Chris Arrington, Kristen Harford & Bret Foster - Inside the 2025 NTRCA Tradeshow - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with NTRCA President Bret Foster, President-Elect Chris Arrington of Arrington Roofing, and Executive Director Kristen Harford. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips, the podcast that takes you on a thrilling journey across the world of roofing. From fascinating interviews with roofing experts to on-the-road adventures, we'll uncover the stories, innovations and challenges that shape the rooftops over our heads. So fasten your seatbelts and join us, as we embark on this exciting roofing road trip. Hello, everyone. My name is Megan Ellsworth here at Rooferscoffeeshop.com and you are listening to a Roofing Road Trip podcast. I'm so excited, because, today, I'm chatting with my friends all the way over in Texas from NTRCA to talk about their show that's coming up that we are going to be attending. I'm really looking forward to the show and hello, everyone, how are you? Today, I have Chris Arrington, Bret Foster and Kristen Harford. Hello. I'm just really excited to meet you all and chat with you. Bret, why don't you kick it off and introduce yourself? 

Bret Foster: I'm Bret Foster. I own Bret Foster Roofing. We're located in Forney, just east of Dallas. I'm the president of the NTRCA for this year and we do mostly residential roofing. I've been a member of the NTRCA, I can't tell you how long. As soon as I was eligible to join it, I did and I've been in business, my business, since 2003. The NTRCA is great. The networking is great in it. The contractors are great. I mean, we all compete, but if I run into something, I can ask Chris if he's run into it or other contractors and we'll tell each other what we know on it. The networking also is with our manufacturers and our distributors. The other night, we had a get together and I met somebody I'd never known before. His name is Brandon. He's with a company that does liquid coatings and I was really not familiar with that. He's with a company called Stormcure and he told me a lot about that. Even though it's commercial, it does have residential applications, so I learned a lot there. 

Megan Ellsworth: I love it. I love that. It's so cool. I love how associations like NTRCA really breed that community feeling of being able to reach out to maybe a potential even competitor, but the association puts you all on the same footing and you just become friends. I love that. Chris, can you introduce yourself, please? 

Chris Arrington: Hey. Chris Arrington with Arrington Roofing. I'm an old guy like Bret. I've been around a long time and actually, I tell people I'm a recovering architect, because that was what my degree was in from college, but I really wanted to build stuff and I found out that the architects aren't in the field much and that's what I really liked. What I really like about, actually, roofing particularly is it's so important and I'm going to make a plug here for the young people listening. You need to get into a trade. Now, this is my opinion, but everybody out there with a college degree is battling for fewer and fewer jobs because there's nobody really going into the trades because we're not teaching it. When I was growing up, we had shop and now we don't have electrical shop or wood shop and now our young people are really not learning the trades. 

It's vitally important. It's where we live as an architect. We learn about the building environment and it's where all our stuff is. I mean and the roof is such an important part. I'll share this. When I first started doing roofing and left the architecture field, I had lots of my architect friends call and going, "Okay, Chris. So, how would we put this roof together? How do these parts go together?" especially when it gets into the commercial end, because it gets confusing on how to build that sandwich and I thought that was fascinating because you know, think architects going to know everything, but they're still learning too, so many parts to what we do. And so, to transition into what we're going to be talking about today on the mini trade show, there's lots and lots of aspects to just roofing, just one trade. 

Like Brett just mentioned, coatings. Coatings is not a big part of the market, but it's coming up. There's lots to know about it, so I'm sure we'll get into this, but I'll get off my introduction. I think roofing is, for as old of a trade as it is and it's boring. There's no shiny part to it. A flat roof, you never even see it. You walk on it. It gets dirty. I mean, it's a necessary thing. It is a very interesting field and the people you want to know. They're just as honest as the day. Well, we have some images to overcome, but I think when you're in this organization, those are the people that have overcome them. A lot of people think, "Oh. Contractors are just shysters," but the ones that are in associations that want to hone their craft better are the really good ones and are a joy to know. 

Megan Ellsworth: Well, it's associations like NTRCA, NRCA and all the RCAs that are really trying to make roofing sexy again and also just a better PR reputation through the general public. 

Chris Arrington: So glad what you guys are doing, because y'all have guys and they're asking questions, like wanting to be better at stuff and pushing each other on, "Hey, are you doing this or doing that?" So, I really appreciate the space that you guys are in, encouraging conversation, because I think that's very important. 

Megan Ellsworth: Yay. We agree. I totally agree. Kristen, can you please introduce yourself? 

Kristen Harford: Hi. I'm Kristen Harford with NTRCA. I'm their executive director and I've been with the association for about nine years. Our vision, actually, we set a couple of years ago as a whole board and we decided the vision was elevating roofing contractors into industry leaders. And so, I think that that goes back to what Chris was even saying and what Brett was saying. We work hard to bring everybody together and to build those connections, to train, to learn together and to communicate together, so that the community and the general public knows that roofing is a professional. 

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And what a great, great trade to get into, something that you can be in your whole life, pass down that skill to the next generation, what have you. So, I love y'all's theme this year for the not so many trade show and it's building your business one partner at a time. Why would you say that message is especially relevant right now for roofing professionals? 

Chris Arrington: I'll start and kind of go back to what Brett was talking about, having an event where he got to meet somebody new that has another product. I look at it this way. Things are always changing. As an example for flat roofing, back in the day, hot mop, tar roofs were king. Then, all of a sudden modified bitumen takes over because it's a better technology and then we started getting EPDM, which is a rubber product which has its place. Well, now it's TPO and the technology that goes into producing those products. I'll take my staff to the factory, to the manufacturer so that they love us to come in and tour the plant. 

Then, I take secretaries, everybody in the office, whoever can go so that they can see how things are made. You think of roofing as old-timey, but man, the technology, we just went to CertainTeed plant last month. You talk about fantastic. You take a roll of scrim and it goes through this 100-yard, 200-yard building machine thing and it comes out a shingle. It's incredible, so this trade show, since it's a local, since it's the north Texas and you think, "Well, it's not going to be that big," there are lots of people there for lots of different products. I think it's one of the best things that we do during the year to give everybody lots of things to look at, at one place and you really can't look at them all in a day. Christian does a great job on getting a lot of people in there. 

Bret Foster: It is very specific to our market. I went to IRE and that was great. I learned a lot, but there was a lot of stuff that just didn't have anything to do with what I do, but this is more north Texas and it's a lot of people from north Texas that understand what's going on in this market. 

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, localized. 

Chris Arrington: That's a good point, because Brett knows; roofing up north and roofing in the south, totally, it's way different. 

Megan Ellsworth: I mean, the weather changes, right? And there are different climates. There's so many different climates in Texas. I mean, Texas is massive, so you could fit five states in Texas, so it totally makes sense to have that more localized show, like you all are doing and it is so important to, Brett, your point of finding those new partners and really utilizing their knowledge to your best ability and vice versa. I love that aspect of trade shows, of the sharing of knowledge and the back and forth, so who would you say typically attends the trade show? Kind of touched on that a little bit. I mean, obviously, North Texas people and what kind of businesses are exhibiting this year? 

Kristen Harford: This year, our four main sponsors are GAF, CertainTeed, ATTCoAST and QXO, so we have a variety of industries represented there. It's commercial and residential. It's helping you do business better. It's manufacturers. It's suppliers. We have insurance people that will be there to help you figure out your commercial insurance needs and just a great chance to meet partners along the way that do a little bit of everything, as far as the exhibitors and Chris has been really cool the past few years. Chris, tell them who you bring to the show. 

Chris Arrington: Well, I bring everybody that can come. There's been some years where the salesmen get really busy, but really, they attend just as much. They might come a little, look at a job and then come over, but I like everybody to be there, because you think about maybe it's just going to be the salesman, but there'll be companies there that are wrapping vehicles or insurance or drone inspections, so it really encompasses not just roofing, but the roofing business. So, when I bring my admin staff or production or somebody that's really in the office more, not so much in the field, there'll be people there that I like for them to meet or make a new contact, because roofing is a business too. 

Typically, with somebody in the trades, the business is the hardest part, because we're all probably excited about and good at doing the trade. The more you get into the business, you go, "Okay. Who's doing payroll and who's to take care of the computers and who's doing the gas card?" Or whatever you got going on, so I think it's important for anybody that's doing anything in a roofing company. Events like the trade show and just being a member of NTRCA, there's so much education in things that aren't nailing shingles down. The insurance, the legal aspects that I look at and I wonder how somebody who's not a member of something like NTRCA learns these things and some of the commercials I hear on TV, I'm like, "Yeah. Those people don't know that." 

Megan Ellsworth: Especially the legal stuff. I mean, that gets so convoluted and detailed and being able to have a group of people to fall back on in an association, like NDRCA or any trade association that can provide some of that stability and knowledge is so helpful, so helpful. 

Chris Arrington: I'm going to plug guys that are listening to this, that are in North Texas, to join, because there are so many individual guys that just have gotten into it. In the first couple of years, there are a lot of things that they don't know about, because there's no licensing. You can start being a roofing company and it's incredible that we're still there in the state of Texas and we have licensing. We're trying, because somebody can jump in and not only hurt themselves in a big way, but really be a detriment to our clientele. 

I'm amazed at the people, because we've been there a long time, that we get calls back from, that they go, "Hey, we didn't use you guys because you were too expensive, so we use the other guy. Can you come over and check his work?" I mean, add a little bit of insult to injury, but we go. 

I tell the guys, "I want you to go and I want you to see what they did." 

Then, a lot of times we get lots of referrals from those clients that say, "We didn't use you, but I wished we had, because your guy came out and told us this should have been done, this should have been done," and then maybe we'll do the repairs. We didn't get the big job and that goes back to just life. Doing good things, it comes back. It comes back. If you lose the job, but you go help someone, there'll be a reward. 

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. So Kristen, what would you say sets this event apart from other industry trade shows in the region and even nationally? 

Kristen Harford: So, my favorite thing about this trade show is that it's a mini trade show. We actually call it a not so mini trade show, because we do have over 60 exhibitors there, but they're all on a tabletop. It's not like a big 10 by 10 booth with all the bells and whistles. It's really just a tabletop and it's quick and it's four hours. It's a quick setup. It's a quick turnaround and that lets us keep it super affordable for the exhibitors, so it's a low cost for the people to come in to exhibit. 

Then, we make it practically no cost for attendees. We give them cash back at the door, so if they register in advance, then they get their cash back at the door and then they get to go on about it, have some lunch, have a couple of cold beers and win some fabulous door prizes. Also, that's something else that we do that's a little different. We keep it old-school, man. We just print out a map of the room and we give all of the exhibitors a sticker and when you come by and visit them as an attendee, as a contractor, you get a sticker from each booth you visit. At the end, you turn that back in and you get raffle tickets, door prize tickets, so more chances to win with the more people you visit. 

Megan Ellsworth: That's brilliant. 

Kristen Harford: It's so fun and people hang out and they want to win the prizes. We have really fun prizes. Some people bring their practical like, "Here's something that you could use on the roof and some people will bring a Stanley and a bug bag," and so we get to raffle all of those off and it's just a really fun day and really, it then goes back to building partners and networking and just we're all in this together. We're all friends, so it makes it really fun. 

Chris Arrington: When Kristen and I were talking about this a couple of days ago, it just reminded me that some of my admin, I didn't really think about, "Yeah. It's just tabletop, so there's not a lot of distance to walk in between," because my admin, one year I noticed, I go, "Where'd y'all get all those stickers?" 

And they're going, "Oh, Chris." One of them was, she was very competitive. She's like, "I'm going to beat everybody. I'm going to get a sticker for everybody here." 

I mean and she did it. She went through 60 or 80 boot. I don't even know how she did it. She just ran through there and got all the stickers and then I think she got two prizes. I mean, she [inaudible 00:19:50] last and then there was a few places that she stopped at the ones, that she was like, "Oh. Well, I do. I am interested in this. I'm not just getting a sticker," so yeah, it's fun. I think it's a fun event. 

Megan Ellsworth: I love that, because a lot of times, sometimes with events it's hard to get people to go to every table, because it can be a little overwhelming or what have you or you're getting pulled every which way, so that's such a great incentivizer to provide really great value to your exhibitors and to the attendees. So, lovely. 

Kristen Harford: Yes, because then the exhibitors get to meet more people and then they do get the list of all the attendees afterwards as well, but it makes it fun and a good chance to connect with as many people as possible. 

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, that's fabulous. So Bret, I'm going to ask you this next one. Can you walk us through what a typical afternoon looks like at the not-so-mini trade show? 

Bret Foster: Well, you show up and then you do your registration. There's a table right there when you walk in the door and you do your registration and they give you the card that Kristen was talking about, where you put the stickers on there. Then, you just kind of snake through it. There's tables on both sides of the aisles and easy to talk to them. You can just stop at the ones you're interested or all of them if you need to get your stickers, which I do. Then, you just make your way through it and then there will be food. As Kristen said, we'll have food and a couple of beers or soft drinks and hang out, talk to people that I know, that I haven't seen in a year since the last mini trade show. It's always good to catch up and then meet new people. I think it's a great event. I always enjoy it every year. 

Chris Arrington: That reminds me of, when we're eating, it's another time to get to know the other contractors in the area. 

Megan Ellsworth: That's so true. What a great point. I think, just again, that building of community is so important, now more than ever and having a community behind you and being a part of one is so pivotal to the success of your business and of your life. So, if there are any contractors out there who are on the fence about attending, what would you all say is the biggest value they'll walk away with from the show? 

Chris Arrington: Every time we have a meeting or an event or something, you're like, "Well, I got my day full. I need to go talk to this person," but you know what? The guys that are always out there telling you how to run a business better will all tell you, "You've got to sharpen the saw. If you don't stop and sharpen the saw, you're going to get dull. You're going to be doing the same thing. You're going to be working harder and getting less done. You've got to take some time and do these things. You have to do them." And I'd say if you're just thinking of one thing to do, this is the one you'd do for us. 

Kristen Harford: I think you can make it through. I mean, you could come in and meet four new people, if that's all you have time for in 30 minutes, but if you've got a little bit more time, nobody's expected to say the full four hours, so even if you just stop by at lunchtime, grab your lunch, talk to a couple of people and then head out, you still are making some connections and meeting some new partners along the way, so we think it's a worthwhile thing and low risk. You get your money back at the door. 

Megan Ellsworth: A low risk, high reward. So Kristen, how do you all make it easy and affordable for companies to exhibit? 

Kristen Harford: By keeping it the short and sweet, I think that helps. The tabletop, we've talked from time to time about, "Are we ready to go to the full 10 by 10 space booths and do more breakouts and things like that?" And we love doing those things and I love going to the other associations that have those, but by keeping it short and sweet and just tabletop, we're able to keep it affordable. We also do that, thanks to our bigger sponsors. Somebody sponsors lunch and the dessert and all the extra little pieces and so those all help us to keep it. It's $500 to get a table, so it's super affordable to be there. 

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. I love it. Okay and then what are the dates for the trade show? 

Kristen Harford: It is Thursday, August 7th, right in the biggest heat of Texas, typically. So, come in out of the heat, grab a cold beer and we'll be there from 10 to 2 and right in Grapevine, so kind of in the middle of the metroplex, so it should be an easy place to get to. 

Megan Ellsworth: Perfect. I love it. And then where can people go to register? 

Kristen Harford: So, we do still have a few exhibitor spots available and you can register at our website, ntrca.com/trade-show, so nice and easy. 

Megan Ellsworth: Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today. I'm really looking forward to meeting you all in person and attending the show. So, everyone out there, please make sure you go and register, sign up. You can find information on that on the ntrca.com website or on their directory at RufersCoffeeshop.com as well. We have all the information about the show and how to register on their directory, so thank you again. This has been fabulous. 

Kristen Harford: Thank you. I am going to say, you don't have to be a member to be a contractor and come, so if you are a contractor and just want to check out and meet some new people, come check us out. We'd love to have you. 

Megan Ellsworth: That's a great event to kind of dip your toes in. 

Kristen Harford: Just see what we're about. 

Outro: Yes. I love it. Well, thank you, again, everyone and I'll be seeing everyone out there listening on the next Roofing Road Trip. 

If you've enjoyed the ride, don't forget to hit that subscribe button and join us on every roofing adventure. Make sure to visit RufersCoffeeshop.com to learn more. Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you on the next Roofing Road Trip.