Attendees and exhibitors agree: ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America 2016 lived up to its theme of “unleashing the industry’s untamed potential” during this one week when key leaders and decision-makers in the commercial cleaning industry come together. Co-produced by ISSA, the worldwide cleaning industry association, and its trade show partner, RAI Amsterdam, ISSA/INTERCLEAN 2016 took place in Chicago, October 25-28, at McCormick Place, South Hall.
 
The 2016 buyer and exhibitor turnout was strong, with both categories seeing increases over 2015, for a total of 16,637 visitors from 74 countries. On the buyer side, distributors represented much of the increase, accounting for 42 percent of the buyers. End user turnout was strong as well; of the total buyers at the show, 36 percent were building service contractors and in-house service providers. Of this year’s 740 exhibitors, 132 were new, and 20 percent hailed from outside the United States, drawing from 28 countries.
 
“We had as many people visit our booth as we could physically talk to,” says Mark Sisson, partner at first-time exhibitor NanoSeptic Self-Cleaning Surfaces. “We had to split up and talk to different groups just to handle the traffic.”
 
Much of this growth is due to ISSA’s efforts to attract the top executives of the leading janitorial distributors, as well as to draw from a variety of new audiences. For example, ISSA has formed new relationships with organizations and buying groups in the office products arena, such as OPI, Trimega, and Independent Stationers.

This year, several new alliance partners in vertical markets held events in conjunction with the show, such as the Healthy Schools Campaign, which presented the Green Clean Schools Forum, October 26-28, and the Green Sports Alliance, which hosted its Greener Cleaning Workshop on October 27.
 
In addition, four industry groups held their annual conventions in conjunction with ISSA/INTERCLEAN: the Association of Residential Cleaning Services International (ARCSI), Building Service Contractors Association International (BSCAI), Cleaning Trade Equipment Association (CETA), and IEHA.

Many supporting associations throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia-Pacific also participated in this year’s show, and there was a strong showing from top janitorial buying groups and their key members.