanding into pressure washing, I have been attending the local PWNA chapter meetings or round tables in NJ. I have walked away with some sort of new information after every meeting... whether it be from a vendor that was there speaking about his/her products/services, networking with the other pressure washers in your regional market or watching the equipment demonstrations.
The last meeting that I attended was the NY meeting. A vendor for the Wadu soda blasting gave an informative talk on the possibililties of adding on to your business...graffiti removal, paint removal, and how soda blasting is environmentally friendly. Robert Coles spoke about websites...the need for one, what you would want to include in the site, and the most cost effective ways to have one built by a professional. I got there late. So, I missed most of the Cabot sales rep's discussion, but it sounded like it was good, too. Overall, I felt that it was worth the two hour drive to get to the meeting. As with everything in life, "what you put into it, you will get out of it".
Marino Ortega
A Reflective Cleaning Co.

[John T.]

Basically a roundtable can be started by anyone. They can be PWNA sponsored such as the one I held in NY last week or they can be a group of Powerwashers that have no affiliate to anyone but are there just to share and learn a few things from each other.

You can start one on your own by calling/e-mailing/snail mailing/faxing people and announcing on bulletin boards about a roundtable. You can also look for people that may want to do some speaking so they can give some info to the people at your roundtable. You of course have to find a place where to have a roundtable or maybe you can find a local distributer like I did and have them host it with you. Also you can charge accordingly so you don't lose money doing this. The going rate for attendies is in the neighborhood of $15-$25 where in that price they get food and drinks and tons of info which is priceless!! On my Roundtable I raised about $300+ and to host it cost about the same. So it was a push. I may have even paid a few bucks out of pocket to get this to work but usually it shouldn't cost you much at all. We also raffled off donated prizes such as a 5 gal all purpose cleaner along with one year subscription of the "Cleaner Times" and a few other goodies. It was alot of fun.

If your interested in having a PWNA sponsored roundtable you will need to get a member or 2 to help you host it. That is why I suggested to give Tom Vogel a call from PA because he is a PWNA member and he is well known and respected in our Industry. The people at Cleaner Times Magazine know Tom and they had nothing but nice things to say about the man.

Basically to get a roundtable started its just like throwing a party where someone has to do the planning and inviting and you will be surprise at how many people show up and how far they will travel to get more knowledge and education and on top of that they are NETWORKING with each other. A great experience!!!

[jnoden]

Sounds like a great idea Tom. It would really work out well for me to join a roundable just for the wealth of info that is exchanged alone. I only started powerwashing last year. I am not yet organized enough to actually initiate one however I would like to attend one. I will try to give Tom a call down the road. Thanks for your response.

[jnoden]

sory I meant john not Tom