Oct/Nov 2023 - Message from your CAMA President

Moving Onward and Upward

For those of you that came to our UnconVENDtional Trade Show in Whistler in September I am sure that you will agree that a good time was had by all. It was a smaller show as expected with a destination driven show, but our attendance was higher than projected. Our exhibitors reported that they had some great conversations with our operators and were pleased with the time afforded to get more acquainted with the members of our association. Our guest speakers were knowledgeable and captivated your attention with the wealth of information that they had to share. We also want to welcome a couple of new members that signed up at the show, The Pelican Group and KG Vending.

A big thank you goes out to Deanna O’Reilly and her team for their tireless work efforts in staging a successful show. Your hard work and dedication is very much appreciated.

Marie Saint-Ivany also attended the show and left feeling very touched for all the appreciation and retirement wishes she received for her 18 years of dedication as CAMA’s Executive Director. We all wished her well, but I am sure we will see her again when our shows are hosted in the Toronto region.

Now we need to move our association Onward and Upward! You may have heard me mention this before, next year's trade show will be on March 5 & 6th at the International Centre in Toronto. We will once again be co-exhibiting with the Convenience U Carwacs Show. To put the meaning of this into perspective, our CAMA show generally has an attendance of 150 people. The Convenience show has an attendance of approximately 4,000 people. There are a lot of similarities to our two industries in the fact that we both provide convenience services. Our industry brings convenience to the workplace and their industry brings convenience to the public. The crossover opportunities for all suppliers and attendees will be a huge drawing card for all of us. Spring will be here before we know it so mark your calendars and start making plans to attend this exciting opportunity in March.

We also held our annual AGM and would like to welcome Jori McGrath, John McMullen, and Dennis Park to our Board of Directors. I would also like to thank all our existing board members for another year of continued dedication to the board.

Let’s all join in and help grow and strengthen our association for the future of all of us.

Onward and Upward!