The Representor, Feature Article, Spring 2008
EDS '08 has a new look for new times!
by Mark Motsinger, CPMR, Wallace Electronic Sales, EDS Board President

If you haven't already noticed, you will. Before and during EDS 2008, attendees will see that this historic, 71-year-old event has taken on a dramatic new look to match the dynamic environment of our global industry. As the only electronics industry forum bringing together reps, distributors and manufacturers for meetings, exhibits, seminars and networking, EDS is changing to ensure that we all continue to derive maximum benefit.

Before you arrive at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas for EDS, which opens with special events on May 5 and runs through May 8, you'll notice that our new advertising and public relations firms have totally renovated the EDS Web site and even established a new URL (www.edsconnects.com) to emphasize that this event is indeed the place where our industry connects.

The new look of EDS will also be evident once you arrive at the show. And be assured that the "look" is not just a change in the show's "appearance." This new look is designed to reflect the true nature of the activities now taking place at EDS - from local and regional distributors adding and renewing supplier relationships to the largest global suppliers and distributors bringing their global teams together this year to hold critical discussions about their global markets and interests. So regardless of your market size and focus, EDS is the event where our industry connects to improve your business. EDS connects participants in all areas - from the local market requirements to complex global supply chain management.

Also new this year, EDS is launching an LED initiative to bring this exciting new market into focus at our event. There are specific seminars scheduled to help us all better understand our opportunities with this quickly expanding product line. By 2009, EDS hopes to have an entire display area devoted to LED lighting products and markets.

We are also fine-tuning the Extreme Networking event that made its debut in 2007. This high-powered, high-efficiency activity, scheduled on May 6 at 4 p.m., is designed to bring you together with the people at EDS who fit your individual networking criteria. Give it a try.

This will be our fourth year at the Paris - Bally's complex, and the EDS Board has been pleased with the reactions we have received from participants since we made the move. That doesn't mean, however, that we are not looking at possible future changes to keep pace with our attendees' priorities.

As one of the ERA members of the EDS Board, I am impressed with this group's high level of responsiveness to input from all our reps, manufacturers and distributors, and I am confident that we will continue to eagerly seek and respond to suggestions and feedback from all our participants.

The EDS Board is led this year by President Craig Conrad of TTI, one of the most respected executives in the distribution business and one of our industry's most articulate speakers. It was a great pleasure for ERA to welcome Craig to our 2008 Management and Marketing Conference in February in San Diego where he provided us with an overview of the electronics industry's near future.

It was also gratifying to learn at the recent ERA Board meeting that Bob Walsh, CPMR, of Coakley, Boyd & Abbett, Inc., has been appointed to the EDS Board as ERA's newest delegate. He succeeds Dan Parks of the West Electronic Sales Team who was the EDS President in 2006. My other fellow ERA members on the EDS Board are Mark Conley of O'Donnell Associates North and Paul Nielsen, CPMR, of Brainard-Nielsen Marketing, Inc.

We all, of course, serve as volunteers, along with the distributor and manufacturer members of the Board, and gladly so, because we believe in the value of EDS to our individual businesses and our industry as a whole. We are committed to EDS remaining a highly flexible event for companies of all sizes to help us build and strengthen existing and new partnerships and marketplace strategies.

It is impossible to estimate the vast amounts of time and effort that go into planning EDS, all for our benefit. So let's be sure we all come totally prepared - with our meetings and appointments made in advance and our schedules organized to allow time for both walking the exhibit floor (to find those new partners) and attending the information-packed seminars. (A complete listing of all scheduled seminars and events can be found under the All Participants header on the EDS Web page.)

And remember that ERA will, as usual, offer its business and hospitality center in the Tri-Association Area on the exhibit floor. Be sure to pick up your ERA member ribbon when you arrive, and then return often to enjoy a coffee break, check the EDS Lines Available Bulletin, hold small meetings, visit with our Recognized Resource suppliers and just relax for a short while. See you in Vegas!

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2008 Electronics Representatives Association (ERA), Chicago, IL 60611
Originally printed in the Spring 2008 issue of The Representor
Cannot be reprinted without the permission of the Electronics Representatives Association (ERA)