National Clothesline

Clean ’07 will give attendees a chance to view all the latest technological advances in the cleaning industry, and yet, new offerings are hardly a new concept for the Clean Show.

Since its inception 30 years ago, the show has been the gold standard for cleaners. The initial strategy was simple: pool together the resources of multiple associations. The result was the largest textile care exposition in the world.

Ironically, the origins of the prosperous show can be traced back to the mid-1970s when the country was mired in stringent economic times. Industry distributors and manufacturers were finding it too costly to exhibit at each trade association ’s annual show, so associations banded together to form the first joint show in 1975.

After the National Institute of Drycleaning and the American Institute of Laundry merged to form the International Fabricare Institute, IFI was putting on its own large convention. It teamed up with the Coin Laundry Association, then called the National Automatic Laundry Cleaning Council, to jointly sponsor a trade show in 1975. The success of that venture brought other associations into the fold and, in 1977, the six groups jointly sponsored the World Educational Congress for Laundering and Drycleaning, as it is formally known.

Those six core associations launched the Clean Show as we know and recognize it now. They represented all facets of the textile industry then, and they continue to do so today.

The sponsors are: the Coin Laundry Association; the International Fabricare Institute; the National Association of Institutional Linen Management; the Textile Care Allied Trades Association; the Textile Rental Services Association of America (initially the Linen Supply Association of America); and the Uniform and Textile Services Association of America (initially the Institute of Industrial Launderers).

The Clean Show in 1977 required about 80,000 net square feet of exhibit space and had 316 exhibiting companies. The exhibit hall has since expanded to approximately a quarter million square feet that houses the wares of over 500 companies.

As the exhibit floor has grown in scope and size, so, too, has the visiting populace. The Clean Show now attracts nearly 20,000 people from as many as 88 countries.

According to Clean Show surveys, more than 56 percent of those attendees are business owners, and more than 94 percent are either business owners, executives or managers.

Clean gives exhibitors the perfect opportunity to meet potential customers who are planning to expand or re-equip their businesses. At the same time, buyers can do “one-stop” shopping to find everything they need, whether it be new plant equipment, supplies or more information.

The event is such a spectacle that it only takes place every other year. It is often ranked among the top 100 trade shows in North America and it uses more steam than any other trade show in the world.

In fact, the working equipment on the Clean Show’s floor is the equivalent of about 100 neighborhood drycleaning plants.

Riddle & Associates, the show’s management company since 1993, has worked diligently to keep the show current with the times.

The show is fully “wired” for Internet services now (including a Cyber Café that enables visitors to check their e-mail), and registration is as simple as pushing a few buttons online.

This year, Riddle & Associates is offering a fresh new look to the proceedings, as well.

The familiar purple and gold colors will be replaced by softer blue and green hues. A new logo was specifically crafted to symbolize the show ’s penchant for innovative technology.

Yet, despite all that is new with Clean ’07, the show will not dismiss its roots.

One of this year’s highlights will be an antiquities display that celebrates the Clean Show’s 30th anniversary. It will be located in an Antiquities Area in one of the restaurants on the exhibit floor.

More than 25 of Clean’s exhibiting companies will be contributing photos and equipment dating back to three decades ago and beyond.

The display will feature washers, ironers, extractors and more — with some equipment dating back as far as 1914.