Anyone in the distribution sector who regularly attends industry conferences, conventions and summits would likely tell you that the best part of these events is the networking opportunities.

You can make the argument that we’ve all never been busier than today, which makes time the most valuable asset for any distribution professional. Sadly, it seems there’s never enough time in the year to congregate with other colleagues outside of our own companies as much as we’d like.

That’s what makes these events special, and it was reflected at the Industrial Supply Association’s ISA24 convention in mid-April. ISA’s annual spring event — held April 15-17 in downtown Charlotte, NC this year — brought together hundreds of industrial distribution and manufacturing professionals to network and learn more about the industrial supply channel they serve.

While there, I conducted 2-3-minute interviews with eight different attendees — each who did a great job of sharing quick thoughts on the event and the top challenges facing the channel — most of them on very short notice.

It resulted in a compilation podcast that you’ll find in the audio player above.

Quick Thoughts from ISA24 – April 18

The interviews you’ll hear in the podcast are, in order:

• Brendan Breen – CEO of ISA
• David Ruggles – Co-CEO of Martin Supply
• Kayla Jane McLaughlin – Director of Digital & Development at Surplus & Dunn
• Will Quinn – Global Director of Warehouse Strategy at Infor
• John Wiborg – President & CEO at Stellar Industrial Supply
• Paul Noble – Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at Verusen
• Daisy Lara – Senior Industrial Distribution Student at Texas A&M University
• Anum Tariq – Senior Industrial Distribution Student at Texas A&M University

Those last two were particularly interesting for getting the perspective of two current students at a major university’s dedicated industrial distribution program who will soon be entering the workforce.

Here’s a quick sampling of some of the thoughts shared that particularly resonated with me:

• “If your cost of doing business is the same today as it was three years ago, then you’re losing ground.”
• “Even though we’re in a room with our competitors, when one distributor wins, distribution wins, when a local manufacturer wins, manufacturing wins. And that’s been a great energy to see here.”
• “2010 saw the evolution of Industry 4.0, with Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and that sort of thing. With last year, we’re already at Industry 5.0, which is Cobots and that sort of thing. Most distributors haven’t even gotten to the Cloud yet. So, at the pace of change that technology is advancing, that’s really a struggle for the industry and for the channel as a whole.”
• (on top challenges) “With the cost of business going up and big, big competitors encroaching all the time, I think it’s trying to stay relevant and making sure you have what the customers need and your staff is set up to do that.”
• “I think MRO is top-of-mind across many industries. It’s MRO’s time to shine — not just in the immediate term, but over the next five to 10 years.”

Check out the full podcast above, and you can see all of our past episodes on our MDM Podcasts page here.