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Just the Facts

April 1, 2005
You have probably heard about the new Electrical Industry Marketing Conference (EIMC), which will be held Aug. 7-9 in Chicago. The EIMC is managed by

You have probably heard about the new Electrical Industry Marketing Conference (EIMC), which will be held Aug. 7-9 in Chicago. The EIMC is managed by industry veterans David Gordon and Neil Gillespie, Channel Marketing Group, Raleigh, N.C., and is supported by an impressive lineup of manufacturers and other industry leaders. Electrical Wholesaling is proud to be the publication sponsor for EIMC.

A recent letter from the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED), St. Louis, promoting AdVenture, its sales and marketing conference, indirectly referred to EIMC with this reference:

“AdVenture! That is the NAED's North American Sales and Marketing Conference's name. Don't be fooled by imposters or Johnny-Come-Latelys.”

Electrical Wholesaling has not survived and prospered for 85 years in the electrical business by supporting “imposters or Johnny Come-Latelys.” The entire staff of Electrical Wholesaling is delighted with the opportunity to work on the EIMC with David Gordon and Neil Gillespie of Channel Marketing Group because of their vast experience as marketers in the electrical wholesaling industry. Supporting the EIMC is a natural extension of EW's mission to help electrical distributors run their businesses more profitably and sell more electrical products.

Let's get a few things straight about the differences between the EIMC and NAED's AdVenture. For many years, AdVenture was a terrific meeting that got rave reviews from its attendees because of the solid content of its program and the networking opportunities it offered electrical distributors, independent manufacturers' reps and electrical manufacturers. Channel Marketing Group's David Gordon and Neil Gillespie know a thing or two about AdVenture: They managed the content and many other aspects of that conference for NAED from 2001 to 2003 and before that were frequent presenters.

When NAED decided this year to change its conference's focus to concentrate more on sales, Channel Marketing decided to run its own marketing conference, and they asked Electrical Wholesaling to support the conference as the publication sponsor.

Gordon and Gillespie also decided at that time to join Electrical Wholesaling's group of contributing writers. EW's editors always respected the articles Gordon and Gillespie wrote for NAED's TED magazine, and we are delighted to welcome them to the pages of the magazine.

After Channel Marketing Group announced its intentions to launch the EIMC, NAED decided to change the focus of its North American Sales and Marketing conference back to include more marketing. It also decided to run the conference under the AdVenture banner, which hadn't been emphasized as much in recent years.

That's probably more than you wanted to know about the history of these two marketing conferences, but I thought it was important to answer NAED's charges of the EIMC (and its supporters, I guess) being “imposters” or “Johnny Come-Latelys.” With their years of strategic marketing experience in the electrical business, David Gordon and Neil Gillespie of Channel Marketing Group certainly don't fall into that category.

And with more than 22 years covering the electrical industry for Electrical Wholesaling, neither do I. EW isn't a “Johnny-Come-Lately” or “imposter,” either. It's celebrating its 85th year in this business.

The same goes for the magazine's award-winning editorial staff, which has a combined total of 54 years of experience covering this business. No editorial staff for any business magazine covering the electrical business can boast about that type of experience.

Okay, enough of the ancient history, and wild claims. The electrical wholesaling industry now has two marketing conferences from which to choose: EIMC and AdVenture. Check out the agendas of both conferences, and choose one (or maybe even both!) — your company will benefit from the time you invest. Think independently and don't be bullied into your decision about where to invest in training.

About the Author

Jim Lucy | Editor-in-Chief of Electrical Wholesaling and Electrical Marketing

Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 40 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling and Electrical Marketing newsletter, and as a contributing writer for EC&M magazine During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement.

Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling  and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted with his wife and three sons in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 30 years. 

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