Canadian AD Members and Suppliers Celebrated at 2018 Electrical North American Meeting

Nov 11, 2018

On October 29-31, 2018, the AD Electrical North American Meeting drew over 1,000 attendees. This event attracted 151 first time attendees and representatives from over 362 companies in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Attendees benefited from a variety of agenda topics, including: Network Meetings, Emerging Leaders Session, and Country-specific Business Meetings. New to this year’s agenda was a SPA Optimization Workshop led by industry veteran Mo Barsema. In addition, members and suppliers also attended a panel discussion on managing and measuring your digital success. AD Electrical members are live with 29 digital branches and can access over one million normalized and attributed SKUs through the AD eCommerce Solutions Program.

Canadian members were among honourees for the 2018 AD Spirit of Independence awards. Canadian award winners are as follows:

• member for Highest Dollar Growth Award — Franklin Empire Inc.
• member for Highest Percentage Growth Award — Beaulieu & Lamoureux Inc.
• supplier for Highest Dollar Growth Award — Stelpro
• supplier for Highest Percentage Growth Award — WattStopper Legrand Canada 

“Own It” was the meeting theme this year. Everyone was challenged to participate and contribute to the success of AD by owning the moment, the challenge and the future. During his keynote address, AD Chairman & CEO Bill Weisberg introduced the “Four Rules for Owning It.” Rule number four is: Do the hard stuff. “When you choose to work on the hard stuff, you know you are dealing with the real stuff,” shared Weisberg during his talk. This year AD walked the talk by successfully completing their transition from being solely owned by Weisberg to being Member owned.

Ed Crawford, Chief Marketing Officer and President, Electrical Divisions shared, “Own It is about taking personal responsibility for making things happen. It’s about looking for ways how we can do it, rather than focusing on why it can’t be done. AD’s scale advantage is built on a strategy of growth. Through the collective strength of our members, and our ongoing commitment to member and supplier recruitment, as well as new AD growth programs and services, we will continue to leverage our multi-divisional structure to drive efficiency and make things happen.”

AD’s 2018 Premier Marketing Partners were also acknowledged throughout the event:

• ABB
• Atkore International
• Acuity Brands, Inc;
• Encore Wire
• General Cable
• Hubbell
• Legrand
• Leviton
• Omni Cable
• Signify
• Siemens
• Southwire