Because of increasing rep concerns about their relationships with national and regional chains and the impact of their regional warehouses, the National Electrical Manufacturers Representatives Association (NEMRA) will have a panel discussion, “National Purchasing Decisions,” at its 32nd Annual Conference.
The two-hour panel, sponsored by the NEMRA Manufacturers Group (NMG), will cover the role of the rep in serving national distributor chains, point-of-sale reporting, and the role of the rep in distributors' line conversions. Participating in the panel will be representatives from Crescent Electric Supply, Dubuque, Iowa; GE Supply, Shelton, Conn.; Graybar Electric Co., St. Louis; Hagemeyer USA, Atlanta; Sonepar USA, Berwyn, Pa; Rexel USA, Dallas; and WESCO, Pittsburgh. Each distributor will make a five-minute presentation.
Attendees at the NEMRA Annual will also see a major change in the NEMRA Annual meeting format. NEMRA's One-on-One Sessions will now run for four days, from March 7-10. Group briefing sessions will be held on March 8-9.
Henry P. Bergson, NEMRA president, said the changes were made in response to members' suggestions.
“The emphasis on the importance of communications in our industry underlines our planning efforts for this conference,” he said. “The NEMRA Conference is the critical meeting place for the industry and our feeling is if it's not happening at our conference, then it's not happening anywhere. Our goal was to retain those elements of the conference we knew were important to attendees and to restructure other elements.”
Other features of this year's NEMRA Annual will be seminars for reps on weathering the loss of a line, working with regional managers, tax strategies for reps, and the impact of mergers/consolidation on rep firms.
The general session will include an address by Dr. Beck Weathers, the pathologist/mountaineer who survived a death-defying climb of Mount Everest.
In another change to the conference's traditional format, NEMRA's Board of Directors meeting on March 7 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. will be open to the membership.
“The goal of opening the meeting to NEMRA members is twofold,” said Bergson. “First, we would like to keep them informed regarding all that is happening with their industry and association. Second, we would like their questions, comments and input during this meeting.”