LAS VEGAS – Those who wish to save money via early registration for Medtrade Spring 2015 have one more week to sign on for considerable savings. The Spring version of the nation’s premiere HME event is scheduled for March 30-April 1, 2015. Click Here to Register.
“Those who sign up prior to midnight, eastern time, on Jan 4, 2015, can save $100 on the conference and $25 on the Expo,” says Kevin Gaffney, group show director, Medtrade. “We have had quite a few people sign up for early savings, and we encourage you to beat the deadline. All those who attend next year will find a few changes that I think they will like.”
On the exhibitor side, more than 150 manufacturers and service providers have signed on for Medtrade Spring at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. Hundreds more are expected in the coming months, and Gaffney is confident that attendees will have a lot of new products to pore over. And this time, he says, time on the Expo floor will have very little conflict with the informative educational sessions.
“Our educational sessions have always been top notch, and it’s true that attendees have occasionally felt conflicted about whether to attend a session or spend time on the expo floor exploring new products,” explains Gaffney. “This year’s schedule has been adjusted to minimize the overlap between Expo floor time and valuable educational sessions.”
According to Gaffney, attendee surveys from Medtrade Spring 2014 are the primary reason for the change to a “friendlier format” designed to create a more seamless attendee experience. “A majority of sessions have been moved to Monday, which is day one,” says Gaffney. “With most sessions occurring on day one, attendees will have most of the day Tuesday and all day Wednesday to browse the Expo floor at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. Arriving on Sunday really makes sense.”
End of an Era: Mal Mixon is Officially Retired
ELYRIA, OHIO – A. Malachi Mixon, III, founder of Invacare, has officially retired as executive chairman of the Board of Directors. Mixon will continue his responsibilities as a non-employee member of the Board until the 2015 annual meeting when the Company will nominate him for one additional term, after which he will reach the Board’s mandatory retirement age of 75.
During an interview with HME Voice last year, Mixon told Gaffney and Mike Sperduti, head of Emerge Sales: “I’m a country boy. I used to rope calves and work in the summers punching cows for 50 cents an hour and mowing yards.” After attending Harvard, Mixon served in the Vietnam War. “I wanted to be a part of it [the war],” he said. “I didn’t realize they wanted to kill me as soon as I got there, so that was a bit of a shock.”
In 1979, Mixon led a leveraged buy-out of Invacare Corp with the support of his business partner, Joseph B. Richey, II, and a small group of investors. During his tenure, the Company grew from a domestic manufacturer of lifestyle products with annual net sales of $19 million into a global home medical device company with a broad product portfolio and annual net sales of $1.4 billion in 2013.