Vendors were especially happy with the number of new companies attending. Rent to Own companies from as far away as New Mexico attended the show.

photo © RTO Online Betty Porter, Vice President of Administration for Tulsa, Oklahoma based Rent Quik, in a Texas Driving Experience custom Corvette. Prior to Tuesday's tradeshow, all TARA attendees were treated to a 4 lap, high speed run around the inside track at Texas Motor Speedway in Corvettes operated by Texas Driving Experience. Over 75 attendees took advantage of this unique opportunity to experience speeds over 100 miles per hour in cars driven by professional drivers. See a complete photo gallery of the Texas Motor Speedway (50) event here.

The tradeshow portion of the 24th Annual Texas Association of Rental Agencies (TARA) convention ended Monday evening. The buying show featured over 40 vendors.

While traffic was down slightly from last year, vendors report increased buying over 2005. Vendors were especially happy with the number of new companies attending. Rent to Own companies from as far away as New Mexico attended the show. See a complete photo gallery of the Tradeshow Floor here.

Other photo galleries from the TARA show: Golf Tournament (23), Vendor Appreciation (9), Welcome Reception (23).

Prior to the tradeshow, all attendees were treated to a 4 lap, high speed run around the inside track at Texas Motor Speedway in custom Corvettes operated by Texas Driving Experience. Over 75 attendees took advantage of this unique opportunity to experience speeds over 100 miles per hour in cars driven by professional drivers. See a complete photo gallery of the Texas Motor Speedway (50) event here.

RTO Online conducted a podcast interview with newly elected TARA president Dan Mathews Monday evening. Mathews, a 30 year rent to own industry pro,  discussed his goals for TARA and the need for a strong state and regional associations.

Listen to RTO Online's podcast with TARA President Dan Mathews here.

Nationwide Southwest was a major sponsor of the TARA convention. Nationwide Southwest CEO Dennis Willich told RTO Online that helping state associations gain members is an extension of his passion for the success of independent rent to own companies. "Think of the great ideas that come out of these meetings," said Willich. "Independent dealers are the backbone of America, my job is to help them not only survive, but thrive in the marketplace."

Nationwide Southwest sponsors many state associations and actively recruits members in their territory. The group helped re-energize several dormant states in recent months including the recently completed Louisiana Rental Dealers Association (LRDA) meeting in Baton Rouge (see story). Nationwide Southwest also sponsored the Kansas Rental Dealers Association, Oklahoma Rental Dealers Association and is in the planning stages of coordinating a meeting of New Mexico dealers.

Listen to RTO Online's podcast interview with Dennis Willich from the TARA show in Fort Worth Monday here.

The TARA convention wraps later today (Tuesday) with training seminars and round table discussions on issues facing the rent to own industry at the state and federal level.

Other podcasts from this weeks TARA Show:

Trey Payne and Rochelle Mingus (Mitsubishi) in the SED International Booth at the TARA Southwest Buying Show in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition to other electronics, SED supplies the Rent to Own industry with ACER and Mitsubishi.

PODCASTS
PLAY - Jeff Lowry, Director of Marketing for SLS Audio. He explains how Ribbon Driver technology opens up dramatic new Home Theater design possibilities and how Rent to Own companies can benefit from packaging Home Theater units with LCD and plasma TVs. Listen to the podcast interview with Jeff Lowry, Director of marketing, SLS Audio (running Time 6:11).

PLAY - Robert Briley recently converted his 17 store Rent City operation to Aaron's Sales and Lease Ownership franchise. Robert gave RTO Online an update on the transition and a detailed overview of what he sees as the advantage of franchises in general, and Aaron's in particular. Running Time 22:30.

PLAY - James MacAlpine gave us an update on the upcoming RentDirect Member-2-Member (M2M) conference to be held May 7-9, 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia at the Westin Airport Hotel. RentDirect Nationwide is the rent to own industry's largest buying group. This will be the second M2M conference and, based on positive feedback from the 2006 event, it has been expanded to two and 1/2 days. See a complete photo archive of the Inaugural M2M in Dallas here.