January/February 2014
ISRI’s relationship with Las Vegas is no whirlwind romance. The association brings its annual convention and exposition to the tourist Mecca for the 12th time, making this an enduring relationship.
ISRI can hardly hide its love for Las Vegas. The association has held 11 of its previous 26 annual conventions in the renowned city; this year makes it an even dozen when ReMA brings the 2014 convention and exposition to the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino April 6-10. ReMA returns to Las Vegas so often primarily because its conventions there always have a large turnout. The association’s two largest conventions to date were both at the Mandalay Bay, one in 2012, with 6,400 attendees, and the other in 2008, with 5,800 registrants. ReMA also loves Las Vegas because it has so much to offer—top-quality shows, gourmet dining, world-class shopping, gambling and more—all of which make it an irresistible destination. When ISRI’s in town, however, the biggest attraction—for recyclers, at least—is the ReMA show itself. That event has achieved worldwide renown in the scrap industry for its invaluable business networking opportunities, informative educational workshops, thought-provoking general sessions (including two big-name speakers this year—read on for details), and memorable social functions. The highlight, however, is the ReMA exposition, which continues its reign as the largest show of scrap recycling industry equipment, technology, and services in the world. So start—or continue—your own love affair with Las Vegas and the ReMA convention by reading what’s in store this year and planning your trip. You won’t want to miss a minute of it.
A Content-Rich Affair
ISRI’s convention is known for offering bountiful opportunities to expand your business—and your mind—and this year’s event continues that tradition. On the business networking front, you can take advantage of the consumers’ night reception, which attracts traders of all scrap commodities; the commodity-themed hospitality areas in the expo hall, where you can find buyers and sellers of specific materials; and the ReMA Café. This year ReMA has made commodity-specific networking even easier by providing stickers for each scrap commodity type for the name badges. Networking at the convention truly brings you a world of opportunity: At last year’s ReMA show in Orlando, Fla., for instance, the more than 5,200 attendees included at least 900 delegates from 45 countries outside the United States. There’s simply no better place to connect with buyers and sellers in the global scrap recycling marketplace.
While growing your business, increase your market knowledge at the more than four dozen educational workshops and commodity spotlights. Workshop topics cover everything from safety to human resources, certification to communications and marketing, as well as materials theft, management, and international trade. Returning also are the eight ever-popular commodity spotlights—aluminum, copper, electronics, ferrous, nickel/stainless, paper, plastics, and tires/rubber—and the general-session spotlight on the economy, with its prognostications of current and future economic trends in the U.S. and global economies. ReMA also reprises another programming favorite from conventions past—its series of metals-identification seminars, focusing on aluminum, copper, and nickel/stainless, with a related session on handheld metal analyzing equipment. (See the Preliminary Schedule of Events on page 90 for a glimpse at the lineup, or visit www.isriconvention.org for workshop topics and times.)
The most eagerly awaited events at many ReMA conventions are the general sessions, which in the past have featured former U.S. presidents and military leaders, world figures, thought leaders, historians, and media personalities. This year, ReMA will be hosting Hillary Rodham Clinton as the convention’s keynote speaker. Most people got to know Clinton as first lady when her husband, Bill Clinton, became president in 1992. After eight years in the White House, she won election as a U.S. senator representing New York. During her tenure as first lady and senator, she traveled the world, promoting human rights, democracy, and opportunities for women and girls. Clinton also worked to provide health care to millions of children, create jobs and opportunity, and support first responders who risked their lives on Sept. 11, 2001. In 2008, Clinton was a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Though she lost the nomination to Barack Obama, he invited her to serve as the 67th U.S. secretary of state, a position she filled from 2009 to 2013. (Note that this general session is at a new time, 1 p.m. on the final day of the convention, April 10.)
In addition to this political luminary, ReMA offers an opening general session from a legend in the technology world, Steve Wozniak. “Woz,” an inventor and computer engineer and programmer, co-founded Apple Computer (Cupertino, Calif.) with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne. He is credited with inventing the Apple I and Apple II computers in the late 1970s, which helped launch the microcomputer revolution. In his post-Apple career, he has founded and/or worked for various technology companies and pursued his love of teaching and philanthropy. He has received roughly a dozen honorary degrees as well as notable awards such as the National Medal of Technology from President Ronald Reagan; the Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment; and the Isaac Asimov Science Award. He also was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2000.
Though you could spend all your time networking and attending workshops and general sessions, don’t miss the ReMA exposition, which will showcase the products and services of more than 300 exhibitors in a roughly 360,000-square-foot space—more than 8 acres—that includes 80,000 square feet devoted to large equipment displays. Where else can you gather so much information, talk with so many vendors, and kick the tires (literally and figuratively) of so much recycling-related equipment, all in one place? The ReMA expo is your one-stop shop for everything you need to make your recycling operations more productive, efficient, safe, and profitable. To give you the energy to make the rounds, ReMA offers lunch in the exhibition hall during the expo’s two full days, April 8-9.
Signing Up
How to register. To enjoy everything the ReMA convention offers, you need to register—and there’s no time like the present, especially because the first registration deadline is Jan. 31. Through that date, full registration for ReMA members who are attendees, exhibitors, and their spouses/partners is $775, which increases to $875 from Feb. 1 to March 7 and $975 after that date. Trade-show-only passes for April 8 and 9 are $450 through Jan. 31, $500 from Feb. 1 to March 7, and $550 from March 8 onward. ReMA members also can purchase full registrations for their children (ages 2 through 16) or tickets for the closing event for themselves and their children.
Full registration fees for nonmember attendees, exhibitors, and their spouses/partners are $1,300 through Jan. 31, $1,400 from Feb. 1 to March 7, and $1,500 from March 8 onward. Trade-show-only passes for nonmembers are $700 through Jan. 31, $750 from Feb. 1 to March 7, and $800 March 8 and beyond. ReMA does not offer separate tickets to the final-night event to nonmembers.
The ReMA convention website—www.isriconvention.org—has all the details and is the easiest and fastest way to register. You also can register by mail by filling out the form inside the ReMA convention brochure, which ReMA is mailing this month to ReMA members, prospects, and previous ReMA convention attendees. Mail the form with full payment or credit card information to Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Attn: Customer Service, 1615 L St. NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036-5664. If you prefer, you can fax your completed registration form with credit card payment information to 202/624-9257. ReMA aims to process properly completed registrations and send confirmations within two weeks of receipt. Contact ReMA at convention@isri.org if you do not receive a confirmation by then. ReMA will process all registrations received after March 31 as on-site registrations.
Where to stay. The main Mandalay Bay hotel serves as the ReMA convention headquarters hotel for the fifth time, offering rooms for $203 a night. Two other hotels on the Mandalay Bay grounds—THEhotel Tower and the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas—provide additional upscale options, with the former offering suites from $233 a night and the latter with rooms from $279 a night. ReMA also has reserved a block of rooms at the Luxor hotel, located next door to the Mandalay Bay properties, for $79 a night. ISRI’s room blocks usually fill up fast, so make your reservations today by going to www.isriconvention.org and selecting “Hotel” on the home page.
Once you register, book your hotel, and make your travel arrangements, you’re all set to continue ISRI’s Las Vegas love affair.
ISRI’s Las Vegas Roots
ISRI’s love for Las Vegas has its roots in one of its predecessor associations, the Institute of Scrap Iron and Steel, which was the first scrap industry trade association to bring its annual convention and exposition to Sin City. Much of the credit for that move goes to Arnold Plant of H. Klaff & Co. (Baltimore), who served as ISIS convention committee chair from 1972 to the late 1980s. Prior to 1973, ISIS rotated its convention primarily among Miami Beach, New York, and Washington, D.C. In 1973, however, Plant persuaded the ISIS board to hold the association’s convention in Las Vegas for the first time. Armed with statistics from Caesars Palace, he made the case that conventions in Las Vegas get better attendance at their meetings and educational sessions than conventions at other locations because delegates want a reason to get away from the gaming tables. The board agreed to give Las Vegas a try.
The event, held Jan. 15-18, 1973, had the theme “Conserving the Future—America’s Scrap Processing Industry” and used Caesars Palace as the central convention hotel, with the Flamingo and the Sands as additional venues. Astronaut Neil Armstrong—the first man to walk on the moon—was the keynote speaker at the annual breakfast meeting, while Hugh Downs—whom ISIS promoted as “one of the nation’s top television commentators and former host of NBC’s ‘Today’ show”—was the featured speaker at the annual banquet.
“We were highly successful,” Plant recalled in a 2011 Scrap interview. “The meetings were well-attended, we had the largest breakfast meeting [to date], and our members weren’t at the tables that much.”
After this initial success, the ISIS convention returned to Las Vegas four additional times—in 1977, 1981, 1984, and 1987—before ISIS merged with the National Association of Recycling Industries in June 1987 to form ISRI. Notably, NARI—ISRI’s other predecessor organization—never held a convention in Las Vegas.
Preliminary Schedule of Events
Sunday, April 6
7 a.m.-6 p.m.
Registration
8 a.m.-6 p.m.
ISRI Board and Committee Meetings
Monday, April 7
7 a.m.-9 p.m.
Registration
8 a.m.-5 p.m.
ISRI Board and Committee Meetings
9 a.m.-1 p.m.
Electronics Recycling Workshop
5:30-6:30 p.m.
First-Time Attendee Orientation
6:30-9:30 p.m.
Gala Opening in the Exhibit Hall
Tuesday, April 8
7:15-8:15 a.m.
Buffet Breakfast in the ReMA Café
7:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
Registration
8:30-10 a.m.
Chair’s General Session: Steve Wozniak
9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.
Exhibit Hall Open
10:15-11:15 a.m.
Workshops
Electronics Spotlight
11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Just for Fun Program: Poolside at Mandalay Bay (Fully Registered Attendees Only)
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Workshops
12:30-2 p.m.
Exhibit Hall Luncheon
2-3 p.m.
Workshops
Paper Stock Industries Chapter Specifications Committee
2-3:15 p.m.
Spotlight on Aluminum
Spotlight on Tires/Rubber
3:15-4:15 p.m.
Electronics Workshop
Paper Stock Industries Chapter Meeting
3:30-4:30 p.m.
Workshops
3:30-4:45 p.m.
Spotlight on Ferrous
Wednesday, April 9
7-8 a.m.
Light Breakfast in the ReMA Café
7 a.m.-5 p.m.
Registration
8:15-10 a.m.
General Session: Spotlight on the Economy
Presentation of the ReMA Lifetime Achievement Award
9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Exhibit Hall Open
10:15-11:15 a.m.
Workshops
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Workshops
Plastics Spotlight
12:30-2 p.m.
Exhibit Hall Luncheon
2-3 p.m.
Workshops
2-3:15 p.m.
Spotlight on Copper
Spotlight on Paper
2-4 p.m.
Just for Fun: Cooking Up Creative Cocktails Barside
3:15-4:15 p.m.
Workshops
3:30-4:30 p.m.
Workshops
3:30-4:45 p.m.
Spotlight on Nickel/Stainless
3:30-5 p.m.
U.S.-China Trade Consult Meeting
6-7 p.m.
Consumers’ Night Reception
Thursday, April 10
8 a.m.-1 p.m.
Registration
8:30-9:30 a.m.
Workshops
Metals ID: Aluminum
9:45-10:45 a.m.
Workshops
Metals ID: Copper
11 a.m.-12 p.m.
Workshops
Metals ID: Nickel/Stainless
12-1 p.m.
Light Lunch in the Convention Foyer
1-2:30 p.m.
General Session: Hillary Rodham Clinton
Design for Recycling® Award
2:45-3:45 p.m.
Metals ID: Handheld Analyzers
3:30-5 p.m.
ISRI Board of Directors Election
7-11 p.m.
Grand Closing Event
ISRI’s relationship with Las Vegas is no whirlwind romance. The association brings its annual convention and exposition to the tourist Mecca for the 12th time, making this an enduring relationship.