At Long Last NACS

As we all know, the tragedy and devastation that Hurricane Katrina brought to New Orleans in late August ground that city to a halt. And while that great city begins to rebuild, all events — including the NACS Show — were summarily canceled.

Our kudos to the National Association of Convenience Stores then, for managing to pull together a contingency plan in a matter of days for a show they work all year planning. And to all the retailers and exhibitors for re-working their plans and schedules to make the postponed show in Las Vegas a success. We here at Convenience Store News have had to do quite a bit of reshuffling ourselves, so we can appreciate how difficult it is and the effort involved.

In the end, though, we believe it's well worth that effort. For those retailers and suppliers attending the show in Las Vegas, it's a great opportunity to renew acquaintances and reconnect with friends and business associates and see all the new products and services the industry has to offer.

And, as always, it's a busy and exciting time for us at Convenience Store News. We've spent the last few months preparing for the show, with the aim of serving our readers the best way we can. This special issue you hold in your hands is just the beginning of our full-blanket NACS coverage. We'll be at our booth, #5964, ready to provide you with any help you may need — and, of course, distributing the CSNews Sampler Sacks, the original knapsacks full of products and information from many of the leading manufacturer companies.

In addition, we will once again be publishing on-site our Convenience Store News Dailies on Wednesday and Thursday, offering attendees up-to-the-minute news and photo coverage of the previous day's events along with schedules of the current day's events. So if you see any of our Convenience Store News staffers running around with a photographer, stop and say hello. You might end up with your picture in the dailies! The daily editions will be available at our booth, the publication kiosks at the Las Vegas Convention Center, as well as distributed at major show hotels each morning.

And for those of you not attending the show, we'll be offering extensive post-show photo and editorial coverage in our December issue.

We're looking forward to seeing many of you on the trade show floor and at the many networking events, as well as discovering exciting new products and innovations from the manufacturer community.

And in the chaos of rescheduling plans and events, let's not forget the tragic cause of all this turmoil. In retrospect, the inconvenience caused to NACS, show attendees and exhibitors seems pretty minor indeed.
X
This ad will auto-close in 10 seconds