How This Roofing Mega Conference Started

By Cass Jacoby. 

Learn the story of how RCAT and MRCA decided to come together for one giant roofing conference this September.  

In Season 4, Episode 43 of Roofing Road Trips, Heidi J. Ellsworth gets excited for the upcoming Roofing Contractors Association of Texas (RCAT) and Midwest Roofing Contractors Association (MRCA) mega roofing conference! The two trade associations are pooling together this year for one of the biggest meetings of roofing professionals in Fort Worth, Texas! This one-of-a-kind conference will take place September 27-29, 2022 at the Fort Worth Convention Center and Omni Hotel, and will feature cutting-edge educational sessions, over 150 exhibitors showcasing the latest roofing products at the expo, innovations and service offerings and a whole host of fun networking events! 

Richard Koetter, president of RCAT, and Kelly Lea, president of MRCA, share their excitement with RoofersCoffeeShop about the mutually beneficial decision to combine the two shows. “Sarah Ramone, who is the executive director for RCAT, and I were sitting around and we're talking about how the conference was going to come to Texas. She was very gracious because she was going to move her conference so it didn't conflict with our conference,” says Kelly. “I think I just said at one point in time, ‘Well we ought to look at trying to do this thing together. Wouldn't that be exciting? Think about all the people that we could get.’" We talked about that the suppliers and manufacturers would love that.” 

Both associations agree this is a great idea, especially considering how MRCA tends to specialize a little bit more in commercial roofing and RCAT more so in residential. The joint conference not only brings in more people to the two associations, but coming together mutually benefits steep-slope and low-slope roofing. The roofing show promises to be a fantastic event that is a win-win for both associations. 

“It's helping suppliers out because it makes one show. Instead of having one show one month, another one another month in the same area, we just said it'd be a joint one. I think we'd get more people in,” says Richard. “It's going to be a good show and I think it's going to be a lot of good speakers coming in.” 

Listen to the podcast for a sneak peek into the mega conference and to learn more about all the opportunities this joint show promises! 

Learn more about RCAT and the MRCA in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directories or visit www.rcat.net or www.mrca.org. 

About Cass  

Cass works as a reporter/writer for RoofersCoffeeShop, AskARoofer and MetalCoffeeShop. When she isn’t writing about roofs, she is putting her Master degree to work writing about movies and dancing with her plants.