Surfaces, StonExpo Shows To Co-Locate

Dallas, TX, July 22, 2010--The Surfaces exhibition and StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas have decided to co-locate next year to create one of the largest residential and commercial construction-related industry events nationwide.

The combined event will be held Jan. 25-27 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. The opening General Session will be focused on persevering and reaching goals in this fluctuating economy.

The featured speaker will be Aron Ralston, author of the New York Times best-selling book Between a Rock and a Hard Place, focusing on perseverance, goal-attaining and overcoming adversity.

In 2003, while on a spontaneous solo rock-climbing excursion, Aron Ralston found himself literally caught “between a rock and a hard place” when his right arm became pinned to the canyon wall by an 800-pound dislodged boulder.

Ralston, a mechanical engineer-turned-professional-outdoorsman, survived for five days with little food and less than a liter of water. Once he realized that his fate would be sealed without taking a drastic course of action, he self-amputated his crushed arm to free himself, repelled down a 65-foot face of a cliff, and hiked several miles out of the canyon to his awaiting truck, a stick-shift.

The Opening General Session will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 25 from 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Registration details will be available in mid-August.