Hearthlist Digest #128 - Friday, April 3, 1998 EXPO in St. Louis by "Larry James" <[email protected]> Shell Oil says Yes to Wood and Gas and Renewables by "Craig Issod" <[email protected]>
(back) Subject: EXPO in St. Louis From: "Larry James" <[email protected]> (by way of Craig Issod) Date: Thu, 2 Apr 1998 22:44:17 -0400 Some more thoughts on HPA's EXPO. Am I the only one, or does the trade show getting shorter this year instead of longer make sense?. There are more booths to see, more education sessions to go to, and more meetings for affiliates, committees, caucuses, etc. than ever and it is being crammed into a shorter period of time. I know that this year I hurried a lot more around the show floor and did not get to see things in the leisurely manner I normally have. I missed seeing some of the booths I normally visit and talk to every year. I had to skip some of the education sessions that I would have liked to have gone to otherwise because of the lack of time. Did any of you other retailers who like to do more than go and look at 10 booths find you were shorter on time this year? I would vote for making Monday a full day instead of dropping it, and I always thought that it would be the logical progression as the show got bigger and bigger every year. Can we get some responses posted to Hearthlist on other's opinions to see if anyone else felt the same? I also was not impressed with St. Louis as a host city for the HPA EXPO. I think maybe I have gotten spoiled with some of the good places the show has been like Reno, but the downtown area was kind of depressing in St. Louis. It was somewhat inconvenient to have the burn area split up and crunched together in the space allotted. I was very impressed with the great job Susan Kalish did with the educational sessions. Big applause to Susan and the education committee for the hard work done to bring such good seminars to the show. I too have noticed that sometimes the companies have people working their booths who will not give you the time of day, even when they are not busy. I would go into a booth and they would all be sitting around a table talking to each other, and I would have to interrupt someone after standing there for a couple of minutes just to get a question answered. How about giving these people some lessons on customer service? Even if their normal position with the company does not require them to utilize this skill in their day to day jobs, when they go to work the booth at EXPO I assume they went to all that work and expense to interact with the dealers, not each other. From talking to the new Aladdin Hearth Products team, I think there will be all good things from the new merger. I guess after some of the experiences that I have had after companies changed ownership, I am always full of trepidation when it happens to another of my major suppliers, but in this case it looks very positive. I was very impressed with the new Sapphire gas products from Dovre and with them now being under the umbrella of Aladdin Hearth Products I think they will become hot sellers. We know that Aladdin is committed to exclusivity and hearth specialty dealers so this will be a nice improvement on the distribution of the Dovre line. Their quality product with the support of the Aladdin team should make for a product that is hard to beat. My 2 cents worth. Larry James High Country Stoves & Chimney Keepers Laramie, WY [email protected]
(back) Subject: Shell Oil says Yes to Wood and Gas and Renewables From: Craig Issod <[email protected]> Date: Fri, 3 Apr 1998 09:21:40 -0400 Wow ! Even the big guys know that wood and gas are in for good times. Check the following: LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) - Anglo-Dutch oil and gas giant the Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD.AS) said on Friday ``renewable'' energy sources such as wind and solar could be supplying half of the world's energy by 2050 and that carbon emissions could start falling after the millennium. He said that world energy needs would continue to increase as population grows and living standards rise, but that energy efficiency would improve faster in future. ``Shell planning scenarios suggest that the continuing changes in fuel supplies and increasing efficiency could mean that carbon emissions start falling in the first half of next century,'' Moody-Stuart said. He said consumption of gas could double in the first half of the century because of its efficiency and cleanliness. ``Renewable energy sources -- wind, biomass and solar -- could be supplying a tenth of the world's energy by 2020, and half by 2050,'' he added.