RUD Chain Attends SEMA Show in Las Vegas
The SEMA and APEX shows took place in Las Vegas between November 3 and November 6, 2008 this year and RUD Chain had booths at both locations. As a distributor for RUD Chain, I felt that it was important to take out some time and make the trek up to Vegas to meet up with them. I have been conversing and transacting business with RUD Chain since December of Last year and this was my first opportunity to meet them face to face. Unfortunately, I only had one day which was on November 6, 2008.
Included in these pictures from left to right are Steve Blood, Dave Sims, Brian Nettles (me), and Cindy Kaiser. In the second photo we once again have Steve Blood and Rick Ransom.
Steve Blood’s expertise is the RotoGrip. As I do not deal with the Rotogrip, I had never before been in contact with Steve. However, he was really fun to talk with. He is a true midwestern outdoorsman who loves hunting and fishing. Being someone who loves the outdoors, working for a company such as RUD Chain just seems like a perfect fit. David Sims is the Non-Skid Regional Sales Manager located in Sparks Nevada. He handles all of the sales at that facility. Cindy is my primary contact in Iowa. I would say that 90 percent of the sales made on this website go through Cindy Kaiser. She is very knowledgable and easy to work with. The small world aspect about working with Cindy is that she grew up about 15 minutes from our location in Orange County but now works in Iowa. Rick Ransom is the Non-Skid Product Manager. He calls the shots for the distributors whenever there is any type of problem. Two other people who I would have hoped to meet were Katie Elsbury and Natalie McFarlane. Natalie is their controller and was there one day earlier but had to return to Iowa the day before I got there. Katie had to stay back in Iowa to keep things running. Katie is a 12 year veteran with the company and is one of the most technically savy of all people with the company.
To make the visit, I had to leave home at 6:00 am and returned the same evening getting home about midnight. The trip was well worth it.
At the display, they were showcasing the Rotogrip as well as the Centrax. They were also showing off their shoe chains - a very simple rubber loop with a small chain on it. All you have to do is pull it onto your shoe and it will help prevent you from slipping on the ice. They convinced me that I need to add this product to the website. Give me a couple of weeks and I will put it up.