Nashville



RSSI C&S Exhibition
May 18-20, 2004
Opryland Hotel and Convention Center

Nashville 2004 Was Another Success

The 44th annual RSSI C&S Exhibition held at the Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville Tennessee May 19th and 20th was yet another success story. Continuing the "all-together" format established in 2001, railroaders and suppliers gathered to not only view and discuss new equipment and technology; but, also to talk about problems and exchange ideas regarding new products and improvements to existing products and/or services.

The 141 exhibiting RSSI member companies occupied 305 spaces and were kept busy by the 589 railroad, transit and government attendees. In fact, the comment was overheard "I was too busy - I didn't have time to eat". (Is this really a problem?) Again, our co-hosts deserve a big "thank-you" for their support of the Nashville exhibition. Mike Choat (CSX) and Gerry Sniffen (NS) again responded by bringing more than 200 C&S people from all levels of their respective railroad. The western railroads (BNSF and UP) as well as the Canadian railroads (CN & CP) registered more than 100 people. In total 1467 attended the 2004 Nashville show. A breakdown of attendance is shown elsewhere in this newsletter.

Another example of the "staying power" of the "all-together" format is there were over 1300 dinners served on Wednesday evening. This is truly a statistic that proves that the format is a win/win for all of the attendees.

The supplier to customer ratio of 1.46 to 1 is significantly better than most industry shows and is the envy of the industry associations. The goal is to achieve a 1.0 to 1 ratio. Will we make it in 2005 in Omaha?