NECA ’23 Delivers in Philly

Earlier this month, along with about 10,000 of my friends and 2-3,000 electrical apprentices, I visited the Philadelphia Convention Center to attend the NECA Conference. While this annual event is designed to support electrical union contractors, it may evolve into a broader tradeshow.

While the focus is clearly on the electrical union contractors who, in many parts of the country, represent the majority of the business conducted, especially in certain market segments and for larger projects, this year’s conference also had every national distribution chain represented as well as many of the largest Mid-Atlantic-based electrical distributors. Further, there were a number of independent electrical manufacturer representatives in attendance. A number of them supported their manufacturers and staffed booths, however, they had time to visit booths and network with contractors from their markets.

Speaking of booths … there were over 370 manufacturer booths. Some interesting observations regarding the booths …

• According to NEMRA, which had a booth, only 46 exhibiting manufacturers were NEMRA members.
  • NEMRA is engaging with NECA on a number of issues. NEMRA’s increased visibility is part of its efforts to reach other audiences to explain the value of reps to contractors … and a strategy to increase visibility to, and recruit, manufacturers.
  • Agencies I saw there included Biben Sales, Locust Sales, Yanow, Yusen, Flynn-Reynolds, DeFazio, Century Sales, ASA Electrical Solutions, Convergence, JD Martin, Brazil Brothers, Synergy Electrical Sales, Marvin Bochner Inc. There may have been others (and if you attended, feel free to mention in the comments section.)
• Sources shared that there were at least 10 EV manufacturers exhibiting. This excludes the lighting companies, and others, that also had EV chargers as “complementary” products at their booth. Some of these EV manufacturers sell through electrical distributors, some through electronic distributors, others sell direct to contractors, and some sell to “whomever will buy”.
• There were lots of manufacturers who sell direct to contractors. Smaller companies. Regionals.
• A number of exhibitors were trying to determine their go to market strategy and were making their first effort into determining how to sell to electrical contractors.
• Some product trends:
  • Lots of productivity-oriented products from manufacturers. Contractors expressed interest and shared that productivity is an issue, especially for larger projects, due to jobsite labor shortages.
  • There were a number of tool manufacturers displaying their wares. While booths such as Milwaukee Tool and Klein Tools were packed, there were other tool companies that attracted attention.
  • Wearables companies also attracted large audiences.
  • There were more lighting companies in attendance than last year with a number of “contractor / distributor” friendly lighting lines in attendance, some for the first time, and companies that decided not to attend LightFair. I would predict that some of these companies will have a more pronounced display than this year.
  • All of the major wiring device companies had larger booths
• Distributor booths included Graybar, Wesco, Sonepar, CED, City Electric, Border States, Crescent Electric, Rexel, USESI, and Schaedler Yesco all having large booths. Turtle and Hughes had a 10 x 20 booth and United Electric had a presence. (if you’re a distributor who walked the show, feel free to mention in the comments and share your observations of the show.)
  • With next year’s conference in San Diego, it will be interesting to see which regional distributors, or independents, decide to exhibit.
• Contractors commented that they were busy but that projects have “gone fast then slowed down.” In some cases, they didn’t know why, in others they shared that it is supply chain issues (can everyone say “switchgear”!)
• While NECA held a number of educational sessions which seemed to attract reasonable attendance, including some during the tradeshow, the general sessions had an informative half-hour of NECA initiatives and then some interesting keynote speakers – Jay Wright, former head coach of Villanova, and Julius Irving (Dr. J.) from Philadelphia 76er lore. Different types of presentations (speaking vs interview) but both entertaining but with messages of teamwork, perseverance, attitude, change is inevitable, and defining “what is success.”
  • Wright made an interesting comment … “Being part of a team isn’t taught to Gen Z. It’s an intelligent group but not a team.”
• NECA has twelve Premier Partners who have supported the association for many years and recently committed to a three-year extension of the relationship. Leviton and Atkore also recently became Premier Partners. These companies are investing in the association and the association is giving them significant visibility in, essentially, all events and promotes them regularly (giving them preferred contractor engagement opportunities and promotional opportunities.) With union contractors being involved in the biggest of projects, the brand visibility helps and, most importantly, the opportunity to connect personally with contractor management, share new products and be involved in NECA projects / research. This becomes the epitome of “relationship building.”
• And while associations, in general, appear to retract, NECA is investing in more conferences, networking opportunities, training initiatives and programs to support its membership. In the words of Kirk Davis, NECA’s President, “NECA is a nimble, full-service association, that is member-focused.”

A jam-packed few days with plenty of sore feet and, unfortunately, not enough time to get to the educational sessions (NECA and NAED did joint session on the EV market, but I didn’t hear any comment on the tradeshow floor about the session.)

And for a sense of the sights, here are a number of photos that I took (and please, no comments about the quality of the photography!)

If you attended, what were your observations about the show? Your favorite (or most informative) booth?