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I’m looking forward to the Fastener Fair USA show in Cleveland.  It’s pretty much in my backyard so I’m very curious to see how it goes.  I can report that almost every distributor I talk with in NE Ohio, and many from MI are attending.  Doesn’t hurt that the reception at the end of day one is at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  If you’ve never been there, I think you’ll like it.  Lots of cool stuff.

While traveling this week I was catching up on some Fully Threaded Radio episodes.  Always great stuff on road trips.  Just this morning I was listening to an interview with Charlie Kerr (Cleveland guy!) talking about tariffs.  Charlie always has strong thoughts (don’t want to call them opinions) on topics, and the tariffs were do different.  When he was asked how the tariffs will play out and how they will affect the fastener industry he acknowledged there is incomplete information and it is nearly impossible to predict what the affects will be.  He said predicting how they will affect business would be like picking a perfect bracket in the NCAA tournament (by the way, kudos to John Butler who won the Fastenerblog Tournament Challenge).

Fastener Fair has a lot of different programs including one session talking specifically about the future of the fastener industry.  Guessing maybe some of the panel participants might have a thing or two to say about tariffs and countless other unpredictable things going on today.  But I got to wondering…what’ll we all be talking about in the aisles of the Fastener Fair show?  What are the hot topics right now?  Import prices going up?  Are they stable yet?  Who’s buying who?  Just saw where Endries bought out my good friend Terry Delia when they acquired Branam Fastening.  Any other acquisition chatter out there?  How about personnel changes?  Lots of recent changes lately from the very top positions at organizations as well as with purchasing, sourcing, sales people.

Each year as we are gearing up for the Vegas show you can almost anticipate what topics people will be talking about.  By that time of year, you’d also have a pretty good idea of how the year had gone and might already be speculating about the next year.  This April show might throw us off a bit but I’m sure the aisles will be buzzing.  And then we get to hang out at the Rock Hall!  No complaints with that.  Heard there will be a band playing with some industry ties!  Rock & Roll!

Want to fill out one more NCAA Bracket?  Come join us and compete with your fastener peers.  Not sure what the winner gets but we’ll come up with something (other than bragging rights)!

http://fastenerblog.mayhem.cbssports.com/brackets

I have spoken to a lot of distributors in Northeast Ohio and some in surrounding states.  Without question, local distributors will be attending the Fastener Fair USA show in Cleveland.  Questions about it being a “first time show” or the fact that end users could be walking the show do not seem to be diminishing the interest.  I have probably spoken with 15-20 distributors and only one told me they were not planning to attend.  A few were not aware of the show but appreciated the fact that I made them aware by asking about it.  I wish I could get a pulse on how many attendees will be coming from other parts of the country.  Will “national”, multi branch distributors be sending people?  Will distributors from Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit…Chicago be attending?  If there is attendance data available I would be interested in hearing about it.  Regardless, people from my back yard will be there and I will too.  Looking forward to the show.

April is just a few short months away and the Fastener Fair USA will be taking place in Cleveland.  That’s where I live so it is a no brainer for me.  Because it is the inaugural Fastener Fair USA I probably would have gone anyways just out of curiosity to see how it goes.  I have never attended Fastener Fair shows in Europe, Mexico or Asia so I am very curious to attend.  The list of exhibitors is on the web site so you can check out the companies who are exhibiting.  I know there are several companies who might not attend this year but want to walk to show to determine if they want to participate in it the next time it is held which I think will be in two years.  So, there will be exhibitors, prospective exhibitors and…who else?

I’d like to hear some feedback from distributors to gauge their interest in the show.  Many companies east of the Mississippi might hesitate to send their staff to Vegas because they have to purchase plane tickets and hotel rooms.  If you are within driving distance to Cleveland will companies be sending more of their staff that they might not ordinarily send to a National Show?  Then again, the Fastener Fair shows in other countries draw people from different countries, not just different states.  Maybe west coast companies will be traveling to beautiful Cleveland because is is being marketed as a national show.

End users, particularly engineers and people who specify fasteners, are encouraged to attend which gives this show a different twist.  Some distributors may see it as an opportunity to talk to these individuals while some might be turned off that their customer’s personnel might be walking the show.  It will be interesting to hear from distributors as well as individuals who have attended Fastener Fair shows in other countries.  Please share with the rest of us some of your experiences.

The North Coast Fastener Association has some events in the works for the day before the show so keep posted for that.  There will be a reception at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after the first day of Fastener Fair, and that is a cool thing.  So, hope to see you in Cleveland and please do share if your coming to town and also if you’ve been to other Fastener Fair events!

I was paging through the most recent copy of Fastener Technology International (December 2017/January 2018 edition) and made my way back to the Fastener Focus section.  I was surprised and pleased to see myself in a picture with a long time industry friend and someone who I consider one of my most valued industry mentors.  We worked together most closely sometime between 1986 and 2000.  Somewhere in that general period.  I was in my mid 20’s to mid 30’s.  I feel lucky that I have continued to see this gentleman regularly over the years at trade shows and I have shared with him the deep influence he had on my fastener career.  Some people don’t get the opportunity to thank their mentors but I do it just about every time I see him.  The funny thing is, I’m not sure how he became such a valued “mentor”.  He was a National Sales Manager and I reported to him, though certainly not on a daily basis or anything.  There were people at his company that I worked with on a daily basis, but he was not one of them.  We talked periodically, met up at sales meetings and trade shows, and still I know that I learned a lot from him.  One particular lesson he stressed was that we needed to know our customer’s customer as well or better than they did!  At the time, his company sold exclusively through distributors and the distributors were not always anxious to share information about THEIR customers.  But we knew buying habits, and we could tell when certain parts were not moving at the same rate as they had in previous years.  So, while we did not always specifically KNOW their customers, we could point out “Hey we are sitting on a lot of M36 locknuts and you haven’t released any for a few months now.  Can you check with your salesman or the customer and see if things have slowed down?”  Oftentimes, our customer would thank us for pointing this out and they would check with their sales team to see what was up and to see if they were losing business.  Know your customer’s customer better than they do!  That was one of his lessons.

The NFDA and YFP have launched their own mentorship program.  The NFDA has recognized the importance of good mentors, or role models.  I’m not sure how the program works exactly but I believe mentors and mentees sign up and then are matched up to work together.  I would be interested to know how the program is working.  The NFDA also sponsored a Leadership Academy a few months ago.  I hope the program has the affect they hope for.  I suppose it cannot hurt.  But, I cannot say that my mentors have necessarily been the people that you might expect them to be.  I feel like I’ve picked up pieces and parts from a whole host of different people and each of those individual pieces and parts left an impression on me or taught me something.

The first time I met Ed Lecerra ( a dear friend who has left us, but has left a strong impression) was in a rep sales meeting.  Another rep was asking why he was not being credited with a sale in his area but rather the credit was going to Ed who lived several states away.  Slowly and strongly, Ed went through the entire sales process, from start to finish, and explained that it was he who had tracked down the business, made all the contacts and, in fact, had done all the work to secure that piece of business.  As Ed told the story his voice grew louder and stronger and, while he remained professional, in the end no one was confused about who had landed the business.  It was awesome.  Learned a few things.  Don’t mess with Ed, first and foremost.  Also, don’t bullshit.   Know your stuff before you open your mouth or someone like Ed will call you out.  Ed and I became friends after that meeting and a lot of folks from our industry who were close to Ed miss him dearly.  Was Ed a mentor to me?  I don’t know if I would have called him that but certainly I learned quite a few things from him so I guess he was.  Any rep who has met Bill Robb has got to feel similarly.  And, while Bill is a mentor, I’ve never worked with him a day in my life.

The mentorship program might work out really well.  I hope it does.  But, my personal belief is that getting your young people in front of as many people as possible might be a better method.  Send them to the shows, get them involved in the fastener associations, let them get in front of the people from the industry.  Have them visit customers.  You never know where your next fastener or life lesson will come from.

I was looking over information on the upcoming STAFDA show and saw their list of “Session Speakers”.  These speakers will be speaking on Sunday, November 12 which I think is the first day of the show.

David Avrin – “Blink and they’re gone” – author of It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You!

Eric Chester – author of On Fire At Work: How Great Companies Ignite Passion in Their People without Burning Them Out

Jill Geisler – author of Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know and also has a podcast Q&A:  Leadership and Integrity in the Digital Age

Jason Young – After 10 years in senior management with Southwest Airlines, Young launched LeadSmart, Inc. to develop successful corporate cultures for forward-thinking companies.  His clients include Starbucks, IHOP, Tyson Foods and Southwest Airlines

Thomas Schoenfelder Ph.D. – senior vice president, Research & Devlopment at Caliper Corporation, has over 20 years of experience in high-impact performance improvement initiatives, organizational diagnostics, assessment design, intervention implementation and evaluation.

Then, on Tuesday, November 14,  Alan Beaulieu president of the Institute for Trend Research will look at recent economic trends and provide a three-hour update on the economy.  I know the Beaulieu brothers do presentations at NFDA meetings and also some regional fastener association meetings so that is a familiar name to some in the fastener industry.

I wonder if the Fastener Community would attend these types of presentations if they were offered at one of our industry trade shows?  Would we have the interest or do we prefer industry specific topics?

These STAFDA speakers do not really focus on industry specific topics.  The speakers are not aimed at the construction market or tools or special fasteners.  They seem to be more about corporate culture, selling and leadership.

I pulled out my copy of the program from the Vegas Fastener Show, AKA the International Fastener Expo and took a look at the speakers.  Pac-West offered a session “Trunped! What Does It Mean for the U.S. Economy”.  And WIFI offered “Working With the World”, which I believe focused on today’s global business environment.  The Young Fastener Professionals held a panel discussion with this year’s and last year’s Fastener Hall of Fame inductees as well as this year’s Young Fastener Professional award winner.  They also had a presentation on engaging millennials in today’s workplace.  There were a couple different presentations on computer systems offered by InxSQL and Computer Insights and two put on by NFDA on using Excel for Customer Satisfaction Surveys and Using Microsoft Find Time To Schedule Meetings

Additionally, there were fastener related topics including “Boltology 101”, “The absolute least you must know about hydrogen embrittlement”  and a Fastener Technology Workshop put on by the Fastener Training Institute.  There was also a presentation put on by MANA regarding “Uber, AirBNB & Sales Reps”.

One difference I think is that many of the Vegas Show speakers are doing presentations DURING the trade show, which means you need to leave the exhibit area to attend.  Not sure if that hurts attendance.  I would like to hear if anyone has numbers out there as to how many attendees showed up at each of these events.  Just my opinion but sometimes it feels like there is some meeting going on all the time and sometimes they overlap.

STAFDA show tickets are quite a bit more expensive than that for the fastener show.  You might get more nationally recognized speakers, but you might also be paying for them.  Just curious what people think about the content, timing and amount of speakers at each of the shows.

A few quick takes on the Vegas Show, 2017:

Good traffic for 1-1/2 Days   Convention Hall was pretty good, very spacious  Traffic slow 2nd day afternoon, good time for suppliers to walk the show and talk to other suppliers and competitors   You’ve got to work that last half day and not expect it to come to you

Based on most feedback I’ve heard, those who stayed at the Westgate will gladly trade that in for Mandalay Bay

The Vegas Show is expanding to 2-1/2 day’s next year   There will be a collective groan from many suppliers but a few will be OK with that   Some companies were working their booths and entertaining guests right up till show closing   Many thanks to Umeta of America for hooking up a bunch of Cleveland folks with some tasty German beer right up to the last minutes of the show!

Show will be taking place on Halloween next year   Quite a few people groaning about that, especially those with small kids at home   I just need to make sure someone hands out candy back home so my house doesn’t get egged

Checked in several times on the “classroom/conference “ area   Attendance did not seem robust and I’m not sure what you can do about that   Hard to leave the show when it’s in full swing

The Hall of Fame / Young Fastener Professional award ceremony was excellent   I think it is one of my favorite parts of the show   Great listening to the industry movers and shakers   You shouldn’t miss this next year, it really is good   Might start it at 3:00 or earlier so the event doesn’t end after show hours

If Show is 2-1/2 Days next year then the show needs new, fresh programming ideas   We All like hearing the most current industry news from those people with the best, most up to date information   And we like networking with industry peers  more ideas on this later

Gotta stop now, time to catch a flight   See you next year Vegas

Whoops, one last thing   If I’m to believe what I heard in the aisles we will see lots of mergers and acquisitions in the upcoming months and next year   Lots of money burning holes in corporate pockets  Mentioned by at least 5 or 6 companies

It’s getting close now.  Everywhere I visit it seems the International Fastener Show is coming up in conversations.  Kind of odd to be going to a new location and only for one year but, it is what it is.  See you at the Circle Bar?

Just in case you have not heard, the press release below was sent out to suppliers (at the least the one that shared it with me – thank you Ross Shepard).  I confirmed with show personnel that this was announced before I decided to share it here.   All that being said, I’ll see you in a couple weeks at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the 2017 show!!

The International Fastener Expo is getting you BACK ON THE STRIP at the Mandalay Bay Resort in 2018 with an even bigger venue that brings attendees and exhibitors that much closer to all the action that Las Vegas has to offer.

In 2018 IFE will be held over three days: October 30 – November 1.
Mandalay Bay is conveniently located just 2 miles from the airport, located in the southern section of the iconic Las Vegas Strip. Not only is Mandalay Bay the “gold standard” in accommodation and meeting space – it offers everything you need under one roof including a Poolside Beach Club with a wave pool, Shark Reef Aquarium and underwater viewing area,  and multiple award-winning restaurants and bars like The House of Blues and Skyfall Lounge. Of course, there are four Hotel options within walking distance of the show floor. 

The Mandalay Bay is going to be “the place to be” for the Fastener Industry again in 2018! 

The Young Fastener Professionals (YFP) welcome two Fastener Hall of Fame inductees along with the newest recipient of the show’s Young Fastener Professional award to a panel discussion, open to all attendees of the National Industrial Fastener Show.