Jim Gamble “The Garage Doctor” 2013 Vegas Parking Garage Event
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There were aprox 46 people in attendance. The Distributors, Manufacturers & Contractors that brought their machines to the event were Steel Eagle,Cyclone,Rashco Manufactoring,HydroTek,Powerwash.com, Jim Cooney’s Hot & Mighty filtration trailer and the “The Garage Doctor” Jim Gamble’s large filtration trailer. Also a big thanks to Jim Lewis for bringing a HydroTek trailer. We also had The premier Powerwashing Industry writer in Allison Hester from Eclean Magazine in attendance.
A special surprise for all at this event was that DODGE brought 5 of their newest and best trucks they sell including 2 flatbeds. Every truck had all the options including leather interiors. Totally awesome!
Tues. March 26 @ 9am we had our introductions. After that we had “Babe Ruth’s Granddaughter” Linda Ruth Tosetti and (Myself)Clean County PW John Tornabene speak about how the Powerwashing Industry has connected with an American Icon by following their passions and how this can have a positive influence on every day hard working Powerwashing Contractors to follow their business related passions.
Next up Nigel Griffith from “Griff’s Services” was given a Babe Ruth Picture & Plaque from Linda for his continuing efforts on experimenting with Environmental cleaning devices to help many contractors have a better understanding on how to clean without having a negative impact on the environment.
Nigel then followed this up with his session on how he was doing the above thru pictures and Video’s with explanations. He also showed us a video of how he cleans concrete flatwork while being environmentally friendly in his procedures.
Robert Hinderliter(Affectionally known as “The Godfather of the Powerwashing Industry”) from “Rashco Manu/MultiTech wash water re-capture” spoke about EPA regulation and applying BMP’s in with your cleaning procedures. Roberts speeches are always loaded with invaluable amounts of information.
After lunch break we had Michael Hinderliter from “Steamaway Inc.” speak about the 9 tips to help manage the growth of your business. Michael has this so fine tuned there shouldn’t be any wonder as to why he is a successful entrepreneur.
Then our Key note speaker “The Garage Doctor” Jim Gamble from " Crystal Cleaning Company" spoke for a couple of hours on how to maximize your cleaning while doing a garage and how to be very profitable at it. He explained how it’s not what you Gross or how many garages a year you do but how to have a higher NET income for every garage you clean.
These speaking sessions ended after 5pm and later on that night we went to the social in Jim’s suite that was on top of the Rios hotel on the 51st floor. The views were spectacular!! Socializing with your fellow Contractors,Distributors & Manufacturers in this classy type setting made this a special memory of how far we can go with these Events. The creative juices were flowing thru out these socials.
Wed. March 27th started aprox 9am where each Dist/Manuf/Contractor took turns talking about what they brought. They also took questions from the audience. About 2 hrs later we all headed over to the garage to see some of the newest Machines on the market. The excitement of seeing these machines caused most attendees to ask a lot more questions and a ton of picture taken was going on here. Some of the machines were used by the attendees to see how well they work. Along with all of this, The “Garage Doctor” Jim Gamble walked us all thru this garage while showing us some of the hot tips on what he does to maximize the cleaning processes. He pointed out the Plumbing of drains and explained in fine detail how the garage system works. Who knew you could get so sore just walking a garage going over every detail:)
All of this ended near 5pm. Afterwords many met up and went to dinner together. Later that night a few of us met up in Jim’s suite to talk some more shop. Linda Ruth Tosetti and Jim had some long conversations with each other as did some others. Its always a neat experience seeing friendships being formed and connections being made. The backdrop of The Vegas Strip and the mountains just made this all feel-- Right!
Thursday was a much anticipated day. We had The Vegas MS4 Vegas Enviro Director and his staff here. The Enviro director took the stage and spoke for a couple of hours. He was very articulate and he knew exactly what he was talking about. Along the way a few of us Led by Robert Hinderliter, Rob Carey, myself and a few others asked some of the tougher questions but all along keeping everything professional and never argumentative. This session was videotaped from beginning to end by 3 different camera’s from 3 different places in the room.
When this session ended Robert Hinderliter told the audience that this was the most informative EPA session he’s been to in over 30 yrs. (Were we all satisfied with the answers?Of course not but its all important to have an open line of communication with these professionals that do this as their main occupation compared to going by what others say on the net who aren’t qualified or properly trained to answer these questions)
Did most of us learn a lot here?Most definitely yes. Was it overwhelming because of all the information? For me it sure was. The biggest thing I learned here was that my company needs to have some BMP’s in place for some of the work we do.
Right after that we had the drawing for a HydroTek & Steel Eagle hose reals that they so generously donated. Some of the attendees went off to test drive the Dodge trucks soon after.At this point the Event came to an official closing.
The overall consensus was that this Event was Unique and it was also a success. A few of us left here not wanting to take a break from this but to start the planning for next year and try to add much more to what we’ve done here.
For the Parking Garage and Concrete Flatwork cleaners we now have a “Unique” event we can call our very own. There’s a ton of idea’s flowing around here for the next bunch of yrs such as adding in other org’s/assoc participation along with some other related type of contractor work such as line striping and concrete coverings for example.
To quote Mike who brought 3 of these Dodge trucks,when him and I were at the Wed nite social(keep in mind some of these trucks came from out of state) I asked Mike would he like to come to another show next year if we do it again and his answer was “Absolutely”!
In closing for all who helped out with this event and to Jim Cooney & Jim Gamble aka “The Garage Doctor” for dreaming up this Unique type of Parking Garage Cleaning Event" it was an amazing and wonderful experience.
John Tornabene
Clean County Powerwashing.
I’ll post some pics later this week after I download them.
