Story ID: 341
NBAA Show Memories: Dave Franson
By: AIN Staff
Caption: For Dave Franson, who has decades of cherished memories from the convention, NBAA means "No Better Aviation Associates."
Word Count: 908
Dave Franson, president and owner of Franson Consulting and president of the Wichita Aero Club

I have actually attended the show for 42 of my 46 years in the business aircraft community. I was even managed two of the NBAA conventions—in 1992 and 1993—while serving as v-p of meetings and membership for the organization then headed by Jack Olcott. Many of the memories run together and blurred with the passage of time.

During my first NBAA with Cessna in 1975, I wanted to make a good impression.  One of its hallmarks has been the fact that it’s a “suit-and-tie” show. That’s why a week before the convention in New Orleans, I bought a new suit, shirts, ties—and shiny pair of shoes. I arrived via company Model 421 that would be on static display at Lakefront Airport and rode downtown to the French Quarter, where my colleagues and I were staying.

As a junior PR guy, I wanted to watch expenditures so I decided to walk the two dozen blocks to the convention center the first morning. Decked out in new duds, I began the trek to the exhibit hall on the riverfront. By the time I reached Canal Street, I was already perspiring. New Orleans is pretty humid. When I reached Poydras, I realized I hadn’t broken in my new shoes. They were shiny and making a real impression—on my heels and toes! I arrived at the convention center a rumpled, overheated mess, and barely able to walk with bleeding blisters. I learned a valuable lesson—wear comfortable shoes if you’re going to be on your feet most of a trade show.

In the old days of NBAA, exhibitors vied aggressively to attract attendees to their displays. Lots of very attractive young women graced the exhibits. By the mid-’80s, that trend was beginning to wane—for obvious reasons. I took the position of v-p of public relations at Garrett in 1984. We had become well-known for our NBAA exhibit that featured attractive hostesses dressed in shorts and T-shirts. They presided over a popular booth that offered a T-shirt with the forerunner of a “selfie” of each visitor on the front and the Garrett logo on the back.

Among my first decisions was to move away from the T-shirt promotion. I told our exhibit manager that we weren’t hiring any models for 1985. He wasn’t pleased.

The day before the 1985 show opened in New Orleans, a well-known reporter wandered through the display hall looking for “intelligence” items. He asked the exhibit manager what was new. Exasperated, the manager uttered a memorable phrase—which the reporter used as the headline for his article on Garrett—“No more bimbos!” Though I had NEVER used that phrase and never would, it was me who had ended a long-standing tradition at Garrett, so he attributed the sentiment to me rather than its true author. It took a while for me to live down something I never said!

When I took over as the v-p of meetings and membership at NBAA in April of 1992, much of the preparation for the upcoming show in Dallas hadn’t been done. I had been hired by Jack Olcott, who had been installed as president of NBAA a few weeks earlier. We discovered our predecessors had left without making many important decisions.

Fortunately, I had long attended the show and was familiar with it. Early on, I hired Kathleen Hull (now Blouin) and she brought excellent organizational skills and creativity. She went on to make exceptional contributions to NBAA over the next two decades.

We were shocked to learn that there were no signed contracts for upcoming show sites or dates. However, unwritten plans included commitments for Detroit, Michigan, and Miami. Unfortunately, Detroit couldn’t handle the convention space and Miami had endured Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and damage to the convention center was still being repaired. We needed different sites.

A long-standing NBAA board tenet excluded Las Vegas and Orlando, Florida, from consideration, even though both sites had more than adequate space. The problem, according to the “conventional wisdom” of the board, was that either site would offer too many distractions and would adversely affect attendance and focus. Kathleen and I visited both places, put together a proposal that included proposed sites and presented them to the board in a closely-guarded meeting at NBAA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

We weren’t sure whether we would be celebrated or reprimanded for proposing the previously forbidden sites, but the board chose to hold the 1995 show in Vegas and the 1996 convention in Orlando. Right after the decision had been made, the board meeting recessed briefly. Within minutes of stepping out of the session, I got a call from a veteran editor who said, “I understand you’ll be taking the convention to Las Vegas and Orlando for the first time ever.” I was flabbergasted that he knew. It turned out he got a tip from a well-connected board member who divulged the secret as soon as we took our break. Business aviation is definitely a close-knit industry!

NBAA will always be among my most enjoyable experiences. The biggest reasons, of course, are all of you who have made it so. For me, NBAA really means: “No Better Aviation Associates.”
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