{"id":231359,"date":"2026-04-14T15:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231359\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T15:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:26:07","slug":"primetime-debuts-in-fort-lauderdale-with-surf-sun-rto-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231359\/","title":{"rendered":"PrimeTime\u00a0Debuts in\u00a0Fort Lauderdale\u00a0with Surf, Sun, & RTO Fun\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Nationwide Director of Appliances and\u00a0RentDirect\u00a0John Laing\u00a0opens\u00a0the member meeting, welcoming attendees to Fort Lauderdale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nationwide Marketing Group \u2013 parent organization to APRO Member\u00a0Nationwide\u00a0RentDirect\u00a0\u2013 brought rent-to-own dealers and vendors together in\u00a0Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in mid-March for the company\u2019s spring\u00a0PrimeTime\u00a0member conference and tradeshow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nationwide Director of Appliances and\u00a0RentDirect\u00a0John Laing\u00a0launched the RTO\u00a0member meeting, describing its informal theme as \u201cchanges in latitudes, changes in attitudes,\u201d as this was the first time Fort Lauderdale hosted\u00a0PrimeTime, and the overall levels of excitement and engagement seemed as high as ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

APRO Goes All-In on AI\u00a0<\/p>\n

APRO CEO\u00a0Charles Smitherman\u00a0next provided an industry update, spotlighting the association\u2019s current concentration on\u00a0leveraging\u00a0artificial intelligence (AI)\u00a0to\u00a0promote a\u00a0positive narrative about rent-to-own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSeventy percent of all Google searches are resulting in no\u00a0click, as\u00a0a growing majority of users are coming to Google and getting the answer they\u00a0seek\u00a0from the AI summary at the top of the page,\u00a0not clicking on links to websites,\u201d Smitherman said. \u201cAs your trade association, we\u2019re making significant efforts through content creation and public relations to be\u00a0the\u00a0authoritative source of material for these answers\u00a0\u2013\u00a0so consumers\u00a0understand\u00a0what RTO is and how it will benefit them as a flexible, professional\u00a0option\u00a0for accessing essential products.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smitherman also discussed his\u00a0recently released\u00a0book\u00a0\u2013 co-written with\u00a0WOW Brands\u00a0CEO\u00a0Ryan Krass\u00a0\u2013The Rent-to-Own Revolution,\u00a0as a key\u00a0component\u00a0of this AI-influencing strategy. Additionally, he highlighted\u00a0several new APRO member benefits, including\u00a0the popular Legal Hub, and\u00a0the 50 State Lease Library.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0reviewed your lease agreement within the past two years, you have compliance risks that we can help with,\u201d said Smitherman. \u201cThis up-to-date library of state-specific lease agreements is one of the most impactful and important member benefits\u00a0APRO has ever offered.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>APRO CEO Charles Smitherman highlights the growing impact of AI on search during his industry update.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Taylor Ansley introduces\u00a0OneShop, highlighting features designed specifically for rent-to-own dealers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dave\u00a0Scarafiotti\u00a0shares insights on the capabilities of the\u00a0VersiRent\u00a0RTO point-of-sale system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RTO Gets Industry-Specific\u00a0Software, Website, &\u00a0Great Deals\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then Nationwide\u2019s Vice President of Product Management\u00a0Taylor Ansley\u00a0and\u00a0Ashley Furniture Industries\u2019\u00a0Vice President of Marketing\u00a0Erica Sparrow\u00a0teamed up to introduce a collaborative effort\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0been working toward for the past year \u2013\u00a0OneShop, a rent-to-own-focused website solution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally,\u00a0Nationwide\u00a0RentDirect\u2019s\u00a0newest Vendor Partner,\u00a0Versirent\/Ideal Software Systems Inc., was introduced and their Vice President of Operations\u00a0Dave\u00a0Scarafiotti shared updates on the\u00a0RTO point-of-sale platform and its capabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0RentDirect\u00a0member meeting was followed by\u00a0the\u00a0Palooza and Hot Show event,\u00a0featuring more than 45\u00a0vendor partners\u00a0presenting\u00a0great\u00a0deals on hundreds of products,\u00a0and\u00a0a 1.5-day expo with\u00a0125 vendors\u00a0showing off their best and brightest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs always, it\u00a0was\u00a0fantastic\u00a0to spend some\u00a0quality\u00a0time with\u00a0our\u00a0RentDirect\u202fmembers and\u00a0help\u00a0them capitalize on everything\u202fPrimeTime,\u201d said Laing. \u201cWe were really pleased with the location and support from our\u00a0team\u00a0in making it\u202fan excellent\u00a0experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Buddy\u2019s Home Furnishings team members Mark Kelly and Nina Shively\u00a0(blue shirts)\u00a0meet with Ashley Furniture representatives during the\u00a0PrimeTime\u00a0Expo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Charles Smitherman (L) meets with Jake O\u2019Rourke\u00a0(C)\u00a0and Jay Nardone\u00a0(R)\u00a0of O\u2019Rourke Sales Company during\u00a0the\u00a0Palooza and\u00a0RentDirect\u00a0Hot Show.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>APRO\u2019s\u00a0Charles Smitherman\u00a0(L)\u00a0and Amberlee Maya\u00a0(front) with the WOW Brands team.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nationwide Director of Appliances and\u00a0RentDirect\u00a0John Laing\u00a0opens\u00a0the member meeting, welcoming attendees to Fort Lauderdale.\u00a0 Nationwide Marketing Group \u2013 parent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-231359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}