8 ELECTRICALCONTRACTOR | OCT. 14 | WWW.ECMAG.COM
PRESIDENT’S DESK BY DENNIS F. QUEBE
I know it’s boilerplate. I must have read it dozens of times.
It’s at the top of the National Electrical Contractors Association
website in the “about” box and the bottom of many NECA press
releases. It’s the first thing a journalist might learn about our
organization. It’s the last thing the competition wants to hear.
But, is it really true?
Yes. And on some days, it seems that NECA is even bigger.
We had three of those days last month.
When you have the fastest growing trade show in America’s
favorite destination for conventions and business meetings, you
know you’re going to hear a few more superlatives before the
“it’s all over but the cheering” part is finished—like “biggest”
and “best.” Those are just the right words to describe the 2014
NECA Show in Chicago.
Even before it got underway, we knew it was going to be the
largest gathering of manufacturers and distributors for electrical professionals in North America. Before summer was over,
more than 300 of them had already signed up to show off thousands of the solutions electrical contractors need to save time
and money on the job and grow their businesses. By the time
the curtain opened, dozens more had joined them.
NECA has hosted an annual electrical industry exposition
every year since 1955, and this year’s show really was the biggest and best so far. It featured more than 60 companies that
had never participated in any of our previous expositions. A
lot of what was being exhibited was new and different, too,
because today’s electrical contractors are delivering services
that were previously unimaginable.
The trade show floor really was a virtual classroom, providing the latest technological advances in such areas as power
supply, security, tools, integrated building systems, lighting and
controls, solar/PV, other energy markets, and much more that
yesterday’s EC could never have imagined.
If you didn’t attend, just open to any page of this magazine
to see what it’s like to the have the most useful tools and most
rewarding knowledge in the industry revealed. It happens
every month for readers of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR.
That’s a mighty impressive magazine you have in front of
you! I’m not even talking about all of the great articles that provide practical advice to help us electrical contractors increase
our profitability while avoiding pitfalls. It also contains a lot of
ads from our industry’s leading manufacturers and suppliers.
And that’s a good thing.
We know our success depends on the functionality, qual-
ity, and efficiency of the tools and equipment we use and the
materials we install. While an abundance of advertising may
be the bane of general-interest magazine readers, we contrac-
tors appreciate being kept informed of the wide variety of
products and services available to us in our professional lives.
ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR enables us to acquire that knowl-
edge effortlessly.
NECA publishes this magazine, but it is distributed far
beyond the association’s membership. BPA Worldwide, a highly
respected company that certifies media circulation figures and
audience demographics, found that our magazine reaches an
average of 82,624 electrical contracting industry participants—
owners and principals, engineers, estimators, purchasing
agents, project managers, supervisors, foremen, electricians,
linemen, technicians, and others—every month.
Although NECA members are, obviously, eligible for
special benefits, NECA’s mission is to educate the entire
industry, elevate the general knowledge level of all electrical
contractors, and expand the depth and breadth of customers’
expectations of electrical contractors. The electrical manufacturers and distributors that buy advertising space in this
magazine are actually helping to pay for research and the dissemination of information.
NECA has a special Premier Partner sponsorship program
connecting members to the leading companies in the electrical construction industry. NECA’s Premier Partners showcase
their brands, products and services to the electrical construction industry through hundreds of NECA events, publications
and digital platforms year round, including the annual NECA
Convention and Show. We thank NECA’s Premier Partners on
page 109 in this magazine.
But dozens of other companies, large and small, also
invest in the future of the electrical contracting industry—
and their own—whenever they take out an ad in ELECTRICAL
CONTRACTOR, participate in the NECA Show, or contrib-
ute to ELECTRI International. I have two words for all the
electrical manufacturers and distributors that are helping
NECA carry out its mission to advance the industry through
advocacy, education, research and standards development:
“Thank you!”
Dennis F. Quebe, PRESIDENT, NECA
And Now, Some Words for Our Sponsors
“NECA IS THE VOICE of the $130 billion electrical construction industry that brings power, light,
and communication technology to buildings and communities across the U.S.”
