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Attendees • Hotel & Travel • Optional & Social Activities • Registration Fees • Schedule • Sponsorship Education
Salim Brahimi, Director of Engineering and Technology for the Industrial Fasteners Institute, will give a live demo of IFI’s online tools for accessing current standards and technical data.
Mark Alcorn is an experienced attorney and management consultant specializing in the non-profit association community. As part of his law practice, he counsels numerous associations and for-profit firms on business, tax, antitrust, management and related matters.
Companies must acknowledge and honor the past, but the path to winning requires looking, learning, and strategically innovating forward. Market dynamics are changing how business is done, and leadership’s mindset, ambition, and a propensity to innovate will determine the organization’s future relevance. As a leading advocate of change and innovation throughout wholesale distribution, Dirk Beveridge of UnleashWD, will detail:
Dirk Beveridge is president and founder of UnleashWD. His research for the NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence led to his best-selling book, INNOVATE! How Successful Distributors Lead Change in Disruptive Times. Dirk has also appeared on the Discovery Channel, in Forbes and in the Harvard Business Review.
What’s next for fastener distributors? Employment pressures, the Amazon effect, balancing customer demands with productivity, and the rapid growth of technology all will change the ways fastener distributors do business over the next few years. Panelists Mike Bailey (Nucor Fastener), Bill Derry (Field), and Marc Strandquist (Wurth Industry North America), along with moderator Bryan Wheeler (Star Stainless Screw) will discuss the many outside forces creating change in the distribution supply chain. Mike Bailey is the Regional Sales Manager of Nucor Fastener. Bill Derry is the Chairman of Field Fastener. Marc Strandquist is the Senior Director of Business Development of Wurth Industry North America. Bryan Wheeler is the National Sales Manager of Star Stainless Screw.
E-commerce is a huge opportunity that most industrial distributors are missing. The forecast for B2B e-commerce is great and the ROI is significant. The customer profile is changing and with that comes new expectations about what a company’s website should do. In this session, Kirk Zehnder (Earnest Machine Products) will share real numbers that provide overwhelming support for your business to design and implement an e-commerce platform. Kirk Zehnder is the CEO of Earnest Machine and carries the third-generation ownership torch. He joined the business in ’02 and loves what he is doing and where the company is headed.
Two different sessions: one for business owners and one for your company's key executives. The roundtable format allows for smaller group discussions, making input easier. You can submit topics for discussion in advance to [email protected], or jump in during the session.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) uses algorithms to mine large amounts of data so that machines think like humans, performing tasks that require reasoning, planning, learning, and understanding language. We encounter AI applications even if we don’t realize it: Siri, Amazon’s product recommendation engine, Google Maps route recommendations, and more. These consumer AI experiences are raising the bar for business. How will you respond? In this program, Jeff Gusdorf, a Principal in Brown Smith Wallace’s Business Process and Systems Group, will present an overview of basic AI concepts, take a deeper dive into AI applications for salesforce automation and business analytics, and will propose a plan for tackling an AI project. Jeff Gusdorf, CPA, is a Principal in the Advisory Services Practice/Business Process and Systems Group with Brown Smith Wallace, a consulting firm that specializes in conducting technology projects for enterprises in manufacturing, distribution and professional services. Jeff has 30 years’ experience as a financial manager and technology consultant and is responsible for IT strategic consulting and software research and evaluation.
The U.S. economy had been on a solid growth path when, at the start of 2018, the Trump administration started imposing punitive tariffs on our trading partners and pushed for major changes in U.S. trade treaties. How is this grand trade experiment impacting the U.S. economy today? How does it fit in with the domestic determinants of economic health? Will it threaten U.S. expansion in the future? In this session, Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of Beacon Economics and director of the UC Riverside School of Business Center for Economic Forecasting, will answer these and other questions about the U.S. economy. Dr. Thornberg is an expert in economic forecasting, regional economics, labor markets and industry analysis. In 2015, he was named to the California State Treasurer’s Council of Economic Advisors. He holds a Ph.D. in business economics from the Anderson School at UCLA. |
IFI Online Standards and Technology Connection – Looking Forward
Antitrust Briefing
The Path to Winning in the Age of Rapid Change
What’s the Future of Fastener Distribution?
Lunch Program: The Economic Impact of E-Commerce
Business Owners Roundtables and Business Executives Roundtables
Artificial Intelligence – Getting Started
The Trade War Experiment: Evaluating the Results