Coffee Conversations: IRE - What's Happening Now?

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

Get a sneak peek into the educational and networking opportunities you will find at this year’s virtual and live International Roofing Expo. 

In the latest Coffee Conversations, RoofersCoffeeShop® welcomes Brandi McElhaney and Shelby Snelson to discuss the latest updates for the 2021 Virtual and Live International Roofing Expo (IRE). They answer contractor’s questions about what can be expected for both the virtual and live expo experience, including education and networking opportunities, as well as a glance into future presentation topics. 

Shelby Snelson is the show manager for the International Roofing Exp at Informa. Shelby’s worked with Informa for over 13 years and has been on the IRE team for a little over two years. “I'm [in charge of] general show operations, marketing, registration, housing, all the things. And it's a wonderful show, I love working on it, and sometimes it's kind of surprising to people that we've got a team of about nine people in the office that do nothing but work on the IRE 365 days a year,” said Shelby. 

Brandi McElhaney is the senior conference manager for IRE. Brandi’s been at IRE for 16 years and with Informa for 18. She handles all of the educational events for their regular conference programs as well as some on the show floor.  

Informa has a longstanding history working in the roofing and contractor industry as well as working closely with National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA). Brandi explained that there are three or four members from NRCA on the Informa advisory board that she and Shelby work with personally.  

“I’ve been working with them for about 15 years. And, again, this is my favorite industry and the people there are amazing. They're great, great partners,” said Brandi. 

The virtual and live event will each focus on networking and education. “Those are the two things that we felt were the most important to convey to the industry,” said Shelby. The virtual event will feature scheduled meetings and live drop-in meetings on a Zoom-based platform.  

"We've got fun events every day to keep it light and remind us that we do have a lot of fun when we're at the IRE, and we didn't want to miss out on that on this virtual edition. We've got a lot of manufacturers, over 50 that are signed up. It's going to be a great week,” said Shelby.  

Every day will begin with a live event. The first day will include Reid Ribble providing an industry update, then Mark Graham and a technical panel will discuss technology in the industry. The third day will feature Trent Cotney and a COVID related legal session.  

“Three live events will start us each day,” said Brandi. “The rest of the conference sessions will be on demand and you can view them 30 days after the show. So we have a host of business-related topics, technical safety, legal, you name it. And we have our top speakers in there, so it's truly exciting. And, again, we can't wait to be there in person this August.” 

If you didn’t get a chance to attend the virtual event, all of the sessions are available on demand through April 2.  

Read, Listen or Watch the entire Coffee Conversations for more information on the virtual and live 2021 International Roofing Expo.