A changing of the guard marked the first day of the National Association of Tower Erectors trade show today in Orlando, FL, at the Rosen Center Hotel.

The association’s chairman, Kevin J. Hayden, president of Hayden Tower Service, Topeka, KS, stepped down from the position he had held since he and three others took steps to form the association seven years ago at a 1994 meeting arranged by founding board member Bill Carlson of Watertown, SD. Hayden will continue on the board of directors for another year; Carlson himself stepped down from the board of directors.

Incoming chairman Craig Snyder, himself one of the four original organizers, became the new chairman.

Carlson initiated the association by inviting tower erectors to meet at a Dallas hotel to organize an association. Snyder recalled that Carlson, Hayden, Don Doty and he had gathered the night before the meeting to discuss preliminary plans.

“It was Carlson’s time and money that went into the first meeting in Dallas,” Snyder said.

By the time the organizational meeting of 62 people ended, the new association’s members had set goals for the newly formed board that elected Hayden as chairman. Snyder said the group since had been recognized by the telecommunications and broadcast industries. He described Hayden as a reluctant public speaker who is a good leader behind the scenes. He said Carlson has been the group’s fiscal conservative, making sure that NATE remained financially healthy.

Ken Meador, chairman of the trade show committee, said that NATE’s first trade show in 1995 drew 12 exhibitors and 170 registrants. This year, he numbered the attendance at 1,600 with an exhibition space boasting 120 vendors.

Monument to technical achievement

Larry Nelson, executive vice president of development of CommScope and general manager of its wireless division, said in his keynote address that the tower erectors’ accomplishment in building the wireless infrastructure would go down in history with the building of the railroads, the telephone network, the electrical power grid and perhaps the Internet.

“You should be proud that you have built a great monument to technical achievement,” Nelson told the audience.

Nelson said that the tower construction industry is at a predictable point of business contraction that is common to the growth curve for all industries based on technological advancement. Provided no “disruptive technology” interrupts the usual growth cycle, Nelson said the industry could look forward to a period of renewed growth. But he warned that the ultrawideband technology approved by the FCC possibly represents a disruptive technology that could derail tower construction recovery.

Despite the warning, Nelson said that the tower construction business is fundamentally sound because wireless communications has value to offer consumers and businesses. Meanwhile, he expects promoters to “hype” the new technology to Wall Street in hopes of stimulating a money flow that can initiate a fresh growth cycle for ultrawideband technology.

He also predicted that within the lifetime of his audience, voice communications would become “very cheap, even free.” Nelson included long distance and wireless communications in his prediction, saying that voice communications would be carried and paid for by the data networks that tower erectors are helping to build.