APRO's review of RTO World 2023 - What you missed!

Pete and APRO CEO Charles Smitherman do a full recap of RTO World 2023 in San Antonio — Charles's first as the head of APRO.

The week broke down as follows. Sunday was the golf outing at Alamo Basin Golf Course. Monday was check-in and exploring San Antonio — Pete's group did the River Walk boat tour and visited the Alamo. Tuesday opened with Trib Group and APRO government committee meetings, followed by peer group meetups organized by store size and role, where Pete and Paul Metivier facilitated a session for 15-plus store operators. The afternoon featured the educational sessions, three rotating hours with five simultaneous speakers covering topics from cybersecurity and online sales to merchandising, culture resets, and Jason Winters' now-legendary "Jeff" story about how one employee can derail an entire store culture. The day closed with the Hot Show, where Trib received 187 product submissions and curated the best 40 deals.

Wednesday opened with a keynote from Pam Nimic on brand culture, the State Association Awards, and the ribbon cutting with Charles, Dennis Shields from Trib, Mike Tissett, and Michael Bennett. The trade show hall held 109 exhibitors and 748 attendees — potentially the highest attendance RTO World has seen. The hall's elevated entry via escalator gave an unusually dramatic overhead view of the entire floor. Afternoon featured ice cream, sponsored by Crossley and VersaRent, followed by the Emerging Professionals event — a more intimate space pairing new industry faces with established leaders. The evening experience party was held at the Briscoe Western Art Museum with food, drinks, live music, and line dancing instruction (Pete participated; Charles did not).

Thursday was a half day for final orders, vendor conversations, and the Trib rebate distribution. Charles and Trib president Dennis Shields held a friendly "executive challenge" game on the trade show floor, capped with a hot sauce competition. RTO World branded socks with cash hidden inside were distributed as a giveaway.

On Paidit's RTO2 platform: their booth was slammed from open to close both days, and Charles hadn't been able to get a clear line to speak with Richard Formo since the show. He expects the product to have generated significant leads and signups.

APRO announced it will be hosting a Best of RTO World webinar on October 10th, featuring highlights from the highest-rated sessions for anyone who couldn't attend or missed a session they wanted to catch. RTO World 2024 moves to Orlando.

Transcript

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Pete Shau 1:16

Hello and welcome everyone. Here at the RTO show, we're proud to have April as our premier podcast sponsor. APRO's always had its finger on the pulse of America's rent-to-owned industry, including up-to-the-minute news and information, fun and valuable events, and even its legal hotline. April knows what's going on in the rental industry and how to help you navigate. Don't miss APRO's best of RTO World webinar coming up on Tuesday, October 10th. Learn more and register today at rtohq.org. That's rtohq.org. And now to the show. And welcome to the RTO show. I'm your host, Pete Shell. Today we're talking about how everything went down in San Antonio, RTO World 2023. Hello, San Antonio, with Charles Smithersman, CEO, APRO. This was your first battle in charge, right? Your first RTO World 2023. How's everything going, Charles?

Charles Smitherman 2:17

Yeah, you know, we're just trying to come down from and recover from what was a great week out there. You know, this was the first time I had been on the APRO side of it and uh haven't been a vendor or on the vendor side of it for a few years. And yeah, I mean, I think we had a just an absolute great week and doing a lot of the post-show um cleanup matters at this point. Clean up, that's it. And then uh really on to starting planning for next year.

Pete Shau 2:45

So I'm glad you said that. So you you've seen it from the vendor side. Now you've seen it from the A Pro side. How different are those two in the for the same event? Is it is it like you know, opposite sides of the same coin where it's completely different, or are you looking, you know, is it apples, apples, and oranges and oranges?

Charles Smitherman 3:02

You know, I think just the the the experience of being there and just being around all the really incredible and unique people that make up the RTO industry, um, you know, that that's the same. I mean, I you know, just being getting to be out there and be a part of it, reconnecting, you know, speaking about things that are going on. That's that's the same. Uh I would say the big difference is, you know, just how much go seeing how much goes into the planning and just to the choreographing of just the entire week and event. You know, I've just got just such an awesome team at Apro that uh really is just a just a professional group of group of individuals that really were able to put this together and have it go off as smoothly as it did, you know, whenever the major complaints are that it's too cold in the trade show hall. And I'll take that any day over it being too hot.

Pete Shau 3:57

Oh, I you know, absolutely. Let me tell you, outside it was scorching heat. Going over some of the day's events, so Sunday, of course, is not an official April convention day, but Sunday was the day we actually had golfing at the San Antonio golf outing uh at Almost Basin Golf Course. And to tell you the truth, I don't think anybody enjoyed that more than Kevin Silvers. He loves to take pictures and he does at outings extremely well. But uh, were you able to participate in that?

Charles Smitherman 4:23

Yeah, so I was there. I had uh two o'clock tea time in the middle of August in San Antonio was a totally an experience. It was uh, you know, it was hot, but it was uh just such a such a great day. I really great group to play with and just kind of seeing seeing everyone out there. And uh I know I know Kevin had a good day because he was playing in the group behind us, and I kept seeing the drives that they were hitting in coming up on our second or third shots around the green. And uh so I know they they had a good time out there as well.

Pete Shau 4:54

And here I thought your tan was a beach tan, and now you're telling me it's a San Antonio golfers tan. That's what it is. So everybody goes out, they have a good time, we get the golfing out of the way, see some great pictures. If you guys want to see some pictures, go online, especially where you can see you can go to the April page, you can go to the trib page, you can go to Kevin Silver's page. He does all he does a great job taking some awesome pictures of everything. And then Monday, so Monday's like a registration day, depending on when you come in, right? So, you know, you come in, you kind of look around town if you have a little bit of time. The guys and myself, we so we come in, the CPL ranking group came in a little bit early on Monday because that was the best flight to catch straight through. We actually saw the tower of the Americas. I don't know if you saw that, that was right outside the convention hall, which is like 750 feet in the air. So you can go up there and kind of see the entirety of San Antonio. We did the Rio Boat tour, which was really awesome because Rio, the the Rio, I I don't know if it's called the Rio River or the Rio Gran River, because they called they kept on calling it the Rio, but you know, it kind of cuts right there by the hotel, right through all the activity, and you can see all the bars and just the get togethers. It was actually such a really good time. And then we went to Alamo. And I see did you get to go to Alamo? Because I know that uh I know the guys did.

Charles Smitherman 6:03

Yeah, I mean I I I I took a chance to walk through. I mean, it would have been right there, and yeah, I mean, what a cool spot, and they've done a lot of a lot of good work to make that accessible and really a good experience to do that.

Pete Shau 6:16

I think that it was a good bit of history to take in every time that we talk about going back and seeing something. It's it's really nice to be standing where things happened and just be a part of it as much as we can. But Dow to the nitty-gritty, here comes Tuesday. Tuesday is when all the fun festivities happen. Now we're talking about fun festivities. April had a whole list of whole litany of things that were going on, um, starting with the trip group meetings in the mornings and uh uh the April government meetings. But at 1045, we had the peer group meetups, and there were quite a few of them. Uh actually I seen 10 different peer group meetups. What's the idea behind the peer group meetups and why is this different than when somebody's speaking in the later half of the day?

Charles Smitherman 6:59

Well, I you know, the part of the one of the main purposes and of having the convention is really bringing bringing people in, allowing, you know, not only the networking aspect, but really a just an ability to kind of sit around, share ideas, what's working, what's not. And we've you know found this peer group meetings where we can really organize this based upon you know store size, owners, managers, staff, kind of break these out into groups where that you know the people have are having the same type of issues, problems, things that are working, things that aren't. It really just provides that that really nice space to to have those conversations and it really just a good opportunity to to do that.

Pete Shau 7:44

So Paul Mativi and myself were able to do a peer meetup. We facilitated a group meetup of 15 and plus stores. We had a room full of people, we were able to get some some good engagement, but you know what I saw in the background was actually somebody taking pictures. Are we gonna see those pictures pop up of all the of all the peer meetups and all the speeches and everything that happened in Vartier World?

Charles Smitherman 8:06

So we are. We had uh the our photographer was absolutely great. Ashley works with us uh about every year, so she knows where to be. We actually just got the the file uh shared uh with us on a Tuesday of this week. And so we're coming through the few thousand photos that she took over the course of the uh of the three days there. So yeah, we'll be those will be coming out, we'll be sharing those and getting those out for people to see very soon.

Pete Shau 8:33

I know quite a few people who would be very, very interested in to see exactly what's going on behind the veils of the RTO world, those who couldn't make it, and just it's so great to see when you know you have a lot of people interacting and you see the the intent look on some people's faces when they're actually learning something or they're discussing something that they know best and people get to learn from them and that exchange and knowledge of information, it's it's something to behold, and I'm glad that you guys were able to capture that and see that. Now, going through the feedbacks, how soon are the feedbacks going to be available where you can see how well people took it or the ideas that they had of of maybe some good changes that they can do?

Charles Smitherman 9:10

So I we had uh I'll just give it credit to our data and program specialist Eddie for us. He uh had those post-convention surveys ready to go. They were sent out Thursday afternoon as people were leaving uh San Antonio, and the surveys were up. We closed those out last Friday, and he's been spending uh the majority of this week going through and uh organizing that data. I am actually expecting an email anytime this afternoon to see kind of the final report and what that looks like. I've gotten pieces here and there of a lot of the feedback, and you know it's been pretty overwhelmingly positive from what I've seen so far. Uh, but that'll be something we will be kind of organizing and then sharing pretty soon as we kind of do a recap of of that to share with the members and uh the dealers and everyone that that came and and then we'll use it for as a learning tool for uh what went right and what went wrong and what we can do to get better and uh to make this uh next year even even better than this year.

Pete Shau 10:12

I think I'm just gonna tell you Charles Paul Mativier had a couple ideas. I know that he probably shared that he said that he sent some uh some ideas in, so be on the lookout for his. You might have a paragraph or two. Uh some good ideas I think he had in there, but we talked about it for a little bit, so we'll talk about uh we'll talk about that later. So then so that's 1045 to 1145. Then it starts 12, we're at lunch, right? Big convention hall, like Charles said, it's it's cold in there, but I'll take cold over a hundred degree you know San Antonio heat any day. We're sitting down and then steps up. The first round is Joseph Copser. Now, if anybody knows who Joseph is, you know that this guy knows his business. For anybody who doesn't, we're talking about a 20-year veteran from the military. He has worked under uh the government for different contracts. He has met, I believe what I counted was three presidents, and I could be right, it could be two presidents, but I know he's met at least two, almost three. He actually ran for Congress, so I don't know if you know that. So he's very busy guy, gives a great speech, and then at the end of that, he mentioned the RTO show. Imagine that was that was completely unknown to me. I don't want anybody to think that that was like, you know, scheduled or I kind of slipped to my 20. It didn't happen, but I was so shocked that he added that in there. It was really appreciative to know that somebody was really paying attention to it, and I can I think he kind of just spread the word to everybody who was sitting there and uh taking it all in. So I really appreciate that. But then after lunch, 145 comes the actual the speaking, right? When when you have individual classes talking about it different individual things. So one thing I wanted to ask you, Charles, is how does APRO determine who's gonna be speaking in those time slots and what makes a good subject to talk about?

Charles Smitherman 11:53

Well, we try to uh you know have an idea of and do this on a track basis. So we've got you know the legal track, the sales track, the kind of things that would be specific to, you know, you're gonna come into this room and it's gonna be this. If you're a manager, you probably want to be on this track. If you're an owner, you may want to look at the this track. So we kind of try to divide them up into kind of subject matter categories. We open up typically early in early in the year, I want to say maybe January or February, we kind of put out a call, a call for presentations. One thing that we had this year, we just had we we had a pretty overwhelming response to that, where that the really kind of in order to really share the wealth with and allow the participation and uh to have the you know multiple points of view with these presentations, we did a lot of panel discussions this year where that I I did a panel, we had there were five of us on our the cybersecurity and uh privacy uh panel. Some others had three or four to it was just a good way to have kind of a dialogue, a chat kind of presentation um with a lot of these and to you know really have a lot of people involved. And so, you know, we the the the subject matters just really range from a lot of what really current issues I you know cybersecurity is one of those that that I had put in before I got the CEO job, uh, really just because it is a constant issue for any business and particularly for smaller businesses that face this kind of issue on a daily basis. You know, and then other things were just kind of the newer, like the newer technology pieces that the collections that pay it sponsored in terms of sales, growth. We it's really just a way where we get a lot of the industry experts in these sessions that are able to really share their uh their knowledge with everyone. And that's that's really one of the core purposes and benefits that would that the convention is supposed to bring, and that's uh so it's a really really significant part of uh of the schedule.

Pete Shau 14:00

Well, I gotta say, I do appreciate the fact that I was given the opportunity to speak because I I'm telling you, we we cherish all those moments that we have. And also, and I I want to ask, how did you how do you believe or what do you believe transpired that caused April to get an overwhelming amount of new or I should say people who are interested in sharing their ideas or what subjects they want to talk about versus maybe different uh you know other times, other April events?

Charles Smitherman 14:29

You know, I think it it's just the the as we continue to kind of develop this, really the tracks, I think that in and of itself encourages participation. Really, you know, I think we did it and we'll continue to try to improve the marketing on that of trying to get the word out as to hey look, if you've got an idea, if there's something important. You know, and I think really just the the facilitating that really encourages you know, you've got an idea. Sometimes we'll see presentations like at a a state association and and we'll we'll you know we'll say, hey, look, this is you know, encourage people to put in uh to do that. And so, you know, that that's one thing that um really kind of getting just those just that messaging and sharing that that knowledge. Um I mean that that's really what at the core, what what APRO and what the association is about is that bringing together people, bringing together ideas, bringing together best practices. And uh this is really to me one of the in terms of what we did at the convention, really the really significant and important part of it because we're able to bring so much into that afternoon with those educational sessions.

Pete Shau 15:41

I so agree. Now I did see on the main listing of what happened during the day and everything that's going on, the April Government Relations Committee. Now, I know on the last podcast we had talked about how important of a role that April played in legislation and watching the legislation and making sure that it stays RTO friendly. What exactly is the April Government Relations Committee?

Charles Smitherman 16:02

So that is, I mean, that that's really one of our very it's a very important committee that we have. It is we've got three, well, four attorneys, including myself, that sit on the on that committee. Uh this is where we really look at kind of that core mission, protecting the industry. How we're monitoring laws, legislation, regulation, how it's affecting the industry. We we look at part of that is doing planning for the uh legislative conference. We do planning on the for the APRO PAC where we raise funds and then distribute those out, uh, particularly during the election cycles, like the one coming up next year. Um and uh really just trying to organize and to provide that center of knowledge for our grassroots organizations, with our state associations, with lobbyists that they're employed on that level, really to kind of be have those eyes on the ground, the boots on the ground. Uh so if something happens, if a bad piece of legislation ever were to come forward or in a form of a bill, we would be ready to go in to present our side of the story on it, and to really to kind of protect the industry from that level, because it it really is a if something happens in one state, that's a way of most laws get they spread. It's like a contagion, you know, someone sees it and then someone picks it up and it they these things could spread. So something could start anonymous or innocuously in one in one state, and an RTOP legislation gets amended or gets redrafted or gets changed in some way that's not good or positive for the industry, and that gets picked up by someone else, and then next thing you know, we've got kind of a you know a national wildfire going on with these things that affect everyone. And so that committee itself, I mean we've got just some great, great minds, great legal minds on that committee. We've got uh a lot of experience on with guys like Larry Carico that have been been there, been involved, been really active on the legislative uh side, and you know that really kind of been able to help organize that is really part of our core mission with April. So that's a very important committee, and that's that's why it's front center on when we meet at APRO and we meet throughout the year at LudgeCon and at the board meeting we've got coming up in October. That's uh that committee and the work we do really is forms a really pillar of what April is all about.

Pete Shau 19:27

So while we're learning, April's behind the scenes making sure that everything is good, checks and balances, checking under the hood, making sure everything's running correct.

Charles Smitherman 19:34

That's exactly it. All right.

Pete Shau 19:38

So then after all the meetings and all the the official hubbub, right, and you got to understand what a meeting is like. So every speaker, every hour, starting at 145 to 235, and then you've got 245 to 335, and then 345 to 435. So every hour there are five different speakers going over five different subjects that people can choose to go to. So if they want to sit on it on this gentleman uh in the first hour, they can sit in with this young lady in the second hour and then possibly change it up for the third hour. It's something that you're not committed to, but you do have the ability to go back and forth and really kind of get an idea of what these perspective. And maybe you have knowledge in a certain area, so you don't need to listen to one person. You go somewhere where you're lacking a little bit of knowledge, or maybe you want to brush up on some skills. That's how it works. Anything from culture resets for magic to standing out above the crowd in the first one, you got cybersecurity. Second hour, there was some good things on like online sales, merchandising tips and tricks. Third hour also had, you know, what can go wrong? The Jeffree story. I actually uh was talking to Jason Winters. Unbelievable story. If you guys haven't had heard that, you've got to hear the Jeff Dubb story. And then sales 2.0 with Chris Cale Jr. I mean, those are just some of the touch points, not all of them, but it was you know, it's the idea that we're talking and somebody's listening. And there's there's so many intent people on learning this rent-to-owned business and the industry, and the ones that have been in it a long time want to share their knowledge. It's a great, great way to do that. So then after everything's said and done, and uh all the speaks are over, everybody's kind of learned a little bit, then we go to sold, sold, sold with Lynn Leach at the Hot Show, where all of these great deals start popping up, and these are the deals are what the vendors put together for April's Hot Show. They say, listen, we're going to discount it or we're gonna give her the best deal possible with the with the most amount of product to back that up. So let's say we have a sofa, we discount it to a certain rate, that is a very, very good deal, and we're gonna put as many pieces of inventory behind it as hot as possible. Then you go. Is there a certain selection that you use for items to get to the hot show?

Charles Smitherman 21:42

Well, so the Trip Group takes the takes the lead on this this part of the of the show, and they uh Dennis and his team do a you know just a great job. And I I want to say, I think I spoke to Dennis, he said they had 187 submissions for the hot show this year. And I think that's pr almost pretty normal. Wow. Tripp's got a committee that uh, you know, I think they've got a met of you know, just a matrix of, okay, well we can't have we got 40 slots and we can't have 20 mattresses or you know, 10 PlayStations. I mean, you know, the they've got a match a matrix that sets out kind of what the ideal composition of that is. But yeah, I mean that's there's a huge interest in that. And they Tribb and Dennis and that group and their committee does a good job of narrowing that down. And and the uh I believe from I don't know if they've got the final numbers released and or not, but I know that it was one of the one of the more successful hot shows that that that's been put on at this event and a number of years.

Pete Shau 22:46

So Josh Zazinski and I are sitting on the end on the far left side. And it, you know, we got the far left side. The trade is going on or, you know, Lynn Leach and everybody, they're on the right side. We do have people coming over and uh right next to me, and I'm not gonna mention the name of of who, but it was a paddle that was putting up some numbers, and I was like, good night. Who are you? You guys have some really good sales going on because they were they were plenishing, uh, they were filling the shelves back home pretty, pretty deep. Um but it w I just saw some good numbers going up, and it was nice to see, you know, with everything that's going on with the economy right now and a lot of things that people are worried about. I think I've heard it from so many people say that rent to own can flourish in these times. And I think just looking at the hot show is one of those, yeah, I think it can. I think it can succeed. These guys are doing very, very well, and I think they have a good outlook for the fourth quarter, which is very nice to hear because right now there's so much uncertainty out there. I know a lot of our employees back home want to make sure that everything's okay with with the business, with the industry as a total, and making sure that we're solvent, you know, for the next several years. And I'm telling you right now, from the from the purchases I saw, I don't think we're going anywhere. They did some amazing jobs there. So then the next day is actually the show. So we actually have the trade show start on Wednesday. So you guys got to understand, Sunday's golfing, Monday is checking in. Tuesday is all the educational classes and everything that we want to learn and teaching or learning either way. Because I'm going to tell you right now, even when you're standing in front, you also learn from interactive crowds because these crowds are rent-to-owned crowds. This is a rent-to-owned industry. We're not quiet. If you're saying something that somebody wants to talk about or they want to interject, it's so amazing to get the feedback and then discuss that in a forum in front of people who are like-minded and really have rent to own on their mind and the best of it. And it's so it's so great to see. So then Wednesday comes along, we got the exhibitor set up, and then so right after breakfast, everybody goes. Except this time, we had a ribbon cutting event. Did we do we always have a ribbon cutting event?

Charles Smitherman 24:44

So that's a the I think that's when it was started a few years ago. So we had uh we had a keynote speaker speaker that morning. We did the State Association Awards, and then when with Pam Nimic did the keynote that morning on brand culture, and then after that, yeah, I I think I had the the honor and the duty to dismiss everyone and then try to run out of that room as fast as I could to get downstairs to to do the ribbon cutting. So it's just kind of a neat, unique thing. Uh Mike Tissett brought an extremely large pair of scissors with him this year to do that ribbon cutting. So it was kind of a neat thing, you know. We do RTL World that we do this in partnership with Trip Group. I mean, really to have like the you know, the four of us with myself and with Deb Shields on from Trip, and then Mike Tissett is their president, and then our board president uh with Michael Bennett, just having the four of us uh be able to do cut the ribbon and you know officially get the trade show portion of it open. Uh it was a pretty neat and unique thing to do.

Pete Shau 25:46

Now, Pan Nimic herself is a CEO. She's considered one of the best in the industry to talk about some of the things she talked about, like worst place culture and and just making sure that everybody's on board with everything that you're doing, including looking forward to the future. That was also a great speech. Then we do we get into the trade show, we go into the hall, somewhere in there, there's a million different people looking at you from a million different how many vendors did we have this year?

Charles Smitherman 26:12

So we had, I think the final number was uh 109 exhibitors. And so we had, yeah, I mean, it was a it was a a full space, and that, you know, that just that unique view, I think, was just really wasn't sure how I was going to look on kind of looking at it on paper about how that coming in from that elevated portion, but coming down those escalators and seeing that whole room just full of people and full of booths and our brightly colored backdrops and uh carpet, and you know, it was it was a really just a very cool experience coming down that escalator into that hall.

Pete Shau 26:48

For anybody who doesn't know, the San Antonio, the convention center is amazingly huge. It's like a city by itself. And so although we were right across the street, you enter that place, you had to walk all, I don't know, a thousand yards at least to get to the back end, and so it's huge. And so as you're coming into the exhibit hall, you're coming in on a I almost want to say the third floor, but you're coming in, and as you come to the ledge, you don't see it. You'd actually have to look over the ledge, over that balcony, to see the entirety of the trade show beneath you, which was an amazing sight. It's something that I've never seen uh at any of them because you nobody ever really has that elevated look. So you actually got to stand there on the rails and take in the entirety of the trade show, all the way from the back where you can sit down and have lunch to the big sections that Ashley had. Uh I think VersaRent had a big spot. All the vendors are just laid out, and you can really kind of get a good look at it. April gives you this map, and then they go, go down the escalators, and when you get down to the bottom, it's nothing but buying goodness. You get down there and you get to really talk to the vendors and get in with the product that they have, and it was just an amazing show as far as being able to look down on it and then be a part of it, and then almost kind of look back on it on the way out. And it just, I know I saw so many people from up top taking pictures of it because it was a very unique part of the event that you actually get to see the entirety of it. Because usually when you're in it, you know, you just don't realize how big it is. When you go from wall to wall, you've got these rows of different people who have got the best things for rent to own, but you just don't see it until you get to the top of this, you know, like you said, the top of that escalator was like, it's a sight to behold. That was something nice. And then comes the ice cream. Whose idea was the ice cream? Do we always have an ice cream break?

Charles Smitherman 28:28

I'm sure there's a history on ice cream in RTO somewhere, and maybe someone can write an article about it someday because it seems like that the ice cream is just kind of it's ice cream o' o'clock at uh that middle of the afternoon on that first day. And so so yeah, I mean, it's just one of those things that is just part of an RTO trade show that uh I I think that has been going on for a number of years. And um, so you know, it was a a neat thing. We it's always good we can, you know, have that's a sponsored thing. I think Crossley and uh Versarant were our sponsors this year, and you know, it's a just a kind of a neat afternoon break before the bar opens a little bit later to uh uh as you're down there on the exhibit hall. And you know, the the more that we can keep people down in that space, the the better. And uh that's you know better for our dealers and I mean our vendors that are there and you know to be able to have everyone down there. So it's just a a nice thing that we were able to do, and I'm sure we'll keep on doing that's it, guys. Future shows.

Pete Shau 29:29

The secret is out. Charles is saying, and they they they hitch at 4 35. It's time, you know, it's five o'clock somewhere. Open up the purses, buy some more product. This is how you do it. That's awesome. So right after that, before the San Antonio Experience Party, which we'll get to in a second, there's actually the emergence, uh, excuse me, the emerging professionals event. That's something that I wanted to talk to you about. So the emerging emerging professionals event is a little bit different than all professionals. Emerging professionals, can you can you shed some light on what that's about?

Charles Smitherman 30:00

So that that's something that I think that is actually part of our current strategic plan of trying to re reposition that or rebrand it. I mean, I know that uh a couple of years ago I was kind of standing on the outside of that looking in whenever it was called the young professionals, and uh I had someone from April kind of like motioned me to come in. I'm like, I can't, I'm I'm over 40. I can't, I'm not a young professional anymore. Um and so I think that part of that was really a bit of a rebrand. It really what that we try to do with that is just provide a space that's a little bit more uh more intimate, just smaller than the than the you know, the trade show floor or just some of the more crowded, busier spaces around the you know, the experience party and things, where that people that are new to the industry that you know are are coming in, can can kind of come into a space with with established leaders and experienced professionals that are in the industry. R APRO board, uh we uh had a number of our APRO board members that were at the uh at the event this year. Nationwide Primetime was our sponsor. We had it at the Hotel Contessa that was just right across the river from uh from the Briscoe where we did the experience party. And you know, it was just a way we'd grab a few drinks, get get some FaceTime with the people that uh and a lot of the people that were doing these presentations, you know, the the previous day in those education sessions. So that's something we're trying to, we're gonna continue to try to improve and uh you know get the word out because it's a you know part of what that you know our mission at APRO is really developing tomorrow's leaders of the industry and of of the association and you know our new board members are the people that will be doing these sessions one day. And this is uh just one of those ways that we try to to be inclusive and to help with that development.

Pete Shau 31:52

So the idea is to take some of the new minds that we have coming into rent own and pair them up with some of the minds that have already been there and kind of give them a feeling of where they can go and what direction to go into and and how to be in their shoes?

Charles Smitherman 32:04

That's it that's exactly it. Really just to kind of help them make those connections, to have that FaceTime, you know, that that it might not be a little bit more difficult, you know, in the uh the busier parts of the of the convention. And so it this is it's kind of it's a little bit of a work in progress, and we're you know, that it's something that we're like I said, it's part of a strategic plan and really part of that that whole leadership development aspect. And so so I think there's a lot to come with that going forward. But this this year we had a you know really nice reception before the experience party and had a lot of people come over and participate in it. And so something I expect will continue to be a major part of RTO world going forward.

Pete Shau 32:46

That sounds great. So and now a word from our sponsor. Box Pop Uli is the best graphics production agency in Rent2Own, offering turnkey service from design production to fulfillment. They offer printing and production, catalogs, and a ton of creative services. Andrew and City Hadic have the knowledge and experience of working with Rent2Own for years, and they make it easy to get your brand recognized and utilized. You can contact them at 770-476-5112, or visit them online at box-pop-ulli.com. And now, back to the show. After we have all our experiences done, we've gone a little bit of shopping, we've had our ice cream, we've been talked to. Now it's time to be serenaded. The San Antonio Experience Party at the Briscoe Western Art Museum, which was, if you guys didn't know anything about San Antonio, it was right across a bridge a little bit down the street. Go in there, enjoy some good food, have some good drinks. Whose idea was it to teach the line dancing?

Charles Smitherman 33:49

So it wasn't mine, I can say that. I I conveniently hid inside whenever that came up, despite my staff's uh promises otherwise.

Pete Shau 33:58

Uh you know, I was gonna say I didn't see you out there. I was out there. Okay, I just want you to know the RTO show is representing the RTO industry by making an absolute fool of myself trying to learn these dances. I mean, the instructor was absolutely amazing. She did a great job, and she did a great job instructing. But the heat and uh the fact that I had was uh slightly inebriated did not help the fact at all, but I did try to go out there and make uh make a good use of of the free instruction that I got, and I think I I somewhat learned Cottonai Joe. I don't know if I learned it well, but I did learn it. So we were looking for you. I don't remember seeing you out there, but we were looking for you.

Charles Smitherman 34:35

Yeah, unfortunately, you had to go inside and uh be in the air conditioned for a bit and needed a lot more liquid carbon. Speak to some people that I'm that I'm not gonna call you out, but I did have a conversation with you. You're supposed to be calling me about joining April. You know who you are.

Pete Shau 34:49

There you go. There you go. You heard it first on the RTO show. We know who you are. So you go in there and it was amazing because you can not only do you get to enjoy some food and kind of just meet up with everybody, there was the outside space where everybody was gathered. Unfortunately, it was a little bit hot, but you know what? Everybody made the most of it. They did have fans outside, everybody's out there. They had some music, there was some dancing, but then you can also actually go into parts of the museum and see some of the history that made up the Alamo and some of the history that made up San Antonio. Absolutely amazing displays, which was great to see. So then after that, everybody kind of does their thing. We will not talk about the San Antonio nightlife on this episode with Charles, but we will talk about that later. And then here comes Thursday. Now, Thursday is a half a day where kind of you kind of wrap things up and you get, you know, you kind of finish with your orders, you kind of get your ordering done, you talk to your vendors, you get everything set up. What's the idea behind the half a day versus another full day or you know, anything different?

Charles Smitherman 35:47

Well, I think there were, you know, there there are a number of things on that day. Uh, you know, one of the important things we do before the the show opens back up is we have our April vendor advisory committee meeting. And our vendor advisory committee is is is as I said, it's made up of our vendors that are chosen and elected to be on that. And really we this is kind of a way that we get a lot of feedback from them as to their experience, the the previous few days, uh, in terms of setup, in terms of how the show has gone, and a lot of those things that really kind of help, you know, really shape and influence what we do in the following years, and things that we need to troubleshoot and look out for and do better and uh know we've done well and that kind of thing. And uh so you know, part of it really is a uh, you know, it is a half day. Uh Trib does uh gives out some of their rebates to help go and and and spend some more money that day. It's a you know, we we we ask a lot of our vendors to, you know, this being one of many trade shows that they uh they travel to throughout the year. And so it's really kind of giving them more time, more to more more FaceTime with dealers that are buying product, that ability. Uh we ask a lot of them to come in and you know, to some of these guys have just you know massive amount of uh of stock that they bring in, and that's a you know pretty big expense to come in and set up all of those, you know, living room suits and bedrooms and mattresses and electronics and everything else that goes with it. So it's really just about getting uh, you know, a few more hours in. Um, you know, it and it's also the you know, the Wednesday tends to be very busy at times. And there are there are points that I know that you know I spent my basically that entire day and a half walking around talking to vendors and uh you know, just uh seeing people thanking them for coming and talking to them about their experiences at the show. And some of these guys, you know, they were slammed from the time it opened until the time they got closed out the day before. And so, you know, that that day's a little a day where it's a little bit uh the foot traffic might not be as high as it is the day before, but there are you know, all the vendors are still down there working. And so for a lot of the ones that were really busy, it's a good time to go down there and to catch them, you know, might not be able to do it the day before. And so really kind of offering that space and opportunity for for them to finish up and get their orders in and you know, the trip rebate money getting distributed out and you know that that type of thing really kind of goes into that whole idea of why that we don't just do a one-day, one-day, you know, one and done type of type of show.

Pete Shau 38:30

Now, talking about closing up the second day, I had an opportunity to talk to Richard Formo some because he was absolutely busy. Now we're talking about Richard Formo, the CEO and co-founder of RTO2, working with Paydet, and they were one of the titanium sponsors. We had Ashley as a titanium sponsor and Paid It as this year's new titanium sponsor. How did they do? How was that uh and how I just want you to know, Charles, I was speaking at the same time that Paydet did their thing, and I missed it because of that. I'm just telling you right now, I was so like, oh man. But uh, so I didn't get to see it firsthand. Were you there? Did you get to see it? And how well did that go over with the RTO industry being that it is a brand new uh automated collection platform that's gonna really kind of be a big to-do in rent to own?

Charles Smitherman 39:20

Well, I mean, they were uh so I did not get to sit down on their session either. I was tried to I had a my own and then a few other ones I had to needed to sit in on to observe, and then it tried to get around to the others. And but they uh Richard's group is definitely one of those that when I tried to go by and say hello on uh on Wednesday, that there was not even a break in the space to be able to, you know, poke my head into their booth because they were pretty much slammed from time it opened till the time to close the time it was able to close. So um I I think that they were they they definitely got their the word out and were able to speak to a lot of people and and be really kind of show and demo their uh demo their product. So, you know, they I've been Richard's on my list to call, but I wanted to give him a couple weeks to work through all of his leads and close all of his contracts that I'm sure he was able to get signed up that two weeks ago when we were there.

Pete Shau 40:15

Well, I can tell you he's busy. I've been trying to get a hold of him and he has he has we've been communicating, so it's not like we're not communicating, but getting an actual hold of him is hard because I know that they were extremely busy uh as far as I'm concerned. Now I don't see everything, so that's why I was asking if it seemed like they were they had the reach that they wanted to going into the RTO World Convention. Did they happen to get what they were trying to get out of it? I think they did. I think they did. I'm gonna talk to him about that, but uh being that it was such an important part of the show, certain parts of it, and I would never say nothing is is not as important as others, but this was something I think that's revolutionary, that's gonna really start popping up in rent-to-owned companies all over the United States, and God knows how far the reach can go. Because I know that you know the U.S. isn't the only place that has rent to own, and we have, you know, in Guam and South America and you know, some of our islands. So it's it's something that can really kind of have a really big outreach. And I think it's gonna be good for the industry. I just want to see how it went and what it looked like. Talking about how it went, how does APRO measure the the success of an RTO world event?

Charles Smitherman 41:21

So uh we've got a few uh, you know, I I like the data points, and we've got a few metrics that we're able to look at. You know, we could do compare comparisons to previous years, you know, the big ones you know, really kind of looking at attendance. I think we had, I think our final number was like 748 attendees, 109 exhibitors. So this was this was up there, if not the most attended, I believe it might have been the highest attended RTO world that we've had in terms of since we've been doing RTO world for the past uh few years. You know, looking at our sponsor list, where you know, you would get two titanium sponsors with Ashley and Payday, Platinum with Crossley, you know, the having the the support of our sponsors and having that list where we had 38 uh sponsors this year, uh, you know, that that's one you know, we could kind of look at those data points. I, you know, just kind of my informal kind of speaking to people and getting their feel. The there there seemed just to be such an overwhelmingly positive feel to the show to me. And uh, you know, a lot of the people I spoke to with the a lot of the dealers, uh the consensus was that they had spent more money than they had intended to. That kind of goes back to your your comments about the you know, the the state of the economy, the uncertainty, kind of where things stand. And you know, the we can bring a trade show that has new products, new ideas like paid it, new just some really cool unique uh items that uh that might work in this industry. And that's really what we try to do with ACRO with the trade show with RTO World, is it's you know, you don't have to be a trib member to show at RTO world. And this is a way if you want to get your foot in, you know, test the waters, get your foot in the door, see if your product works for the RTO industry, that's the place to do it. And there seemed to be a you know, just a really there was a lot of that there this time and uh a lot of interest in it from the you know kind of the spend that the the dealers were were putting out there. So, you know, those are kind of our you know, kind of the way we look at it. Uh, whenever, you know, I'll tell you I've had a lot of feedback of just how much people love San Antonio, and that that's always a you know, when you try somewhere a little bit different, someone that rather than going to the same place every year, we you know, it's always a uh you know an idea to bury it up, to give people the opportunity to go see somewhere different, to try something different. Um we've had a lot of feedback of how you know just positive about San Antonio with that convention center, with uh, you know, the hotels, the um uh experience party, those things that uh, you know, that it it may be back on our horizon one day and somewhere somewhere down the road. It was a place we'd re- look at revisiting. So, you know, there are a number of those things that we kind of look at. And then, and I can tell you really one of the important ones is really our our vendor advisory committee meeting. You know, that kind of sitting down, we're doing kind of a it's not quite a halftime assessment, but it's a really almost a third quarter assessment of how things are going, how things went the day before. Um, and that was just such a an overwhelmingly positive meeting where there were just lots of, you know, uh the term great was thrown around a lot. You know, the the app was great, the you know, the number of these things that that were there that were being provided for were described as great. And that so we kind of look at those things and really to see what we did. And then we'll we'll look at the survey data too. And really, you know, to me it's uh it's important to do the things right, but it's also the important things to learn and to do it better next time. So as we kind of get ready, as I said, we're we're already in the hitting the ground running on planning RTO World 2024 in Orlando and trying to account for these things and do things better and get better every time we do this. That that's that's the goal, and that's what we're we're trying to do.

Pete Shau 45:12

Well, I would agree. I think San Antonio was a great choice for this year's convention. Now that it is in Orlando for 2024, how does APRO going about choosing these venues for these RTO world events?

Charles Smitherman 45:26

So we've got a uh you know, an evolving RFP process. Uh we we look at what the you know what what we needed. We've got we've got kind of a footprint requirement, we've got a hotel, you know, number of rooms that we need each night. Uh we've got kind of a you know, there we we don't do I've heard, you know, well, why don't we do Vegas? Well we'd like to do Vegas, but Vegas was gonna put our hotel price is gonna, you know, be a good fifty percent higher than uh and that puts us out of range for you know to to hit and involve as many people as we can. Uh So there are a number of things that kind of go into that. We're trying to be at this kind of sweet spot with you know convenient access from the hotels, enough rooms to accommodate what we the number of people we have coming with a convention space that's uh that fits our needs for both our trade show and um you know all of our education sessions, the ballrooms for our general meetings, uh the hot show, these type of things. So we're kind of looking at a lot of those things and you know, really location is important. We don't want to be somewhere that's out really remote and hard for people to get to and expensive to get to as well. Yeah, close to the airport, right? That's it. You know, we need to be close to a good airport. Uh hopefully that uh whether if it's not a direct flight for the majority of people, it would at least be no more than one connection through a major through a major airport. So, you know, it's kind of a you know, there's a a I'm not sure what the what the secret is, but there's certainly a balancing, the number of balancing things that go into finding the right location. And we're you know, we're we're planning, we've we're in the middle of our RFP process for 2025. Uh we'll we'll be selecting 2026 pretty quickly thereafter. So we're we're going to try to get a little bit ahead of the curve because the demand for convention space has just spiked over the past couple of years where it's you know, used to you could play play out or plan out, you know, really two years in advance, and now it's you know, to be competitive, you got to be out there a little bit further ahead. So, you know, a number of those things kind of going in it were uh you know, and then a lot of the feedback of what what worked well and what we'd be kind of looking for in the future comes into that as well. So, you know, number factors and we we try to do it or places that people will maybe somewhat unique, something different. Maybe San Antonio wasn't really a place that's high on my list to go take a vacation to, but I mean, you know, uh it's a great place to go for a convention.

Pete Shau 48:00

I agree. I agree. So approximately uh is it just one main event that happens from April a year, or there is there more?

Charles Smitherman 48:09

Well, so for our our main meeting and convention is RTL World, but probably the most important event I would say is our legislative conference. We are in the process of setting the dates for that, which I'm looking at probably uh the either the third or fourth week of April uh this year in Washington, D.C. So we'll be, you know, uh save the dates will be forthcoming on that very soon. We as we kind of get ready and prepare for that. You know, we do a number of other things throughout the year. Uh I can tell you kind of is a just a follow-up to our conversation with about RTO World 2023. We are gonna we're gonna be doing a webinar uh in October that will be the best of RTO World. Uh part of what we're doing with kind of looking at our surveys of, you know, which which were the best sessions, which were the ones that, you know, with the most positive feedback, we're gonna be combining all of those into a webinar that we'll do on October 10th. And so there'll be more more news about that coming out in the next uh probably the next few days as we're starting to put that together. So maybe you were at RTL World and you couldn't make it to all the sessions because we had so many going on at the same time and you had to prioritize one over the other. Well, this may be a way that you get to hear uh about or from a presenter that you didn't, or maybe you weren't able to attend this year. Well, this is a way you can kind of get a in a about an hour's time, a really uh good digest version of of a number of these good sessions. Uh so that'll be forthcoming. Uh I'm looking at we're gonna be doing you know web a lot more webinars for our membership over the uh over the coming the coming months and uh and then yeah, really just really getting ready for RTO World 2024.

Pete Shau 49:59

It almost seems like it's already around the corner, right? You already 2023 is gone, and you're like, wow, that I've already got a plan for this uh for this special event. It did seem that that big. I mean, there was a lot of great vendors there, and I know that when I talked to them, I had some good feedback, but again, I don't, you know, I don't have all the metrics and all the data that you guys have. So when I talk to vendors, I go by what they say. And I want to say that some of the people that I actually talked to about the convention itself, the trade show, what happened and what they got out of it as far from the vendor side, you know, new generations or you know, the guys, Robbie Tyson, Kevin Silvers, again, they did a great job. It looked like Kevin Gaughan and Fred Saurbeck of Ashley Furniture actually were really, really busy. I talked to Brandon Jinn of Living Essentials, you know, they had a lot going on. Dennis and Brian Rosen now, and isn't Brian a part of the uh the board now?

Charles Smitherman 50:49

So yeah, Brian is uh one of our new uh vendor advisory committee uh members just uh just elected.

Pete Shau 50:55

So you know, I talked to Rusty Nix at Almo, uh next level, Felix at a Rourke, Gidget at Twinstar. I have to I had to put myself on a waiting list just to speak with her. You know, Rob at FSG, when it came down to get everything done, I think he was tackled from the hot show uh sale by that he had going on. You know, Keith and Lewis at Dialectic, always taking care of us, but they were they were busy. Matter of fact, I just talked to Keith a couple days ago, and he was telling me that he's still processing some of the orders from RTO World. So to me, that that means that it's doing pretty good. And then Cindy Hadgick from Vox is I know she was busy and everything going on. We've got to talk to her, especially with what uh is going on with us. But just so that everybody knows, and I know you're gonna know from the beginning of this podcast, but you're gonna hear it now too. Apro is now the official prime sponsor for the RTO show. It's couldn't be something that we're more proud of. We're glad that we can put that up, and we're glad that we're gonna be able to uh put that some of the shirts and kind of share that with everybody because the partnerships is what this is all about. Not only is it about education, it's about learning, it's about getting the best product out to your people and the partnerships, the relationships that you've gonna generate when you're there, talking to people and the networking and finding out who does what and who does it well and bringing that out to your customers in the RTO industry. It's an amazing thing that we get to do from RTO World. We're so happy that you guys actually put that on every single year. I can't wait to see what's going on at the legislative conference and who's gonna go because I would like to be a part of that. The RTO show would like to represent the RTO industry in that way and kind of sit in and see what goes on and be a part of that for everything that we have going on, whether it be the customer side of it or whether it be the employee side of it or whether be the owner side of it. It's important to us all, especially uh when APRO is involved with it, especially when everybody can see the importance of what we do and how much we give back to the community, and we want to keep that going for each and every one of you who are in the RTO industry. So that is the rundown of events that happen in RTO world. There wasn't really a moment where anybody wasn't doing anything. It seemed like it was busy from the opening bell, or I should say the cutting ribbon, to the end of it when we had, and we want to talk about it, you and Dennis had some activities at the end, am I right?

Charles Smitherman 53:04

The the first and maybe last, I don't know. We'll see. Uh executive challenge. So uh, and I say that because I'm still a little bit uh I don't know what happened on the scorekeeping, but um so yeah, that was just one of those, you know, we were it was always trying to to build a little bit of excitement or do something a little bit different that last day. And the um uh so Dennis and I kind of got together and our staffs got together and came up with the idea that we would kind of do five silly skill-esque type games around the convention floor. And I, you know, it was uh it was all fun and games until we had to do the hot sauce uh shot at the end.

Pete Shau 53:46

But um uh Well, I can tell you right now, San Antonio is nothing short on hot sauce. You probably had a plethora of of different sauces that you can choose from. I commend you for even doing the shot, I would tell you. That's that's amazing. But it was so nice to see that. But I just want you guys to know, before we leave, they actually enticed everybody for that Thursday by giving away money in the socks. Do we know who won the money?

Charles Smitherman 54:09

You know, uh I do not. And I think that uh, you know, if you've got if you picked up your socks and you haven't opened them yet, you know, there's still a chance. I think there was uh there was a lot of cash that were was stuck down in those. So uh there's still maybe some floating out there in some of those unopened packages that you got home and left them in a suitcase or forgot about them. Uh so that was just uh, you know, the those socks came out really, really well and you know, kind of one of those things that the with the RTO show world logo on it that will be uh probably a collector's item as we go forward.

Pete Shau 54:43

Oh, absolutely. It's it's definitely a collector's item. If you're not following the RTO show on Facebook or Instagram, there was a post of the RTO show wearing the socks that I did not win any money in. I did try, but I did not win. So I wasn't the winner of that. But it was so nice to have a takeaway. There was a lot of different vendors, there was a lot of different speakers, there was a lot of different keynote speakers and a lot of different visions that came out of this. And I don't know anybody who didn't have something of a takeaway as far as a tidbit of information or brand new ideas or brand new products as far as some of the things that the vendors had, including the automated collections platform that came from PayTit. Some of the great things that came out of this hopefully will transition to Orlando 2024. We can't wait for that. We're so happy that you had some time to make it on the show because I know that you're really busy kind of locking the doors and finishing up everything after you know the RTO world 2023, going into the long hibernation before 2024 of a whole couple months, because I'm sure I'm sure you're gonna be right back at it. And then the legislative conference, guys, stick to the RTO show. We will let you know what's going on. Also, if you have any questions, you can talk to Charles or anybody else by sending anything that you guys want to talk about to Pete at the RTO Show Podcast. You can email me and I will make sure it gets over. And then maybe we have a going back and forth and we answer some questions and some comments that you guys have. If you want to see us, you can also see us at www.therto showpodcast.com. Again, which is sponsored by April. If you want to see what's going on at APRO and their calendar events, go to rtohq.com. Charles, we're so appreciative of you taking out the time and talking to us about Hello San Antonio. And uh, if you guys need anything, you let us know over here at the RTO show, and we will make it happen.

Charles Smitherman 56:25

Well, I appreciate you being uh asking me back on and getting a revisit and rethink about that great week we had in San Antonio and look forward to doing this all over again not too far down the road in Orlando.

Pete Shau 56:36

We're gonna have Orlando, we're gonna have Hello Orlando, that is my stomping ground. I just want you to know it is very close to home, so it's gonna be very, very fun. And let you guys know that Florida is a host of a lot of different things, but if we're gonna do it in Orlando, there is Disney. And the reason I mention Disney is not because Disney is a great place, but it's because Orlando is built on bringing people in and sending them out. So if you're gonna do it in Orlando, there's gonna be a lot of things to do. There's gonna be a lot of choices of activity going into Orlando. So the airport is amazing, they'll get you in, they'll get you out. There's a lot to do around there, and I expect there's gonna be just as much in a learning area. So if you guys have any questions, please hit us up. Again, Pete at the RTO ShowPodcast.com. Like and subscribe on Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts so that you don't miss a show. Thank you so much, Charles, for being on, and we'll talk to you in the next one.

Charles Smitherman 57:31

All right, thanks, Pete. I appreciate it. Thanks, Charles. Have a good one. You sir. Thanks.

Pete Shau 57:34

And that is Charles Smith herman, the CEO of April, giving us an understanding of what goes on in the RTO world events, how much goes into it, how much thought process goes behind it, and how much they are interested in making this one of the best events of the year. We're so appreciative that you guys stop by and give us a listen. Please like and subscribe. And as always, the RTO show is proud to be sponsored by the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations. April is consistently participating, educating, and watching candidly over the RTO industry, and has been doing so since 1984. Keep track of the current and future events, meetings, and legislative gatherings by going to the website at rtohq.com. And while you're there, don't forget to subscribe to the RTOHQ magazine and Twitter. Also, if you're not a member, find out how to become more online at rtohq.com. We are so appreciative that you guys stop by and give us a listen. Please like and subscribe. And always remember to collect the code so you can get yourself out. Thanks so much for catching next to it.