Courses By Track
The UID experience is designed to enhance and fortify your knowledge, skills, and abilities with hands-on experience to support immediate application into your work environment. You do not want to miss a session!
Which Courses are Right for Me?
UID has implemented two changes related to the curriculum to ensure participants have all the information necessary to select the courses they feel will best meet both their needs and their interests.
Courses by Track: Courses are now grouped into one of six Education Tracks based on a theme. Not all course content fits neatly into one track or another; use this classification more as a guide. These groupings give participants the option to plan their curriculum based on interests in one or more areas. Click here to view.
Level of Complexity (LOC): Instructors have assigned a LOC: Foundational, Intermediate, or Advanced to their course. Similar to grouping a course in a specific track, the content in some courses will overlap between foundational and intermediate or intermediate and advanced. View each course to see the level of complexity.
Click here for definitions of tracks and levels of complexity.
Earning CPE
Attendees earn the equivalent of 3 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for participating in UID. These CEUs can be applied toward the Purdue University Certificate of Innovative Distribution. Attendees will receive a Certificate of Completion following the program.
Courses by Track
Distribution Strategy Track
000. AI and the Future of Work (Opening Keynote)
Instructor: Aaron Proietti
AI isn’t coming. It’s already here, reshaping how we think, work, and create. In this talk, Aaron demystifies Generative AI and offers a grounded, human-centered perspective on what it means for leaders, teams, and organizations. Whether your audience is hesitant or already experimenting, they’ll leave with fresh insight, actionable ideas, and a deeper understanding of how to get the most out of AI.
001. Re-igniting Your SPARRK! 7 Strategies to a More Positive, Productive and Personable YOU!
Instructor: Gail Alofsin
Your attitude is 100% on YOU. No question. There will be obstacles in your life; roadblocks and situations challenging you to unfathomable extremes. YOU are YOUR Choices. Your positive, realistic and optimistic mindset yields a competitive advantage. Positivity unites – enhancing the spirit of an organization.
002. Stop Today's Hackers - Empowering Distribution Leaders to be Cloud and Cyber Security Savvy
Instructor: Mike Foster
Mike expanded this must-see session to include both Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence. AI is revolutionizing personal and business lives, and it's never been more important to understand how to harness its power. This is a perfect combination of two powerful technologies that are vital for your organization's success. Mike tailors the presentation based on a quick 5-minute pre-presentation survey your participants fill out so he delivers what your participants want most.
003. Sales Compensation Trends & Tactics in Distribution
Instructor: John Stamos
Get insider intelligence from the front lines of the distribution industry. Our industry expert reveals the critical trends reshaping distribution go-to-market models and delivers targeted solutions to the compensation challenges that keep distribution leaders up at night. Walk away with industry-specific strategies you can implement immediately to overcome your biggest obstacles and best align your to your strategic growth objectives. Intended audience: Intended for Executive Leadership, Sales Leadership, HR and Sales Compensation Management
004. Using AI in the Distribution Industry to Grow Profits and Improve Productivity
Instructor: Jamie Turner
In this information-packed, action-oriented workshop, Jamie Turner will provide attendees a deep dive into the world of artificial intelligence. He will discuss how UID attendees can use AI to grow profits and improve productivity. The content in the workshop is not theory. Instead, it's practical application that the attendees and put to use right away. At the end of the session, attendees will walk away with actionable information and a deep understanding of how to use AI to grow their businesses.
005. Is Your Culture Profitable?
Instructor: Todd Cohen, CSP
How to Transform Workplace Culture Into Your Greatest Competitive Advantage Based on Todd's newly published fourth book on sales culture, this high-energy, thought-provoking keynote asks the question that will set your organization apart from the competition: Is your culture profitable?
009. AI Security Mastery: Configuring and Using A Tools safely in Your Business in the Quantum Age
Instructor: Mike Foster
Organizations are discovering that AI risks extend beyond data breaches to include AI-generated misinformation that could damage supplier and customer relationships, unauthorized access to existing business systems, and employees inadvertently exporting sensitive operational data through AI interfaces.
010. Increasing Your Brain's Performance for Greater Professional Success while Manageing the Stress of Change
Instructor: Jerry V Teplitz
Have you ever had a negative, stressful day at work, whether it was remote or in-person? How did you feel at the end of it? Tired, drained... Now, have you ever had a positive day? How did you feel at the end of it? Energized. Isn’t there an increase in your productivity and effectiveness on that positive day? What would that do to your abilities and successes? You can have that outcome every day! This seminar provides a method for personal brain re-engineering, which enables you to adapt quickly and successfully to a changing environment.
012. Are You Easy to Do Business With?
Instructor: Todd Cohen, CSP
This powerful session challenges distribution and supply chain professionals to examine their business from the customer's perspective. Through real-world case studies and interactive elements, it reveals how seemingly small barriers—complex processes, unclear communication, difficult policies—create massive revenue leaks. While your competition focuses on price cuts and flashy features, you'll discover how to become the vendor, partner, or employer that people actually WANT to work with. This presentation transforms how leaders think about customer experience, employee engagement, and operational efficiency by making "easy to do business with" your ultimate competitive advantage.
015. Understanding Disruption (General Session)
Instructor: Aaron Proietti
Disruption follows patterns. Understanding those patterns gives us power. In this session, Aaron uses storytelling, design thinking, systems thinking, and real-world examples to show how individuals at any level can lead through uncertainty by designing environments where change becomes possible and progress sustainable. Audiences walk away with language for the forces at play, insight into how disruption shows up, and clarity on what kind of leadership is needed next.
018. Balancing Innovation and Trust: How Distributors Win with AI
Instructor: Benjamin Cohen
Distributors are sitting on mountains of data—from transactions, product catalogs, supplier feeds, and customer interactions—but very few know how to turn that data into a strategic advantage. This session will show how distributors can move beyond surface-level digital tools and use AI to transform messy, underutilized data into actionable insights that drive revenue, margin, and customer loyalty
022. How to Become a Stronger Coach and Leader of Your Sales Team
Instructor: Jim Pancero, CSP, CPAE
This information-intensive program will focus on the sales leadership skills required to successfully manage and motivate a sales team today. We will discuss and address how to motivate people, the difference between coaching and consulting as a manager, and how to conduct effective sales ride-with’s with your reps. There will also be plenty of time to answer your questions and concerns. A detailed program workbook/action guide will be provided. This is the second half-day program - My first was on selling skills and this one is for leadership skills for a sales manager.
023. Personal Leadership & Time Management (General Session)
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
Understanding the psychology of what drives every decision you make empowers you to spend more of your time on the things that actually improve your life and your business, not just maintain them. Consistently improving your life and achieving your goals is not easy.
026. The Impact of Geopolitics on Your Business / Economic Update – What to Expect in 2025 and Beyond
Presenter: Alex Chausovsky
The world of geopolitics is constantly changing, often with significant ramifications. As we transition to a multipolar world, there are shifting global alliances and multiple hot spots around the world, some of which have the potential to turn into full-out war. Not to mention sanctions, trade embargoes and many other disruptive forces at work. All of this impacts your business – sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly.
028. Leading Relationships
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
If you are in business today, you are in the business of relationships. The skills of communicating effectively, working with diverse multi-generational teams, setting clear expectations, giving feedback, navigating differing opinions, resolving conflict, and holding others accountable can be the most important skills you will ever develop as a leader. In this age of AI threatening the future of work these are skills that AI will never be able to do for you. In this presentation you will learn the keys to success in each of these areas and how to build relationships strong enough to handle the pressures and tensions inherent in building, leading and/or being a part of a dynamic, engaged, fast changing, high-performance, creative, collaborative team. This presentation is guaranteed to change the way you work, interact, solve problems, innovate, manage, and lead your business!
029. Artificial Intelligence for Distributors - The Current Situation in 2025 and 2026
Instructor: J. Michael Marks
Everyone has turned into an AI expert and the amount of noise in the field is overwhelming. Mike is actively working with deploying multiple AI applications with industrial distributors today. This session starts with a quick overview for those who aren't already using ChatGPT or any of the other models in use today. Those with online access in the class will be able to set up a free account and actually be able to try out the tools for their own use.
030. Building a Leadership Team for a Transformational Organization
Presenter: Dena Cordova Jack
In today’s fast-changing business landscape, especially within industries like lumber and building materials and other adjunct industries, transformation is no longer optional. But the real engine behind successful change isn’t just technology or restructuring. It’s leadership. This session explores the essential leadership traits and team dynamics required to drive meaningful, lasting organizational transformation.
032. AI Discovery Workshop
Presenter: Brooks Hamilton
AI Discovery Workshop Executive Alignment and Hands-On Implementation The workshop will be divided into two key sessions: Executive Briefing (2 Hours) Audience: Senior executives (CEO, COO, CFO, CRO, VP-level) - These roles are crucial as they set the strategic direction and ensure that AI initiatives align with overall business goals Objective: Help the leadership team understand the current state of AI technology and the potential of incorporating AI in the form of LLMs and other AI enabled tools in their business. The goal is to provide actionable insights and spark interest in larger-scale AI adoption.
033. Managing Your Inventory and Supply Chain in a Chaotic Business World
Presenter: Jon Schreibfeder & Matt Schreibfeder
Distributors face a multitude of business challenges today. Sales of some products is skyrocketing while demand for other products is plummeting.
034. Precision Pricing: Strategies to Protect Margin and Maximize Customer Profitability
Presenter: Colin H Dees
In an industry driven by competitive pressure and shrinking margins, a strong customer pricing strategy is no longer optional—it’s essential. This session will give distribution leaders the tools and insights they need to transform customer pricing from a reactive process into a proactive, profit-generating system.
036. Understanding the Drivers Pushing Distribution from Version 1.0 to 2.0
Instructor: J. Michael Marks
Distribution has been going through tremendous change for the last quarter of a century with customers expecting an Amazon experience, the advent of digital, suppliers going direct, industry consolidation, the entry of non traditional competitors, and of course generational change. The pandemic only accelerated these impacts. Two firms have provided significant insight into these changes along the way, the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) and Modern Distribution Management (MDM). The two firms have now joined and this session distills the key learning from both organizations. The impacts are usually grouped into several categories including sales transformation, the introduction of analytics, digital applications, and culture. Proximity and artificial intelligence are just now emerging into driving forces and innovations will be seen in these areas during 2025 and beyond
037. Leading Change (Closing Keynote)
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
Vision, mission, values & goals are essential for a team to stay focused and on track. But even more important are the systems, processes, structure and decision making that bring them to life. Management and leadership are very different from one another. Both are vital to the success of a team but each yields different results. In this thought provoking and inspirational presentation, you will learn when your team needs management from you and when your team needs leadership.
Leadership Track
000. AI and the Future of Work (Opening Keynote)
Instructor: Aaron Proietti
AI isn’t coming. It’s already here, reshaping how we think, work, and create. In this talk, Aaron demystifies Generative AI and offers a grounded, human-centered perspective on what it means for leaders, teams, and organizations. Whether your audience is hesitant or already experimenting, they’ll leave with fresh insight, actionable ideas, and a deeper understanding of how to get the most out of AI.
001. Re-igniting Your SPARRK! 7 Strategies to a More Positive, Productive and Personable YOU!
Instructor: Gail Alofsin
Your attitude is 100% on YOU. No question. There will be obstacles in your life; roadblocks and situations challenging you to unfathomable extremes. YOU are YOUR Choices. Your positive, realistic and optimistic mindset yields a competitive advantage. Positivity unites – enhancing the spirit of an organization.
002. Stop Today's Hackers - Empowering Distribution Leaders to be Cloud and Cyber Security Savvy
Instructor: Mike Foster
Mike expanded this must-see session to include both Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence. AI is revolutionizing personal and business lives, and it's never been more important to understand how to harness its power. This is a perfect combination of two powerful technologies that are vital for your organization's success. Mike tailors the presentation based on a quick 5-minute pre-presentation survey your participants fill out so he delivers what your participants want most.
003. Sales Compensation Trends & Tactics in Distribution
Instructor: John Stamos
Get insider intelligence from the front lines of the distribution industry. Our industry expert reveals the critical trends reshaping distribution go-to-market models and delivers targeted solutions to the compensation challenges that keep distribution leaders up at night. Walk away with industry-specific strategies you can implement immediately to overcome your biggest obstacles and best align your to your strategic growth objectives. Intended audience: Intended for Executive Leadership, Sales Leadership, HR and Sales Compensation Management
005. Is Your Culture Profitable?
Instructor: Todd Cohen, CSP
How to Transform Workplace Culture Into Your Greatest Competitive Advantage Based on Todd's newly published fourth book on sales culture, this high-energy, thought-provoking keynote asks the question that will set your organization apart from the competition: Is your culture profitable?
006. Get the Meeting No One Else Can: Intel Secrets to Find the Right Person, at the Right Time, with the Right Message
Instructor: Sam Richter
At a time where information is abundant, but authenticity is scarce, knowing your prospects and clients and what matters to them is no longer just a sales strategy – it’s a decisive competitive advantage. How do you ensure your outreach stands out as genuine in a sea of AI-generated content? How do you connect with decision-makers in a way that resonates and gets results?
007. What Winning Teammates Do Differently
Instructor: Sean Glaze
Every member of your team needs to develop valuable interpersonal skills and awareness - because people who can build trust with others and inspire others to work more effectively will enjoy a significant competitive advantage. This program reveals the behaviors that improve organizational teamwork – so you have better days and enjoy better results! Sean will share a few captivating stories, powerful content, and high-energy interaction, to deliver a program that equips you and your people to become better teammates. You will leave with actionable steps to positively impact your team performance. You will learn how to take personal ownership of results, build deeper relationships with your people, share meaningful appreciation, and succeed more consistently in highly competitive environments.
008. Cultivating Leadership Excellence: 4 Steps to Lead with Credibility, Collaboration, Communication and Commitment
Instructor: Gail Alofsin
Leadership goes well beyond your title - it's about the choices YOU make and the influence YOU have every day. From the frontlines to the C-suite, credibility, trust, communication and attitude are skills you build at every stage of your career. Where are you on the leadership ladder and where do you want to go? This presentation will provide the tools to navigate the workplace with confidence and clarity.
009. AI Security Mastery: Configuring and Using A Tools safely in Your Business in the Quantum Age
Instructor: Mike Foster
Organizations are discovering that AI risks extend beyond data breaches to include AI-generated misinformation that could damage supplier and customer relationships, unauthorized access to existing business systems, and employees inadvertently exporting sensitive operational data through AI interfaces.
010. Increasing Your Brain's Performance for Greater Professional Success while Manageing the Stress of Change
Instructor: Jerry V Teplitz
Have you ever had a negative, stressful day at work, whether it was remote or in-person? How did you feel at the end of it? Tired, drained... Now, have you ever had a positive day? How did you feel at the end of it? Energized. Isn’t there an increase in your productivity and effectiveness on that positive day? What would that do to your abilities and successes? You can have that outcome every day! This seminar provides a method for personal brain re-engineering, which enables you to adapt quickly and successfully to a changing environment.
012. Are You Easy to Do Business With?
Instructor: Todd Cohen, CSP
This powerful session challenges distribution and supply chain professionals to examine their business from the customer's perspective. Through real-world case studies and interactive elements, it reveals how seemingly small barriers—complex processes, unclear communication, difficult policies—create massive revenue leaks. While your competition focuses on price cuts and flashy features, you'll discover how to become the vendor, partner, or employer that people actually WANT to work with. This presentation transforms how leaders think about customer experience, employee engagement, and operational efficiency by making "easy to do business with" your ultimate competitive advantage.
013. Finding the Balance in Distribution: People, Product & Profitability
Instructor: Jason Bader
This course is all about building a profitable operation. Managers of these locations need to understand how to lead their team down the path of profitability. It starts with getting everyone on the same page so that the location can provide a superior customer service experience.
014. What Effective Leaders Do - How to Accelerate Your Growth and Impact
Instructor: Sean Glaze
According to a 2022 Zippia research study, “77% of businesses report that leadership is lacking.” And while most managers want to be effective leaders, they are often promoted BEYOND their expertise. A leader’s does not become more effective because they gain more experience or a new title. Effectiveness is about having more positive and intentional interactions as a result of increased awareness!
015. Understanding Disruption (General Session)
Instructor: Aaron Proietti
Disruption follows patterns. Understanding those patterns gives us power. In this session, Aaron uses storytelling, design thinking, systems thinking, and real-world examples to show how individuals at any level can lead through uncertainty by designing environments where change becomes possible and progress sustainable. Audiences walk away with language for the forces at play, insight into how disruption shows up, and clarity on what kind of leadership is needed next.
016. The People Productivity Equation: How to Practice No Surprise Management
Instructor: Kathryne Newton, Ph.D.
In the follow up to Personnel Productivity Improvement: Strategic Recruitment & Onboarding, you will continue with the systems approach to maintaining a productive work environment for your employees. Learn why no-surprise management is important for your effectiveness as a manager. This course will help you to establish goals and use continuous appraisals to enhance performance, manage ongoing change and conflict, and teach you the best training tools for advancing your workforce.
018. Balancing Innovation and Trust: How Distributors Win with AI
Instructor: Benjamin Cohen
Distributors are sitting on mountains of data—from transactions, product catalogs, supplier feeds, and customer interactions—but very few know how to turn that data into a strategic advantage. This session will show how distributors can move beyond surface-level digital tools and use AI to transform messy, underutilized data into actionable insights that drive revenue, margin, and customer loyalty
019. Leaders are not Born. They are Built!
Instructor: Randy Disharoon
Participants will learn the four phases of Leadership & Professional Development: 1) Build Within – take a personal Leadership & Professional Development assessment and begin to assimilate the four keys to develop your capacity to lead yourself and others. 2) Build Around – employ the five keys to recruiting and retaining top talent and cultivate the power of communication. 3) Build Up – discover the seven steps to developing a winning culture and how to lead during times of change and/or crisis. 4) Build Out – set a strategy to influence their industry and community and brainstorm ways to pass success on to the next generation of leaders.
021. Gear Up for Greatness: Rebuilding Culture One Leader at a Time
Instructor: Lisa Ryan, CSP
You can’t outsource culture, and you can’t fix what you haven’t named. In this energizing, story-driven session, Lisa Ryan introduces the Six Gears of Grategy®, a practical, people-first framework designed to help distribution leaders build a culture their employees won’t want to leave. This session isn’t about theory. It’s a clear system that breaks culture down into six actionable areas: Attitude, Appreciation, Access, Acts of Service, Applause, and Accountability. Through real-world stories, hands-on exercises, and facilitated discussion, participants will identify what gear they need to shift; and what’s grinding employee morale to a halt. Whether you’re a new manager or seasoned leader, this workshop will help you recalibrate how you lead, how your team feels, and how your culture performs.
022. How to Become a Stronger Coach and Leader of Your Sales Team
Instructor: Jim Pancero, CSP, CPAE
This information-intensive program will focus on the sales leadership skills required to successfully manage and motivate a sales team today. We will discuss and address how to motivate people, the difference between coaching and consulting as a manager, and how to conduct effective sales ride-with’s with your reps. There will also be plenty of time to answer your questions and concerns. A detailed program workbook/action guide will be provided. This is the second half-day program - My first was on selling skills and this one is for leadership skills for a sales manager.
023. Personal Leadership & Time Management (General Session)
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
Understanding the psychology of what drives every decision you make empowers you to spend more of your time on the things that actually improve your life and your business, not just maintain them. Consistently improving your life and achieving your goals is not easy.
024. The People Productivity Equation: Strategic Recruiting and Onboarding
Presenter: Kathy Newton, Ph.D.
You will learn how to take a "systems" viewpoint of the organization, learning tools to identify productivity gaps in your firm and evaluate changes needed in a pandemic-prone world.
025. Leadership Resiliency - a Strategic Advantage During Economic Uncertainty
Presenter: Paul C. DuBois
Organizations face hard choices in the midst of economic downturn: workforce reductions, cost adjustments, margin pressure, client discontent - the list goes on. Leadership within the organization are often the ones facing the most pressure to protect productivity and revenue, while taking on the additional workload when workforce reductions or cost containment plans are implemented. While leaders may have a vast toolkit to rely on to adjust to changing operational realities, what is most critical in uncertain and high-stress times is a keen and practiced ability to stay resilient. This session will define Leadership Resiliency, and provide leaders with a framework to build personal Resiliency Action Plans, and provide a safe space to ask challenging questions
026. The Impact of Geopolitics on Your Business / Economic Update – What to Expect in 2025 and Beyond
Presenter: Alex Chausovsky
The world of geopolitics is constantly changing, often with significant ramifications. As we transition to a multipolar world, there are shifting global alliances and multiple hot spots around the world, some of which have the potential to turn into full-out war. Not to mention sanctions, trade embargoes and many other disruptive forces at work. All of this impacts your business – sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly.
028. Leading Relationships
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
If you are in business today, you are in the business of relationships. The skills of communicating effectively, working with diverse multi-generational teams, setting clear expectations, giving feedback, navigating differing opinions, resolving conflict, and holding others accountable can be the most important skills you will ever develop as a leader. In this age of AI threatening the future of work these are skills that AI will never be able to do for you. In this presentation you will learn the keys to success in each of these areas and how to build relationships strong enough to handle the pressures and tensions inherent in building, leading and/or being a part of a dynamic, engaged, fast changing, high-performance, creative, collaborative team. This presentation is guaranteed to change the way you work, interact, solve problems, innovate, manage, and lead your business!
030. Building a Leadership Team for a Transformational Organization
Presenter: Dena Cordova Jack
In today’s fast-changing business landscape, especially within industries like lumber and building materials and other adjunct industries, transformation is no longer optional. But the real engine behind successful change isn’t just technology or restructuring. It’s leadership. This session explores the essential leadership traits and team dynamics required to drive meaningful, lasting organizational transformation.
031. The Heart of Leadership: Turning Conflict into Connection
Presenter: Claudia St. John
Increasingly, leaders are finding themselves navigating an uncertain business environment. Not only can this uncertainty cause business challenges, it can negatively impact the employees who work in those businesses. In this keynote, leaders will learn about the essential human communication skills necessary to navigate uncertainty and conflict and create positive, productive and engaged employees.
032. AI Discovery Workshop
Presenter: Brooks Hamilton
AI Discovery Workshop Executive Alignment and Hands-On Implementation The workshop will be divided into two key sessions: Executive Briefing (2 Hours) Audience: Senior executives (CEO, COO, CFO, CRO, VP-level) - These roles are crucial as they set the strategic direction and ensure that AI initiatives align with overall business goals Objective: Help the leadership team understand the current state of AI technology and the potential of incorporating AI in the form of LLMs and other AI enabled tools in their business. The goal is to provide actionable insights and spark interest in larger-scale AI adoption.
034. Precision Pricing: Strategies to Protect Margin and Maximize Customer Profitability
Presenter: Colin H Dees
In an industry driven by competitive pressure and shrinking margins, a strong customer pricing strategy is no longer optional—it’s essential. This session will give distribution leaders the tools and insights they need to transform customer pricing from a reactive process into a proactive, profit-generating system.
037. Leading Change (Closing Keynote)
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
Vision, mission, values & goals are essential for a team to stay focused and on track. But even more important are the systems, processes, structure and decision making that bring them to life. Management and leadership are very different from one another. Both are vital to the success of a team but each yields different results. In this thought provoking and inspirational presentation, you will learn when your team needs management from you and when your team needs leadership.
Operations Track
000. AI and the Future of Work (Opening Keynote)
Instructor: Aaron Proietti
AI isn’t coming. It’s already here, reshaping how we think, work, and create. In this talk, Aaron demystifies Generative AI and offers a grounded, human-centered perspective on what it means for leaders, teams, and organizations. Whether your audience is hesitant or already experimenting, they’ll leave with fresh insight, actionable ideas, and a deeper understanding of how to get the most out of AI.
001. Re-igniting Your SPARRK! 7 Strategies to a More Positive, Productive and Personable YOU!
Instructor: Gail Alofsin
Your attitude is 100% on YOU. No question. There will be obstacles in your life; roadblocks and situations challenging you to unfathomable extremes. YOU are YOUR Choices. Your positive, realistic and optimistic mindset yields a competitive advantage. Positivity unites – enhancing the spirit of an organization.
002. Stop Today's Hackers - Empowering Distribution Leaders to be Cloud and Cyber Security Savvy
Instructor: Mike Foster
Mike expanded this must-see session to include both Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence. AI is revolutionizing personal and business lives, and it's never been more important to understand how to harness its power. This is a perfect combination of two powerful technologies that are vital for your organization's success. Mike tailors the presentation based on a quick 5-minute pre-presentation survey your participants fill out so he delivers what your participants want most.
003. Sales Compensation Trends & Tactics in Distribution
Instructor: John Stamos
Get insider intelligence from the front lines of the distribution industry. Our industry expert reveals the critical trends reshaping distribution go-to-market models and delivers targeted solutions to the compensation challenges that keep distribution leaders up at night. Walk away with industry-specific strategies you can implement immediately to overcome your biggest obstacles and best align your to your strategic growth objectives. Intended audience: Intended for Executive Leadership, Sales Leadership, HR and Sales Compensation Management
004. Using AI in the Distribution Industry to Grow Profits and Improve Productivity
Instructor: Jamie Turner
In this information-packed, action-oriented workshop, Jamie Turner will provide attendees a deep dive into the world of artificial intelligence. He will discuss how UID attendees can use AI to grow profits and improve productivity. The content in the workshop is not theory. Instead, it's practical application that the attendees and put to use right away. At the end of the session, attendees will walk away with actionable information and a deep understanding of how to use AI to grow their businesses.
005. Is Your Culture Profitable?
Instructor: Todd Cohen, CSP
How to Transform Workplace Culture Into Your Greatest Competitive Advantage Based on Todd's newly published fourth book on sales culture, this high-energy, thought-provoking keynote asks the question that will set your organization apart from the competition: Is your culture profitable?
007. What Winning Teammates Do Differently
Instructor: Sean Glaze
Every member of your team needs to develop valuable interpersonal skills and awareness - because people who can build trust with others and inspire others to work more effectively will enjoy a significant competitive advantage. This program reveals the behaviors that improve organizational teamwork – so you have better days and enjoy better results! Sean will share a few captivating stories, powerful content, and high-energy interaction, to deliver a program that equips you and your people to become better teammates. You will leave with actionable steps to positively impact your team performance. You will learn how to take personal ownership of results, build deeper relationships with your people, share meaningful appreciation, and succeed more consistently in highly competitive environments.
008. Cultivating Leadership Excellence: 4 Steps to Lead with Credibility, Collaboration, Communication and Commitment
Instructor: Gail Alofsin
Leadership goes well beyond your title - it's about the choices YOU make and the influence YOU have every day. From the frontlines to the C-suite, credibility, trust, communication and attitude are skills you build at every stage of your career. Where are you on the leadership ladder and where do you want to go? This presentation will provide the tools to navigate the workplace with confidence and clarity.
009. AI Security Mastery: Configuring and Using A Tools safely in Your Business in the Quantum Age
Instructor: Mike Foster
Organizations are discovering that AI risks extend beyond data breaches to include AI-generated misinformation that could damage supplier and customer relationships, unauthorized access to existing business systems, and employees inadvertently exporting sensitive operational data through AI interfaces.
010. Increasing Your Brain's Performance for Greater Professional Success while Manageing the Stress of Change
Instructor: Jerry V Teplitz
Have you ever had a negative, stressful day at work, whether it was remote or in-person? How did you feel at the end of it? Tired, drained... Now, have you ever had a positive day? How did you feel at the end of it? Energized. Isn’t there an increase in your productivity and effectiveness on that positive day? What would that do to your abilities and successes? You can have that outcome every day! This seminar provides a method for personal brain re-engineering, which enables you to adapt quickly and successfully to a changing environment.
012. Are You Easy to Do Business With?
Instructor: Todd Cohen, CSP
This powerful session challenges distribution and supply chain professionals to examine their business from the customer's perspective. Through real-world case studies and interactive elements, it reveals how seemingly small barriers—complex processes, unclear communication, difficult policies—create massive revenue leaks. While your competition focuses on price cuts and flashy features, you'll discover how to become the vendor, partner, or employer that people actually WANT to work with. This presentation transforms how leaders think about customer experience, employee engagement, and operational efficiency by making "easy to do business with" your ultimate competitive advantage.
013. Finding the Balance in Distribution: People, Product & Profitability
Instructor: Jason Bader
This course is all about building a profitable operation. Managers of these locations need to understand how to lead their team down the path of profitability. It starts with getting everyone on the same page so that the location can provide a superior customer service experience.
014. What Effective Leaders Do - How to Accelerate Your Growth and Impact
Instructor: Sean Glaze
According to a 2022 Zippia research study, “77% of businesses report that leadership is lacking.” And while most managers want to be effective leaders, they are often promoted BEYOND their expertise. A leader’s does not become more effective because they gain more experience or a new title. Effectiveness is about having more positive and intentional interactions as a result of increased awareness!
015. Understanding Disruption (General Session)
Instructor: Aaron Proietti
Disruption follows patterns. Understanding those patterns gives us power. In this session, Aaron uses storytelling, design thinking, systems thinking, and real-world examples to show how individuals at any level can lead through uncertainty by designing environments where change becomes possible and progress sustainable. Audiences walk away with language for the forces at play, insight into how disruption shows up, and clarity on what kind of leadership is needed next.
016. The People Productivity Equation: How to Practice No Surprise Management
Instructor: Kathryne Newton, Ph.D.
In the follow up to Personnel Productivity Improvement: Strategic Recruitment & Onboarding, you will continue with the systems approach to maintaining a productive work environment for your employees. Learn why no-surprise management is important for your effectiveness as a manager. This course will help you to establish goals and use continuous appraisals to enhance performance, manage ongoing change and conflict, and teach you the best training tools for advancing your workforce.
020. CRM That Works: A Hands-On Audit and Roadmap Workshop
Instructor: Brian Gardner
Every month without a well-aligned CRM means lost opportunities, hidden margin leakage and inefficient sales activity. For many distributors, this is the reality. Adoption is weak, and ROI is low. Sales teams are likely working around CRM instead of with it, creating data silos and blind spots that compound over time.
021. Gear Up for Greatness: Rebuilding Culture One Leader at a Time
Instructor: Lisa Ryan, CSP
You can’t outsource culture, and you can’t fix what you haven’t named. In this energizing, story-driven session, Lisa Ryan introduces the Six Gears of Grategy®, a practical, people-first framework designed to help distribution leaders build a culture their employees won’t want to leave. This session isn’t about theory. It’s a clear system that breaks culture down into six actionable areas: Attitude, Appreciation, Access, Acts of Service, Applause, and Accountability. Through real-world stories, hands-on exercises, and facilitated discussion, participants will identify what gear they need to shift; and what’s grinding employee morale to a halt. Whether you’re a new manager or seasoned leader, this workshop will help you recalibrate how you lead, how your team feels, and how your culture performs.
022. How to Become a Stronger Coach and Leader of Your Sales Team
Instructor: Jim Pancero, CSP, CPAE
This information-intensive program will focus on the sales leadership skills required to successfully manage and motivate a sales team today. We will discuss and address how to motivate people, the difference between coaching and consulting as a manager, and how to conduct effective sales ride-with’s with your reps. There will also be plenty of time to answer your questions and concerns. A detailed program workbook/action guide will be provided. This is the second half-day program - My first was on selling skills and this one is for leadership skills for a sales manager.
023. Personal Leadership & Time Management (General Session)
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
Understanding the psychology of what drives every decision you make empowers you to spend more of your time on the things that actually improve your life and your business, not just maintain them. Consistently improving your life and achieving your goals is not easy.
024. The People Productivity Equation: Strategic Recruiting and Onboarding
Presenter: Kathy Newton, Ph.D.
You will learn how to take a "systems" viewpoint of the organization, learning tools to identify productivity gaps in your firm and evaluate changes needed in a pandemic-prone world.
025. Leadership Resiliency - a Strategic Advantage During Economic Uncertainty
Presenter: Paul C. DuBois
Organizations face hard choices in the midst of economic downturn: workforce reductions, cost adjustments, margin pressure, client discontent - the list goes on. Leadership within the organization are often the ones facing the most pressure to protect productivity and revenue, while taking on the additional workload when workforce reductions or cost containment plans are implemented. While leaders may have a vast toolkit to rely on to adjust to changing operational realities, what is most critical in uncertain and high-stress times is a keen and practiced ability to stay resilient. This session will define Leadership Resiliency, and provide leaders with a framework to build personal Resiliency Action Plans, and provide a safe space to ask challenging questions
026. The Impact of Geopolitics on Your Business / Economic Update – What to Expect in 2025 and Beyond
Presenter: Alex Chausovsky
The world of geopolitics is constantly changing, often with significant ramifications. As we transition to a multipolar world, there are shifting global alliances and multiple hot spots around the world, some of which have the potential to turn into full-out war. Not to mention sanctions, trade embargoes and many other disruptive forces at work. All of this impacts your business – sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly.
028. Leading Relationships
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
If you are in business today, you are in the business of relationships. The skills of communicating effectively, working with diverse multi-generational teams, setting clear expectations, giving feedback, navigating differing opinions, resolving conflict, and holding others accountable can be the most important skills you will ever develop as a leader. In this age of AI threatening the future of work these are skills that AI will never be able to do for you. In this presentation you will learn the keys to success in each of these areas and how to build relationships strong enough to handle the pressures and tensions inherent in building, leading and/or being a part of a dynamic, engaged, fast changing, high-performance, creative, collaborative team. This presentation is guaranteed to change the way you work, interact, solve problems, innovate, manage, and lead your business!
030. Building a Leadership Team for a Transformational Organization
Presenter: Dena Cordova Jack
In today’s fast-changing business landscape, especially within industries like lumber and building materials and other adjunct industries, transformation is no longer optional. But the real engine behind successful change isn’t just technology or restructuring. It’s leadership. This session explores the essential leadership traits and team dynamics required to drive meaningful, lasting organizational transformation.
032. AI Discovery Workshop
Presenter: Brooks Hamilton
AI Discovery Workshop Executive Alignment and Hands-On Implementation The workshop will be divided into two key sessions: Executive Briefing (2 Hours) Audience: Senior executives (CEO, COO, CFO, CRO, VP-level) - These roles are crucial as they set the strategic direction and ensure that AI initiatives align with overall business goals Objective: Help the leadership team understand the current state of AI technology and the potential of incorporating AI in the form of LLMs and other AI enabled tools in their business. The goal is to provide actionable insights and spark interest in larger-scale AI adoption.
033. Managing Your Inventory and Supply Chain in a Chaotic Business World
Presenter: Jon Schreibfeder & Matt Schreibfeder
Distributors face a multitude of business challenges today. Sales of some products is skyrocketing while demand for other products is plummeting.
034. Precision Pricing: Strategies to Protect Margin and Maximize Customer Profitability
Presenter: Colin H Dees
In an industry driven by competitive pressure and shrinking margins, a strong customer pricing strategy is no longer optional—it’s essential. This session will give distribution leaders the tools and insights they need to transform customer pricing from a reactive process into a proactive, profit-generating system.
037. Leading Change (Closing Keynote)
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
Vision, mission, values & goals are essential for a team to stay focused and on track. But even more important are the systems, processes, structure and decision making that bring them to life. Management and leadership are very different from one another. Both are vital to the success of a team but each yields different results. In this thought provoking and inspirational presentation, you will learn when your team needs management from you and when your team needs leadership.
Management/HR Track
000. AI and the Future of Work (Opening Keynote)
Instructor: Aaron Proietti
AI isn’t coming. It’s already here, reshaping how we think, work, and create. In this talk, Aaron demystifies Generative AI and offers a grounded, human-centered perspective on what it means for leaders, teams, and organizations. Whether your audience is hesitant or already experimenting, they’ll leave with fresh insight, actionable ideas, and a deeper understanding of how to get the most out of AI.
001. Re-igniting Your SPARRK! 7 Strategies to a More Positive, Productive and Personable YOU!
Instructor: Gail Alofsin
Your attitude is 100% on YOU. No question. There will be obstacles in your life; roadblocks and situations challenging you to unfathomable extremes. YOU are YOUR Choices. Your positive, realistic and optimistic mindset yields a competitive advantage. Positivity unites – enhancing the spirit of an organization.
005. Is Your Culture Profitable?
Instructor: Todd Cohen, CSP
How to Transform Workplace Culture Into Your Greatest Competitive Advantage Based on Todd's newly published fourth book on sales culture, this high-energy, thought-provoking keynote asks the question that will set your organization apart from the competition: Is your culture profitable?
006. Get the Meeting No One Else Can: Intel Secrets to Find the Right Person, at the Right Time, with the Right Message
Instructor: Sam Richter
At a time where information is abundant, but authenticity is scarce, knowing your prospects and clients and what matters to them is no longer just a sales strategy – it’s a decisive competitive advantage. How do you ensure your outreach stands out as genuine in a sea of AI-generated content? How do you connect with decision-makers in a way that resonates and gets results?
008. Cultivating Leadership Excellence: 4 Steps to Lead with Credibility, Collaboration, Communication and Commitment
Instructor: Gail Alofsin
Leadership goes well beyond your title - it's about the choices YOU make and the influence YOU have every day. From the frontlines to the C-suite, credibility, trust, communication and attitude are skills you build at every stage of your career. Where are you on the leadership ladder and where do you want to go? This presentation will provide the tools to navigate the workplace with confidence and clarity.
011. Marketing Makeover: How to Fix Your Marketing and Drive More Revenue to Your Business . How to Become a Stronger Coach and Leader of Your Sales Team (morning)
Instructor: Jamie Turner
Several years ago, Williams-Sonoma introduced a bread maker for $275. When sales of the bread maker didn’t take off, they introduced a second bread maker that was slightly better than the $275 bread maker … but they charged $550 for it. What happened after they introduced the $550 bread maker? Sales of the $275 bread maker went through the roof. This happened because Williams-Sonoma knew about Relative Pricing which is a way to help consumers re-frame how they think about the cost of products. Bottom Line: Consumers behave in ways that are sometimes surprising. And businesses that understand these behaviors outperform their competitors. In this fun, engaging, action-oriented speech, internationally recognized author, professor, and CNN contributor Jamie Turner will take everything you know about marketing and turn it on its head. This is a top-to-bottom look at consumer behavior, insight development, and strategic thinking. You won’t learn about simple tactics in this session. Instead, you’ll learn how to re-wire your brain so that you can be more innovative, fresh, and inventive when you develop your next marketing campaign.
012. Are You Easy to Do Business With?
Instructor: Todd Cohen, CSP
This powerful session challenges distribution and supply chain professionals to examine their business from the customer's perspective. Through real-world case studies and interactive elements, it reveals how seemingly small barriers—complex processes, unclear communication, difficult policies—create massive revenue leaks. While your competition focuses on price cuts and flashy features, you'll discover how to become the vendor, partner, or employer that people actually WANT to work with. This presentation transforms how leaders think about customer experience, employee engagement, and operational efficiency by making "easy to do business with" your ultimate competitive advantage.
015. Understanding Disruption (General Session)
Instructor: Aaron Proietti
Disruption follows patterns. Understanding those patterns gives us power. In this session, Aaron uses storytelling, design thinking, systems thinking, and real-world examples to show how individuals at any level can lead through uncertainty by designing environments where change becomes possible and progress sustainable. Audiences walk away with language for the forces at play, insight into how disruption shows up, and clarity on what kind of leadership is needed next.
017. Capture the Invisible Sale: Build Your Modern Marketing Engine
Instructor: Bob DeStefano
Marketing used to be about generating awareness. Today, it’s about getting shortlisted. Today’s B2B buyers do their own research, ask AI for recommendations, and quietly narrow down vendor options—long before reaching out to sales. If your company isn’t showing up early in that journey, you’re already out of the running—and losing deals you never even knew you were competing for. In this session, you’ll learn why random acts of marketing—some SEO here, an email blast there—no longer work, and how to build a system that does. We’ll break down the proven 3-part Marketing Engine framework designed to help you capture the Invisible Sale. You’ll walk away with a clear, actionable framework you can use immediately to get found earlier, build trust faster, and get chosen more often, before buyers ever talk to your sales team.
023. Personal Leadership & Time Management (General Session)
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
Understanding the psychology of what drives every decision you make empowers you to spend more of your time on the things that actually improve your life and your business, not just maintain them. Consistently improving your life and achieving your goals is not easy.
028. Leading Relationships
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
If you are in business today, you are in the business of relationships. The skills of communicating effectively, working with diverse multi-generational teams, setting clear expectations, giving feedback, navigating differing opinions, resolving conflict, and holding others accountable can be the most important skills you will ever develop as a leader. In this age of AI threatening the future of work these are skills that AI will never be able to do for you. In this presentation you will learn the keys to success in each of these areas and how to build relationships strong enough to handle the pressures and tensions inherent in building, leading and/or being a part of a dynamic, engaged, fast changing, high-performance, creative, collaborative team. This presentation is guaranteed to change the way you work, interact, solve problems, innovate, manage, and lead your business!
030. Building a Leadership Team for a Transformational Organization
Presenter: Dena Cordova Jack
In today’s fast-changing business landscape, especially within industries like lumber and building materials and other adjunct industries, transformation is no longer optional. But the real engine behind successful change isn’t just technology or restructuring. It’s leadership. This session explores the essential leadership traits and team dynamics required to drive meaningful, lasting organizational transformation.
032. AI Discovery Workshop
Presenter: Brooks Hamilton
AI Discovery Workshop Executive Alignment and Hands-On Implementation The workshop will be divided into two key sessions: Executive Briefing (2 Hours) Audience: Senior executives (CEO, COO, CFO, CRO, VP-level) - These roles are crucial as they set the strategic direction and ensure that AI initiatives align with overall business goals Objective: Help the leadership team understand the current state of AI technology and the potential of incorporating AI in the form of LLMs and other AI enabled tools in their business. The goal is to provide actionable insights and spark interest in larger-scale AI adoption.
035. Value-Added Selling
Instructor: Paul Reilly
Today’s sellers face familiar challenges at unprecedented levels. Markets are flooded with tough competitors selling similar products and services.
037. Leading Change (Closing Keynote)
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
Vision, mission, values & goals are essential for a team to stay focused and on track. But even more important are the systems, processes, structure and decision making that bring them to life. Management and leadership are very different from one another. Both are vital to the success of a team but each yields different results. In this thought provoking and inspirational presentation, you will learn when your team needs management from you and when your team needs leadership.
Sales/Marketing Track
000. AI and the Future of Work (Opening Keynote)
Instructor: Aaron Proietti
AI isn’t coming. It’s already here, reshaping how we think, work, and create. In this talk, Aaron demystifies Generative AI and offers a grounded, human-centered perspective on what it means for leaders, teams, and organizations. Whether your audience is hesitant or already experimenting, they’ll leave with fresh insight, actionable ideas, and a deeper understanding of how to get the most out of AI.
001. Re-igniting Your SPARRK! 7 Strategies to a More Positive, Productive and Personable YOU!
Instructor: Gail Alofsin
Your attitude is 100% on YOU. No question. There will be obstacles in your life; roadblocks and situations challenging you to unfathomable extremes. YOU are YOUR Choices. Your positive, realistic and optimistic mindset yields a competitive advantage. Positivity unites – enhancing the spirit of an organization.
005. Is Your Culture Profitable?
Instructor: Todd Cohen, CSP
How to Transform Workplace Culture Into Your Greatest Competitive Advantage Based on Todd's newly published fourth book on sales culture, this high-energy, thought-provoking keynote asks the question that will set your organization apart from the competition: Is your culture profitable?
006. Get the Meeting No One Else Can: Intel Secrets to Find the Right Person, at the Right Time, with the Right Message
Instructor: Sam Richter
At a time where information is abundant, but authenticity is scarce, knowing your prospects and clients and what matters to them is no longer just a sales strategy – it’s a decisive competitive advantage. How do you ensure your outreach stands out as genuine in a sea of AI-generated content? How do you connect with decision-makers in a way that resonates and gets results?
008. Cultivating Leadership Excellence: 4 Steps to Lead with Credibility, Collaboration, Communication and Commitment
Instructor: Gail Alofsin
Leadership goes well beyond your title - it's about the choices YOU make and the influence YOU have every day. From the frontlines to the C-suite, credibility, trust, communication and attitude are skills you build at every stage of your career. Where are you on the leadership ladder and where do you want to go? This presentation will provide the tools to navigate the workplace with confidence and clarity.
010. Increasing Your Brain's Performance for Greater Professional Success while Manageing the Stress of Change
Instructor: Jerry V Teplitz
Have you ever had a negative, stressful day at work, whether it was remote or in-person? How did you feel at the end of it? Tired, drained... Now, have you ever had a positive day? How did you feel at the end of it? Energized. Isn’t there an increase in your productivity and effectiveness on that positive day? What would that do to your abilities and successes? You can have that outcome every day! This seminar provides a method for personal brain re-engineering, which enables you to adapt quickly and successfully to a changing environment.
012. Are You Easy to Do Business With?
Instructor: Todd Cohen, CSP
This powerful session challenges distribution and supply chain professionals to examine their business from the customer's perspective. Through real-world case studies and interactive elements, it reveals how seemingly small barriers—complex processes, unclear communication, difficult policies—create massive revenue leaks. While your competition focuses on price cuts and flashy features, you'll discover how to become the vendor, partner, or employer that people actually WANT to work with. This presentation transforms how leaders think about customer experience, employee engagement, and operational efficiency by making "easy to do business with" your ultimate competitive advantage.
015. Understanding Disruption (General Session)
Instructor: Aaron Proietti
Disruption follows patterns. Understanding those patterns gives us power. In this session, Aaron uses storytelling, design thinking, systems thinking, and real-world examples to show how individuals at any level can lead through uncertainty by designing environments where change becomes possible and progress sustainable. Audiences walk away with language for the forces at play, insight into how disruption shows up, and clarity on what kind of leadership is needed next.
016. The People Productivity Equation: How to Practice No Surprise Management
Instructor: Kathryne Newton, Ph.D.
In the follow up to Personnel Productivity Improvement: Strategic Recruitment & Onboarding, you will continue with the systems approach to maintaining a productive work environment for your employees. Learn why no-surprise management is important for your effectiveness as a manager. This course will help you to establish goals and use continuous appraisals to enhance performance, manage ongoing change and conflict, and teach you the best training tools for advancing your workforce.
017. Capture the Invisible Sale: Build Your Modern Marketing Engine
Instructor: Bob DeStefano
Marketing used to be about generating awareness. Today, it’s about getting shortlisted. Today’s B2B buyers do their own research, ask AI for recommendations, and quietly narrow down vendor options—long before reaching out to sales. If your company isn’t showing up early in that journey, you’re already out of the running—and losing deals you never even knew you were competing for. In this session, you’ll learn why random acts of marketing—some SEO here, an email blast there—no longer work, and how to build a system that does. We’ll break down the proven 3-part Marketing Engine framework designed to help you capture the Invisible Sale. You’ll walk away with a clear, actionable framework you can use immediately to get found earlier, build trust faster, and get chosen more often, before buyers ever talk to your sales team.
018. Balancing Innovation and Trust: How Distributors Win with AI
Instructor: Benjamin Cohen
Distributors are sitting on mountains of data—from transactions, product catalogs, supplier feeds, and customer interactions—but very few know how to turn that data into a strategic advantage. This session will show how distributors can move beyond surface-level digital tools and use AI to transform messy, underutilized data into actionable insights that drive revenue, margin, and customer loyalty
019. Leaders are not Born. They are Built!
Instructor: Randy Disharoon
Participants will learn the four phases of Leadership & Professional Development: 1) Build Within – take a personal Leadership & Professional Development assessment and begin to assimilate the four keys to develop your capacity to lead yourself and others. 2) Build Around – employ the five keys to recruiting and retaining top talent and cultivate the power of communication. 3) Build Up – discover the seven steps to developing a winning culture and how to lead during times of change and/or crisis. 4) Build Out – set a strategy to influence their industry and community and brainstorm ways to pass success on to the next generation of leaders.
020. CRM That Works: A Hands-On Audit and Roadmap Workshop
Instructor: Brian Gardner
Every month without a well-aligned CRM means lost opportunities, hidden margin leakage and inefficient sales activity. For many distributors, this is the reality. Adoption is weak, and ROI is low. Sales teams are likely working around CRM instead of with it, creating data silos and blind spots that compound over time.
022. How to Become a Stronger Coach and Leader of Your Sales Team
Instructor: Jim Pancero, CSP, CPAE
This information-intensive program will focus on the sales leadership skills required to successfully manage and motivate a sales team today. We will discuss and address how to motivate people, the difference between coaching and consulting as a manager, and how to conduct effective sales ride-with’s with your reps. There will also be plenty of time to answer your questions and concerns. A detailed program workbook/action guide will be provided. This is the second half-day program - My first was on selling skills and this one is for leadership skills for a sales manager.
023. Personal Leadership & Time Management (General Session)
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
Understanding the psychology of what drives every decision you make empowers you to spend more of your time on the things that actually improve your life and your business, not just maintain them. Consistently improving your life and achieving your goals is not easy.
028. Leading Relationships
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
If you are in business today, you are in the business of relationships. The skills of communicating effectively, working with diverse multi-generational teams, setting clear expectations, giving feedback, navigating differing opinions, resolving conflict, and holding others accountable can be the most important skills you will ever develop as a leader. In this age of AI threatening the future of work these are skills that AI will never be able to do for you. In this presentation you will learn the keys to success in each of these areas and how to build relationships strong enough to handle the pressures and tensions inherent in building, leading and/or being a part of a dynamic, engaged, fast changing, high-performance, creative, collaborative team. This presentation is guaranteed to change the way you work, interact, solve problems, innovate, manage, and lead your business!
030. Building a Leadership Team for a Transformational Organization
Presenter: Dena Cordova Jack
In today’s fast-changing business landscape, especially within industries like lumber and building materials and other adjunct industries, transformation is no longer optional. But the real engine behind successful change isn’t just technology or restructuring. It’s leadership. This session explores the essential leadership traits and team dynamics required to drive meaningful, lasting organizational transformation.
032. AI Discovery Workshop
Presenter: Brooks Hamilton
AI Discovery Workshop Executive Alignment and Hands-On Implementation The workshop will be divided into two key sessions: Executive Briefing (2 Hours) Audience: Senior executives (CEO, COO, CFO, CRO, VP-level) - These roles are crucial as they set the strategic direction and ensure that AI initiatives align with overall business goals Objective: Help the leadership team understand the current state of AI technology and the potential of incorporating AI in the form of LLMs and other AI enabled tools in their business. The goal is to provide actionable insights and spark interest in larger-scale AI adoption.
033. Managing Your Inventory and Supply Chain in a Chaotic Business World
Presenter: Jon Schreibfeder & Matt Schreibfeder
Distributors face a multitude of business challenges today. Sales of some products is skyrocketing while demand for other products is plummeting.
034. Precision Pricing: Strategies to Protect Margin and Maximize Customer Profitability
Presenter: Colin H Dees
In an industry driven by competitive pressure and shrinking margins, a strong customer pricing strategy is no longer optional—it’s essential. This session will give distribution leaders the tools and insights they need to transform customer pricing from a reactive process into a proactive, profit-generating system.
035. Value-Added Selling
Instructor: Paul Reilly
Today’s sellers face familiar challenges at unprecedented levels. Markets are flooded with tough competitors selling similar products and services.
037. Leading Change (Closing Keynote)
Instructor: Steve McClatchy
Vision, mission, values & goals are essential for a team to stay focused and on track. But even more important are the systems, processes, structure and decision making that bring them to life. Management and leadership are very different from one another. Both are vital to the success of a team but each yields different results. In this thought provoking and inspirational presentation, you will learn when your team needs management from you and when your team needs leadership.
Contact UID
Main Office
UID - University of Innovative Distribution
1300 Piccard Dr, Suite LL14
Rockville, MD 20850
Email: info@univid.org
Phone: (240) 801-3868
Accommodations
Make your hotel reservation today! Reservation cut-off is Monday, February 23, 2026.
