In place of this year’s BCMC, why not travel virtually to several Shows, beginning in Louisville in 1972…
Arriving at the sprawling Fairgrounds from the Colonel Sanders Inn, I walked through a maze of modular home sections and finally found our 8x10 booth. All the component-oriented displays seemed not relevant to the theme of the Show: building whole houses offsite on automotive-type assembly lines. On the drive back to St. Louis, I questioned where our industry would fit in these mega-factories, which Wall Street bet would become the dominant source of housing.
However, by 1980, the tables had turned. Industrialized housing and its annual Show were out, and structural components and an inaugural BCMC were in. We drove back to Louisville but bypassed the old fairgrounds, heading downtown to a brand-new convention center. After checking in and admiring the awesome atrium of the Hyatt Hotel, we got to the Show by just crossing a bridge. Fortunately for some, the downtown still retained its not-so-attractive attractions, I am told. Most, but not all, industry revelers returned to hotel before dawn. In many ways, the component business was coming of age, earning its place in the building industry.
Later in the 1980s, apparently to take our industry to the next level, we trekked out West, and tested the will power of attendees in both Reno and Las Vegas. The temptation began with a stand of slot machines at the airport and continued all the way to the exhibit area. Luckily a few attendees came to our booth.
In the 1990s, BCMC regained its success by returning to Louisville for four shows. The downtown area around the convention center had been cleaned up, so attendees had to go much farther to pursue their extracurriculars. In 1995 and 1997, we also took a couple of productive trips with minimal distraction at Opryland in Nashville.
Finally, in the 2000s, though we made occasional trips to the Southwest and West, BCMC hit its stride in medium-sized cities like Columbus, Charlotte, and Milwaukee. These offered first class convention centers in vibrant downtowns, with walkable hotels and restaurants, within driving distance of many component plants. Omaha seemed to be an outlier, but proved its attractiveness in 2017, and earned its second chance in 2021.
Surely, bettering our businesses is the reason to attend BCMC, but the great venues sampled here enrich the experience.
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