The Long Island Floor Covering Association (LIFCA) has made a concerted effort to become more active over the past several years, as witnessed by a more aggressive schedule of meetings in 2011, such as the two educational events that drew good audiences this fall.

The September meeting featured Ed Abel of the Abel Business Institute whose 90 minute seminar, “Creating business HarMoney” was presented to a group of retailers and focused on business practices that can set one dealer apart from their competition. He stressed that times have changed, especially with regard to marketing in the digital age and “the way we’ve always done it” often does not work in the 21st century.

The second event was hosted at ProSource in Plainview, N.Y. and focused on resilient installation with two one-hour presentations. The audience of over 35 installers, retail and wholesale salespeople saw Randy Hoefler of IVC and Tom Gray of Congoleum do live demonstrations of installation tips and repair options of their products including sheet vinyl and resilient tile.

“We are very happy with these two events,” said Joe Bianculli, president, LIFCA. “We brought concise seminars that respected people’s time and drew good crowds. LIFCA is back and we are planning more events for the New Year.”

The LIFCA was incorporated in 1958 with the mission of strengthening and improving the business practices, standards, professionalism and ethics of the region’s floor covering businesses. It focuses on the education and betterment of the floor covering dealer, the floor covering installation community, and the industry as a whole.

For more information or to join LIFCA, visit www.LIFCA.com.