NORTH ANDOVER, MASS. – February 24, 2020 – The Mobile Electronics Association (MEA) today announced KnowledgeFest™, in its third year at the Long Beach Convention Center, marked another success for education and training. Attendance was more than 1,500 industry professionals, including over 1,000 retailers and distributors. This year the event provided over 30 hours of educational workshops, including three additional sessions in Spanish. Also new for this year were three educational sessions focused on Fleet Safety technologies led by published author and business management expert Tomas Keenan. Key exhibiting companies provided education about new products and services with a record-setting 70 hours of manufacturer training.
“The decision was made three years ago to bring premium industry education to the west coast with the first KnowledgeFest in Long Beach,” said Chris Cook, MEA president. “Through the consistent effort of local reps, manufacturers and retailers who have attended our other Knowledgefest events, we have been able to educate local retailers on the benefits of our curriculum, training and networking. The collective hard work has paid off, and exhibitor space selection for the 2021 event finished with over 90% of the available exhibit space chosen. This includes several new exhibitors.”
Coming up next month, March 27-29, KnowledgeFest sets its sights on Indianapolis in a Friday-through-Sunday event at the Indiana Convention Center. KnowledgeFest 2020 will then continue with a new event in Orlando Florida May 15-17 and then concludes the 2020 season with its Dallas event: August 12-14 at the Dallas Convention Center.
“The Indianapolis show and education conference continues to be one of our fastest-growing events,” added Cook. “Attendee pre-registration is up 50 percent to date over the previous year. Our 2020 show floor is nearly sold out. We’re looking forward to a great show in Indy, and an exciting first foray into the southeast with the new Orlando show.”
Upcoming KnowledgeFest Dates:
- Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, Indiana, March 27-29, 2020
- NEW for 2020! Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida, May 15-17, 2020
- Dallas Convention Center, Dallas, Texas, August 14-16, 2020
- Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, California, February 12-14, 2021
About KnowledgeFest
KnowledgeFest is now coast to coast. Its four regional trade-only events cover the eastern, southeastern, central and western US and Canada. KnowledgeFest combines a tradeshow floor with educational programming and training for dealers. KnowledgeFests are the only industry events dedicated to the mobile specialist, the installing dealer. For more information and to register to attend, go to www.knowledgefest.org.
About the Mobile Electronics Association
Mobile Electronics Association (MEA) is a trade association comprised of installing dealers and product vendors dedicated to serving the needs of the mobile electronics specialist industry. MEA owns and produces KnowledgeFest®, regional trade-only industry events that combine educational programming and vendor training with a trade show floor. MEA owns and publishes the monthly Mobile Electronics® magazine, which is the industry’s #1 resource, as well as other digital media, including websites and the industry’s e-newsletter Hotwire. MEA provides software and data-driven services to vendors and retailers.
