Industry execs brave economy to attend NAED South Central

Despite recessionary pressures, an estimated 162 distributor executives from 60 electrical supply houses and more than 260 manufacturer executives from 105 vendors are attending the 2009 South Central Conference held Feb. 25-Feb. 29 by the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) at the Omni Orlando Resort in ChampionsGate, Fla.,. Not surprisingly, attendance is down at the conference, which historically has been one NAED’s more popular regional meetings. However, the meeting still had the look and feel of a typical NAED conference, with distributors, manufacturers and reps meeting in the hotel lobby, hallways, lounges and on the golf course, and attendees taking advantage of seminars on topics including distributor profitability, IDEA’s service offerings and sales opportunities. The conference’s opening recession was well-attended and many of the conversations there centered on – you guessed it – the economy. Everyone EM’s reporter spoke with at the meeting wanted to know when things would bottom out.