A friend of mine used a story I told him in an article recently. It was about my first trip to Coverings (International Tile and Stone Expo – ITSE – at the time). Seeing it writ- ten and reading his take-away from my experience reminded me of the importance of attending these industry events. As far as I can put together, that first experience was about 25 years ago. At that time, I was a small independent contractor installing mostly high-end residential proj- ects. I had been in the business for a few years and I knew I needed to learn more. I was looking for more knowledge, more training, more money, MORE… The manager of a local tile store told me about the NTCA. It sounded exactly like what I was looking for: a group of like-minded industry pro- fessionals. Okay, I’m in! I sent in my check, got my plaque, my three-ring binder and my official membership pin. Now I was off to Miami to see these folks at ITSE. My wife asked me, “So you’re going where? What are you going to be doing there?” At the time it was a big financial deci- sion. Committing money for flights, hotel and travel expenses translat- ed directly into how much money went to the household income that month. Many of you know what I am talking about. I was excited; I could not wait to get there. I had some good experi- ence under my belt. I was ready to talk tile. NTCA had a room for members. I was going to light it up. After being blown away by the number of exhibitors, I got to the “Contractors Lounge.”Three guys were huddled around a small table. There was no room for another chair and they were deep in con- PRESIDENT’S LETTER Christopher Walker You have to see this! 10 TileLetter | 2019