Earlier this month, IMARK Electrical convened a face-to-face meeting of our Marketing Technology Committee in Chicago. Meeting attendees included 11 executives from member companies and five executives from our preferred supplier partners.
Among other things, the group shared best practices on all aspects of customer engagement (digital and traditional techniques) in our channel. Our members shared their expectations of high-performing suppliers, and our manufacturers did the same for their distributor partners.
After several years of ZOOM meetings, the committee meeting was a vivid reminder of the importance of face-to-face meetings. The enthusiasm of the participants and their willingness to share openly and effectively was a pleasure to behold.
We have always known that networking, sharing best practices and one-on-one meetings are primary benefits for IMARK members and preferred suppliers. That is why we are pleased to announce that our Spring Leadership Conference (formerly known as Showcase) will be held at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Chicago on March 22-24, 2022. The meeting will consist of networking groups, one-on-one meetings, workshops and seminars. Registration for the meeting will begin on February 1, 2022.
The Leadership Conference will not include a tradeshow element. All meeting activities will be conducted at the hotel. No long walk to the convention center will be necessary.
Given the success of the Product/Service EXPO (virtual tradeshow) in May 2021 during which we reached 2,000+ member employees, we will be hosting a fresh, new version of the Product/Service EXPO from May 23-27, 2022.
The Future of IMARK Electrical Meetings
During the pandemic, we’ve all had a lot of time to think about the nature and importance of human interaction—both personally and in our business lives. While many people talk of ZOOM “burnout,” these virtual meeting tools have been (and will continue to be) a vital and economical way for people to share information and conduct business. It is hard to overstate the value of these platforms throughout the pandemic.
For more than 20 years, IMARK (face-to-face) meetings have run on a predictable schedule—a meeting in the spring and a meeting in the fall.
We now have an opportunity to re-evaluate our meeting schedule, effective in 2023. We’ll take a “blank sheet of paper” and attempt to determine the key elements of “state-of-the-art” industry gatherings that key business leaders would consider essential to attend.
We won’t be able to accomplish this without the guidance and direction of member and supplier leaders. So, we’ll be conducting a survey in Q1 2022 to hear directly from key members of the IMARK Electrical community.
Like our members and suppliers, we constantly seek continuous improvement. We look forward to adding more value to this vital part of our offering.
Stay tuned!