I was at the Industrial Supply Association's annual Conference and Tradeshow the past few days. They've redone the format and it's much better.

The meetings were crisper, attendance was up 100% (100%!) from 2009, the guest speaker, Jason Jennings, was fantastic, only the manufacturers have booths this year, fees are down, and the energy was through the roof. What a difference a year makes!

This isn't all about a better economy either, the leadership, Philip Hanson, Kathleen Durbin, Michael Carr, Derek Yurgaitis and many others did a great job.

Here's what I'm doing different.

    1.   I brought my Flip HD camera and will shooting some videos of my meetings, some of the new products I see and the event.
    2.   I'm going to post the raw footage and, then
    3.   After a few quick edits, I'll post the edited video, maybe several, here on my blog.
    4.   Since one of my goals in life is to get hard core industrial companies to embrace cool marketing, I'm going to promote the heck out of the video to the ISA members while demonstrating my video editing capabilities.

New subject: Luck & Relationships
On my plane ride I just happened to be seated next to one of my old work-mates, who is now a Vice President of Marketing. By the time we landed, we were outlining a project he's going to have me do. That happened for two reasons, one he was thinking about it anyway so our "chance encounter" (luck!) simply accelerated his thinking. The other reason is we've both expended time and effort to keep our relationship solid. So when the time came to discuss business we were able to get "right to it." There's a lesson in that last sentence for those paying attention...okay, I'll spell it out. If you have a good relationship the sales cycle and ramp up to doing productive work is compressed. Work on your relationships.

Final thought: More Praise; Less Blame
It's really great to see everyone at ISA. As a lone wolf (Consultant) I don't get a lot of time with my industry friends. These are the wonderful people working behind the scenes that make this country work. From screwdrivers to drill bits, wrenches and expensive pieces of super-sophisticated equipment, these are the folks that make, sell and install the tools that make the US the world leader in advanced manufacturing. Here's an example: Whatever progress we make in minimizing the damage from the Gulf oil spill and the ultimate "solution," will in large part be the result of the good work done by these people. You'll only hear about who to blame on the news and that will be politicized. You won't hear about the people to thank, such as Derek Yurgaitis at Brady-SPC - see above, anywhere else but here.

Thanks, Derek, 3M, and all the other ISA members who make this country run. I'm proud to be a part of the team.

Steve
800-707-9150