The Big 50 List is the most challenging and prideful piece of content produced every year by the editors of Industrial Distribution, a manufacturing publication from Advantage Business Marketing.
Challenging because the definition of what an industrial distributor is becomes increasingly harder to nail down as the market evolves, and rewarding because we know the list serves as a valuable reference for anyone involved in the industry to identify who the biggest players are, and which of them are rising or falling year-to-year. It’s crazy how well-read our past few Big 50 lists are even several years after their publishing.
The Big 50 List was started by former ID editor Jack Keough in the early 1980s, and since then, we’ve enjoyed bringing it to you in an increasingly amount of formats over its history — in print, on the website and newsletter, as a single countdown video, and as a three-part video countdown beginning in 2016.
Now, we’re taking the Big 50 to the next level.
For the first time, we are hosting an in-person event: The 2018 ID Big 50 Conference Awards & Luncheon. It will be held Sept. 25 at the Hilton O’Hare in Chicago in cooperation with the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors’ 2018 Large Company CEO/COO Roundtable, with the Big 50 event going 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. CT, followed by NAW’s event starting at 1:30 p.m. and running through 2 p.m. on Sept. 26.
Our Conference includes:
- Breakfast and lunch
- A keynote speech by Mike DeCata - President and CEO of Lawson Products
- A roundtable discussion featuring DGI Supply CFO Timothy Moran, Kimball Midwest VP of Operations Dave McCurdy and Lawson Products EVP and CFO Ron Knutson, in which I’ll ask them about various industry trends and concerns
- Presentation of the 2018 Big 50 Awards
Our Big 50 roundtable will discuss topics including market observations, market concerns, the impact of tariffs, the Amazon Effect, employment, vending and VMI, and sales management.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR ID'S 2018 BIG 50 CONFERENCE & AWARDS LUNCHEON, and we hope to see you in Chicago!
Any questions? Contact ID editor Mike Hockett at [email protected]
NAW’s Roundtable event is open to CEO and COO’s of distributors with annual sales of between $100 million and $1 billion. So if you and your company fit that criteria, we at ID encourage you to attend NAW’s event right after ours. NAW’s results-focused business meeting is one of the best ways to learn from the best of the best, as the program gives top distribution executives the opportunity to learn, exchange ideas and innovate with peers who are not competitors.
As a special offer, NAW non-member CEOs and COOs who are attending ID’s Big 50 event can get 50 percent off the NAW Roundtable non-member fee just by using the code “Icceo18” at NAW’s event registration. NAW members receive a complimentary NAW Roundtable registration as part of their membership package.
Click here to register to register for the NAW CEO/COO Roundtable
Special thanks to Epicor for sponsoring this event, and to NAW for their cooperation and coordination in making it possible!
