The NHS show and Morgan the inventor
You may have met someone like her – an entrepreneur and inventor who seeks to land her product in hardware stores – or maybe you haven’t – until right now.
“Every idea has a first day,” she said, sitting up on a small stage in the Inventors Forum, an offshoot area next to the main hall of the National Hardware Show 2024 in Las Vegas.
The “she” is Morgan Uhl, inventor and ambassador of her company Knobez, out of Washington state.
“Lean in to the fact that you don’t start out perfect,” said Uhl, speaking to a small but tuned-in crowd of attendees, fellow inventors and exhibitors listening intently nearby.
Her business makes cute, handmade adornments to handles and knobs for the home or office.
“Work for that day when you’ll be running your own factory,” she said. She exited the stage a few moments later to loud applause.
The message that every idea has a first day, and the subsequent applause to acknowledge the guts and ingenuity of the entrepreneur, are really what the NHS show is all about (and all trade shows, really).
To be noticed. To put it out there. To connect with hardware owners.
Attendees came to Las Vegas to roam the show and feel and touch products. The NHS went away from stages and presentations this year, to focus instead on getting right in the aisles with the hardware owners.
Where there were open and carpeted walkways to and from the main hall in years past, booths now fill those spaces, putting new products right in easy reach and easy viewing for attendees.
Some were even screwups.
Timmy Crawford and Heidi Williams invented Screwups, a simple S-shaped device to shake snow off trees.
“We’re brand new to the market,” said Crawford. Standing up and beaming about his killer-good booth position literally right in the walkway of the convention hall’s front entrance.
If his booth was any closer to the front doors, he’d be blocking it.
“We did well recently at a garden show in Denver, near where we live,” he said. So the two co-owners came to the NHS to try their luck.
“We want to be in retail,” he said. “We want to be in hardware stores. We’re looking for exposure, and we’re getting it big time.”
The other side of the story are dealers here to see what’s new in the market.
Steve Ashmore is a rep for a hardware company north of Las Vegas.
“Commercial real estate is starting to boom,” he said. “Lots of DIY but also greater demand for building materials,” said Ashmore.
“I want to see what’s in the marketplace today, so this is the place to look.”
Attendees finding products – and inventors like Morgan Uhl – meet up in hundreds of instances at the NHS show 2024 in Las Vegas.
It really is a place where ideas have their first day, and hopefully many more.
