Just get a deal done!
January 30, 2019
Vandebilt student named Teenager of the Year
January 30, 2019
Thousands flocked to Houma’s civic center this weekend to attend the 20th Annual Southern Louisiana Boat, Sport, and RV Show.
An estimated 5,000 adults will pass through the doors of the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center from Friday through Saturday to view and perhaps purchase boats, RV’s, and sporting goods from 70 different venders.
“It’s like a festival,” said Carla Babin as she signed people up at a prize drawing table for Bent’s RV. “A camping festival.”
Her husband Stacy Babin, the Assistant General Manager, was seated inside a tent filling out paperwork. As customers and sales reps bustled in and out the small tent, he find a few moments to speak about the event.
Bent’s RV takes the event seriously, said Stacy. Prepping since Monday, the company is showcasing 45 different campers at the event.
Stacy said that last year’s turn out was hampered by rain on the Friday and competition for attendees from the Saint’s game. He predicted this year would be even better.
The prize table logged 350 sign ups last year when he sold 17-18 RV’s over the weekend, and already this year he has sold 6 by 1pm on Saturday – as he said this he turned his attention to a rep who was finalizing a deal with a customer.
“The Spring sales event is the kick off to the selling season for RV’s and really for boats as well,” said Stacy. “Basically, it puts buying an RV back into the front of the customer’s mind.”
Just outside, perusing the surrounding campers was Thomas Voclain of Houma. Voclain said he has attended the festival for at least 5 years now, and his family has traded in old campers for upgrades about 3 times over those years.
His family likes to catch the deals given at the show because the displays are marked down from the original price. His only criticism was that the only campers at the shows are the larger more expensive models.
“It’s nice to go there and be nosey but damn, not everyone can afford a $97,000 camper,” said Voclain. “Talk about some serious retirement money. I wish I had that kind of money.”
With customers seeking to physically view products, dealers eager to show their goods, and the civic center wishing to fill its halls all that was needed was someone to pull it all together: enter Bart Caple.
When the civic center was first opened, Caple said he was approached to put an event on to draw a crowd to the facility. The event is beneficial to dealers and to the area, he said.
“It’s important to the area in terms of economic impact,” said Caple, of BAC Productions and producer of the event. “And for the boat and RV dealers to meet thousands of people in a short amount of time.”
Back in 1999, the civic center opened and according to Brian Detillier, the Event Service Manager of the civic center, this show was one of the first events hosted, and 20 years later it’s still strong
