CHICAGO - The Chicago office of Credit Suisse First Boston and RER magazine last week co-hosted a roundtable discussion on current and future trends in the equipment rental industry, featuring rental industry executives from 10 RER 100 companies. Although the main theme of the conference in Chicago was how the rental industry should manage machines, people and money in a possible future economic downturn, the participants discussed such wide-ranging topics as the future impact of e-commerce, rental rates and utilization, the used equipment market, consolidation among rental companies and manufacturers, the changing role of the equipment dealer, and the future growth potential of the rental industry.

Participants in the roundtable, moderated by equity analyst Blair Brumley of CSFB and RER executive editor Michael Roth, included Don Ahern, Ahern Rentals; Tom Bennett, Prime/RSC; Laird Burns, Allied Equipment; Shaun Flanagan, Horizon High Reach; Gary Gabriel, NationsRent; Tom Hawthorne, Hawthorne Rent-It Service; Bob Miner, United Rentals; Kevin Rodgers, National Equipment Services; Charles Snyder, AMECO; and Mike Watts, Sunstate Equipment.

Further coverage of the roundtable will be offered in upcoming issues of RER magazine and RER Reports, as well as in reports published by CSFB.