ISPA EXPO in only one word: Wow!

Gerry Borreggine Therapedic

ISPA Chairman Gerry Borreggine

Almost 110,000 square feet of exhibits, hundreds of displays and vendors, many industry leaders and one rock ’n’ roll band—all at one sparkling event. ISPA EXPO 2012 was an extraordinary success, according to those who attended.

If you attended the show March 14-17 in Indianapolis, I hope you shared in the success that so many enjoyed. If you weren’t among those in attendance, we need to talk.

You need to be at EXPO. Held every two years, this is a “can’t miss” event for the mattress industry. All the new ideas, the machinery, the materials, the styles, the relationships and the fruitful conversations—which seem to occur spontaneously along the way—combine to make ISPA EXPO worth every minute of being there. It doesn’t matter if you are—or aren’t—a member of the International Sleep Products Association. Everyone is welcome and everyone benefits.

I feel that I’m in a fair position to judge and critique EXPO. During my career, I have seen the show through the eyes of a retailer and then as a supplier and now as a mattress manufacturer. It has been valuable to me through every iteration of my career. ISPA EXPO has benefited me each and every time I have attended.

And now, in my position as chairman of ISPA, I look at it from yet another perspective.

For many years, I coached both of my children in youth athletics. Along the way, they would often come home with the same complaint: “Dad, why are you so much harder on me than you are on the other kids on the team?”

My answer was simple: “People are more critical about the people (or the things) they love, because they care more about them than others.” I love this industry and I care about ISPA. Both do good for people, like me, who make a living in the mattress business. As a spectator and participant in EXPO, I was happy with the results of being at the show. And, as a leader of ISPA, I was proud of my association’s success.

I hope to see you in 2014 at the next ISPA EXPO in New Orleans.

Gerry Borreggine is president and chief executive officer of Therapedic International and chairman of the International Sleep Products Association. He began his career in 1977 as an executive with sleep products retailer 40 Winks and joined Therapedic in 2003. Borreggine became active in ISPA more than 20 years ago when he was the first retailer asked to join the board of the Better Sleep Council, ISPA’s consumer education arm.

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