RAILROAD GOES VIRTUAL

Large in-person events have been put on hold for the foreseeable future, but our Railroad Solutions team is gearing up to participate in a new kind of tradeshow: completely online.

The American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) has traditionally hosted a large annual conference with attendees from across the country. This year, due to COVID, the association has had to re-think their strategy. Instead of gathering in hotel conference rooms in Texas, attendees will participate in the conference virtually.

The AREMA show will be the first entirely virtual event Western States has participated in.

“We’re excited that AREMA has thought of a way to do it, in spite of COVID,” said Railroad Rental Coordinator Karlee Wrenchey, ”It’s exciting to still get to interact with other businesses and customers, even though we can’t all meet in-person.”

A virtual conference comes with a lot of new hurdles for both vendors and exhibitors, including designing online booths for attendees to visit and manning the live chat feature to talk to participants in real time.

“We don’t typically have a lot of Zoom meetings, so a lot of this is very new!” Karlee said.

After several weeks of preparation, the Railroad Solutions team is eager to participate in a new way to connect with customers. Be sure to watch the Western States Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages for updates about the event!