SEDA Staff Report by Kaymie Thompson Owen, Director, Meetings & Membership Services

The 2007 session of UID (University of Industrial Distribution) held this past March 4-7 in Indianapolis, IN received rave reviews from all involved. Hosted at the state of the art conference center at Indiana University / Purdue University (IUPUI), the session has sold out for four consecutive years.

UID has a long tradition of attracting the most highly trained, revered professionals from the world of industrial distribution as instructors and this year was no exception. Reknowned presenters included Al Bates, Ph.D., Steve Boyd, Pete Land, Mike Marks, Bruce Merrifeld, John Monoky, PhD, Kathryne Newton, PhD, Abe WalkingBear Sanchez, Tim Underhill and Michael Workman, Ph.D. presented workshops along with eight other distinguished professionals.

I was privileged to attend this year’s UID course and sit in on several of the presentations. Al Bates of Profit Planning Group commanded an audience of over 150 participants for a day long session on financial planning, asset management and distributor profitability breakdowns specifically for managers with limited financial management background. Pete Land guided a class equally as large through the jungle of managerial leadership highlighting the pitfalls of poor delegation, unmotivated staff, cultural and gender based issues and managers’ lack of leadership assessment. Like several of his fellow presenters, Mr. Land employed detailed case studies in the second half of his presentation to solidify lessons learned.

Abe Walking Bear Sanchez provided a first hand account of the birth of modern day credit and collections practices combined with reasons why companies need to reassess DSO during his comprehensive and entertaining afternoon workshop. Mike Marks of Indian River Consulting Group delivered an action inspiring session concentrating on true marketing functions within your company via segmenting, targeting and positioning. Mr. Marks will also be a featured speaker at the 2007 Safety Leadership Forum in Lake Tahoe, CA from June 10-12. If you missed him at UID, sign-up to see him at the SEDA annual conference.

In addition to UID’s brilliant faculty, high attendance can also be attributed to a trend of commitment from companies to their workers. UID management observed, “Companies are choosing to invest in their employees not only to improve their bottom line but to reward employees as well.” Also, companies have become very aware of the costs associated with recruiting new staff members and realize the need to maintain their current successful workforce through training and education programs like UID. SEDA member companies sent a combined 37 registrants to the session this year.

UID is one of several educational training seminars offered to SEDA members through our partnership with Association Education Alliance (AEA). Together we are proud to offer a variety of in person programs as well as remote webinar sessions for 2007. Click here to view the current schedule.

Click here for full listing of presenters and credentials.

Click here for a listing of courses offered at the 2007 UID program.