Why You Should be Attending IRE 2023

By Cayden Wemple. 

In a new Coffee Conversations episode, Heidi J. Ellsworth sits down with industry leaders to discuss the upcoming International Roofing Expo. 

With the International Roofing Expo (IRE) fast approaching, Heidi J. Ellsworth sat down with some of the industry's leading experts to discuss the upcoming convention. If you consider yourself to be a part of the roofing industry, you should really be thinking about attending the show. Jason Stanley of IB Roof Systems put it best. He told Heidi, “It's incredible. It's called the International Roofing Expo, and it's rightly named. This is the world's largest roofing show. If you're in roofing, this is the show you go to. The ability to connect with leaders in this industry is like no other.” 

The keynote address at this year’s expo will be given by Chris Czarnik, author of the book, Winning the War For Talent, and will be focused on the labor shortage crisis that the roofing industry has been plagued with for the last few years. Chris shared with Heidi, “For 40 years we posted a job ad, people came and we got to choose. For the next 10 years, we have to compete.” 

During his keynote, Chris will share how to take the ideas that you use every day to win new roofing customers and apply them directly to recruiting. 

Roofing is an industry that isn’t very well-known by the general workforce, and when it’s shown in the media, it’s hardly ever painted in a positive light. This makes members of the workforce feel more inclined to work in a field like customer service instead. Chris wants it to be known that these construction jobs pay better and have benefits. He is also advocating for these jobs to “be put in front of people’s noses” so that they know they exist.  

Another way to focus on the future of the industry is by engaging the next generation of workers and that happens through the Roofing Alliance Student Competition. Kelly B. Van Winkle, Roofing Alliance president, shared how they are engaging with that next generation. "In the last few years, we've been partnering with construction management schools at universities across the United States. So many of the top construction management programs [we are] partnering with them to develop curriculum to have these opportunities for contests. At the IRE, we'll be having the student competition. It's on March 8th, and I hope you all will join us at the convention center." 

Luciano Perez from KPost Roofing & Waterproofing was part of this conversation and will be leading a special panel geared toward the Latino workforce to ensure that communication and culture are included in every safety conversation. "The panel session is not a training class, but we are going to cover things like communication skills," explained Luciano. "You are the safety leader. What are the traits of a highly effective safety leader or professional? One of them will be communication and how you can use communication in an effective way." 

This is just a glimpse of what is in store for attendees, all information related to the show can be found on RoofersCoffeeShop’s Countdown to the IRE Page, sponsored by CertainTeed. And if you are a first-time attendee, be sure to join us right before the Welcome Party for the first-time attendees networking reception sponsored by your friends at RCS! 

Register for IRE 2023 here! 

To hear more about IRE and all of the exciting events that will be happening, you can listen to the rest of the conversation here.  

Learn more about IRE in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.theroofingexpo.com. 

About Cayden  

Cayden is a reporter for RoofersCoffeeShop, MetalCoffeeShop and AskARoofer. When he isn’t writing about roofs, he’s usually playing guitar or writing songs for his musical endeavors.