What is the South Central Region Conference?
The South Central Region conference provides a forum for:

• Hard-Hitting Education Sessions:
  Timely information about trends affecting your business.
• Peer Networking:
  Exchange ideas and best practices with industry colleagues.
• B2B Booth Sessions:
  Solidify relationships and make new contacts.
  
  View highlights from the 2012 South Central Region Conference
   
  

NAED South Central Region Council

2012 Attendees 

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Women in Industry Luncheon
Customer Service - How to Keep Customers Rushing Back for More
Kelly McDonald, marketing and business trends expert
PowerPoint

Education Workshop
Innovation in Marketing - Maximize Your Marketing Efforts: Best Practices for Electrical Distribution
Sue Smith, professor of marketing practice, Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University
PowerPoint

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Keynote
The Dewey Bozella Foundation
Dewey Bozella, 2011 Arthur Ashe Courage Award winner and boxer
Find out more about the Foundation 

The Future of Brands
Steve Deist, partner, Indian River Consulting Group
PowerPoint

It's Not Your Father's Workplace
Panel Moderator: Diane Thielfoldt, learning strategist and co-founder, The Learning Cafe
Handout
PowerPoint

Keynote Speaker

There are times in life when it is easier to just give up. This isn’t a belief held by 2011 Arthur Ashe Courage Award winner Dewey Bozella. The 2011 ESPY Awards celebrated the courage and conviction that led Bozella to the ultimate path of freedom after 26 years of wrongful imprisonment. Bozella’s early life was one of hardship and turmoil. Foster care and life on the streets defined his youth until he found his calling in the sport of boxing. He showed promise training at Floyd Patterson’s camp and moved from Brooklyn to make a life for himself in upstate New York. In 1983, Bozella’s life took a dramatic turn when he was convicted of a murder he did not commit. Sentenced to 20 years to life in Sing Sing prison, Bozella maintained his innocence and exhausted every appeal. He was offered more than four separate chances for an early release if he would only admit guilt and show remorse, but Bozella consistently refused to accept freedom under such conditions. Anger at his imprisonment gave way to determination and instead of becoming embittered, he became a model prisoner, earning his GED, bachelors and masters degrees, working as a counselor for other prisoners, and falling in love and getting married. Through it all, Bozella found strength and purpose through boxing, becoming the light heavyweight champion of Sing Sing Prison. Powerful New York law firm, WilmerHale, eventually took on Bozella’s case and uncovered new evidence that exonerated him. After being in prison for more than 26 years, he was finally released in October 2009. Today, Bozella devotes his life to helping others, working with a non-profit that helps recently released prisoners rehabilitate back into the world. He has also returned to boxing as a trainer to kids and aspiring fighters. Bozella lives in Fishkill, NY with his wife of 17 years, Trena.

Check out the Dewey Bozella Foundation here. The Dewey Bozella Foundation is dedicated to fulfilling Dewey's lifelong dream of working with kids to teach them discipline and the value of hard work, perseverance and courage through boxing. Through boxing, Dewey and the Foundation hope to inspire kids to set goals, follow their dreams and, most important, never give up - the lessons Dewey learned from boxing while incarcerated for a crime he did not commit.

Education Sessions

Steve Deist is a Partner with the Indian River Consulting Group, an experienced-based firm that focuses exclusively on distribution channels. He has over 20 years of experience working for hundreds of distributor, manufacturer and private equity clients in dozens of lines of trade. He is a highly rated speaker, a permanent University of Industrial Distribution faculty member and a distribution company board director. Steve has extensive knowledge of NAED’s membership and the electrical industry in general. This includes: over 30 consulting projects with NAED members in the past 10 years in areas including strategy, marketing, sales, compensation, operations and technology; numerous marketing channel projects for top tier electrical equipment manufacturers; and serving as lead researcher and writer roles for NAED’s 2007 study “Emerging Trends and Traps in Residential Construction.”

Dan Goldberg is a shareholder, the Head of the Litigation Department, and manages the Construction Practice Group at Ruberto, Israel & Weiner in Boston. He teaches a number of courses on contract formation for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, and has taught about liens and bond for almost twenty years. He has represented national suppliers since 1990.

Jim Pancero has has been directly involved in "business-to-business" selling for over 40 years. Six of those years were spent successfully selling the largest computer systems for the Data Processing Division of the IBM Corporation. During Jim's prestigious IBM career he earned several awards including the coveted "Golden Circle" designation annually awarded to the top 5% of their international sales force. In 1982, Jim founded his advanced sales training and consulting company. Since then, Jim has conducted over 3,000 presentations or consulting days for 600 companies providing a career average of five events per client.

Bethany Sullivan, has provided strategic direction and marketing leadership to a variety of organizations in financial services, manufacturing, and distribution. She has firsthand success creating and applying innovative solutions that deliver bottom line results. A catalyst of strategic change, she continually asks, "What is impossible to do today, but if it could be done, would fundamentally change our industry for the better?" She has moderated panels and town hall meetings at various national and regional NAED conferences and published over 90 articles on strategic marketing.

Sue Smith is currently a Professor of Marketing Practice at the Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University. Her focus is teaching Innovation, New Business Development and Marketing fundamentals to MBA and undergraduate students. For many years as VP of Marketing, she led the marketing team at Pass & Seymour/legrand in Syracuse, NY. While at Pass & Seymour, Sue had responsibility for Product Management, Channel Marketing, Sales and New Business Teams. She also participated actively on past Adventure planning committees. Most recently Sue was Vice President of Marketing for IRWIN Industrial Tools division of Newell Rubbermaid in Huntersville, NC. Sue earned her Bachelor’s degree at Cornell and her M.B.A. at Boston College.

Diane Thielfoldt partners with clients to create custom learning solutions that produce business results and support personal growth. She specializes in designing and developing training on the four-generation workforce, the changing workplace, leadership, and engagement. Prior to launching a thriving business Diane’s corporate career encompassed leadership roles with McGraw-Hill, TRW, Bausch & Lomb, and Xerox in sales, marketing, communications, and learning design, development, and delivery.