May 2003

SAFETY WEEK SPEAKERS   SCHEDULE   NEWSLETTER HOME

Safety Week 2003: 

Same Dates, New Location

Safety Week 2003, SEDA’s annual meeting and management conference, is still scheduled for July 26-29, 2003. The outstanding line-up of speakers, seminars and executive conferences remains intact. Only the location of the meeting has changed.

The recent SARS scare in Toronto and the World Health Organization’s since lifted travel advisory to that city prompted the Safety 

Week planning committee to seek a new location for the meeting. Even though the decision to move was made less than 12 weeks before the meeting date, the committee was able to secure an outstanding alternative host hotel in the Sheraton Bal Harbour Beach Resort on the south Florida coast.

The Sheraton Bal Harbour is a 645-room, deluxe four-star, four-diamond resort, nestled on ten acres of tropical gardens and sandy beaches midway between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. Guests can enjoy the resort’s lagoon-style pool featuring Jacuzzis and a waterslide, or try windsurfing, waverunning or parasailing in the ocean. The resort also features a full-service spa, fitness center, and high speed Internet access. Directly across the street are the famous Bal Harbour Shops, featuring Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Chanel, Ferragamo and other designer stores. The world-renown South Beach Art Deco District is just minutes away.

Getting to the meeting will be a snap, with both the Ft. Lauderdale and Miami International Airports just 17 miles from the Bal Harbour resort. Reserve your airline tickets now and take advantage of the incredible travel bargains that all major airlines are offering. A quick Internet search yielded these amazing bargain airfares in July:

• NY-Miami $201 round-trip

• Philadelphia-Miami $203 round-trip

• Chicago-Ft. Lauderdale $171 round-trip

• Los Angeles—Ft. Lauderdale $220 round-trip!

• San Francisco-Ft. Lauderdale $322 round-trip

Your hotel stay will be a bargain also. The special group rate at the Bal Harbour Beach Resort is just $129 per night in the luxurious north tower. A $12 per room, per day resort services fee gives you daily access to the fitness center, local and toll-free telephone calls (first 60 minutes), incoming faxes (first 10 pages) and beach chairs.

Complete meeting details will be in the mail by the end of May. The early-bird registration and hotel reservation deadline is June 25, 2003. Make sure you get in on the best meeting deal of the year by registering for Safety Week 2003!

Outstanding Speakers

The meeting features an outstanding line-up of speakers that can help your company deal with difficult market conditions and plan for growth during better times ahead.

SEDA Distributor Session

Beyond the Numbers:  

Safety Distributor Profit and Compensation Trends

Dr. Al Bates, Profit Planning Group

SEDA’s annual Profit Survey allows members to benchmark their financial performance against industry averages and that of high performing companies.  The biennial Employee Compensation & Benefits Survey is the wholesale-distribution industry’s most comprehensive study of employment practices and trends.

Profit Planning Group (PPG) of Boulder, CO conducts both surveys for SEDA. Dr. Al Bates, President of PPG, brings the survey results alive, highlighting key areas of profit improvement as only he can. He goes beyond the numbers, offering real-world solutions that you can implement as soon as you return to your office.  Dr. Bates will also meet one-on-one with PROFIT Survey participants to help you understand your financial results.

Activity Based Management in Wholesale Distribution

Brent Grover, Evergreen Consulting, LLC

As President and CEO of National Paper and Packaging, Brent Grover put activity based costing to work in the distributor environment and improved their profitability and customer supplier relationship.  In this session, Grover will explain why distributors should think of their customer lists as an investment portfolio and how that customer portfolio comprises the customer profitability for years.  A case study of a real distributor will be used as a guide for implementing activity based costing in your business.

Channel Interdependence Among Channel Partners

Jed Bullard, Bullard

Jed Bullard is President and CEO of Bullard, one of the country’s largest manufacturers of safety equipment products.  He will discuss the interdependence between safety equipment distributors and manufacturers.  Manufacturer and Distributor Breakout sessions will follow this speech and will continue the discussion of channel interdependence in the safety equipment industry.

Hiring Winners

Dr. Robert Gaylor, Associate Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Gaylor will explore how to hire the best and the brightest.  Employers who focus their efforts on smarter hiring will have fewer problems managing employees and will produce a net savings in time and money.  Remember, you're not replacing Fred or Mary, you're hiring the right person to do the work you need done, when you need it done, the way you need it done.

Customer Relations – How to Improve Inside Sales

Chuck Holmes, Corporate Strategies, Inc.

Chuck Holmes is president of Corporate Strategies, Inc., a company specializing in distribution training, research, and consulting.  Chuck has more than thirty years experience in training, sales, and marketing and more than a dozen years in applying that experience to the distribution industry. Chuck has spoken and written extensively on customer service, sales, and marketing in distribution. He is on the faculty of the University of Industrial Distribution and the University of Electrical Distribution. In this session, Chuck will help attendees explore ways to improve their inside sales force in an intensive workshop setting.

Homeland Security

Dan Shipp, ISEA

Mark Dozier, Department of Homeland Security

Dan Shipp of ISEA and Mark Dozier of the Department of Homeland Security will discuss issues related to Homeland Security and the safety equipment industry.

Safety Week 2003 Schedule of Events