With a 30 percent increase in distributor delegate registration, more networking opportunities for all, three dynamic speakers and a fully booked DM-IDEX (one-on-one appointment scheduling session between distributors and manufacturers), the new and improved Canadian Conference was well received by participants.  

“The DM-IDEX was very, very productive and this has been a very good event overall—the best Canadian Conference I have attended,” said John Palumbo, regional sales manager of Accurate Bushing Smith Bearing.

Structured programming gave everyone true take-home value. CEOs and senior executive management discussed the critical disruptors impacting the industry and ways to combat them at the newly introduced CEO Roundtable, facilitated by Mitch Bouchard, secretary & treasurer, General Bearing Service Inc., and Sean Hickey, president, Lafert North America.

Participants in the Leadership Enhancement Seminar learned from leadership and cultural transformation expert, Dr. Ivan Joseph, that to have a high performing team, you need to set high expectations because if you lead with “good enough,” you will get “good enough.”

Participants also received many takeaways from the concurrent sessions including how to use data you already have to see exponential and not incremental growth from Dr. Sean Wise and what the barriers are making it difficult for your customers to do business with you and how you can help to overcome them from speaker Jim Harris. Brent Pope, vice president sales and marketing for Motion Industries Inc. said, “Both speakers were outstanding and very relevant to our industry and where it is going.”

PTDA Foundation volunteer “Ambassador” Scott Taylor, director sales, Gates Corporation, talked about his experiences at SkillsCanada for the PTDA Foundation’s initiative, the Industrial Careers Pathway (ICP).