Kevin's latest book, NANOVATION: How a Little Car Can Teach the World to Think Big and Act Bold, takes readers behind the scenes and shows them how, in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, the people of Tata Motors created the Tata Nano, a $2,500 car and one of the greatest innovations in the auto industry since the Model-T. Kevin and his wife Jackie are also the authors of the international best seller, NUTS! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success. It uncovers the strategies that created the greatest success story in the history of commercial aviation. The Freibergs' other books include: BOOM! 7 Choices for Blowing the Doors Off Business-As-Usual! and GUTS! Companies that Blow the Doors Off Business-As-Usual.

Before becoming a full-time speaker and consultant, Kevin taught for eight years at the University of San Diego and San Diego State University. He received his bachelor's degree in English literature and master's degree in speech communication from San Diego State, and he earned his doctorate in leadership at the University of San Diego.
OPENING KEYNOTE: Blowing the Doors Off Business as Usual: Creating Pockets of Excellence

Mark has successfully developed and implemented strategies that have uniquely positioned Digi-Key in the electronic distribution industry. He has leveraged technology and in a very real sense "redefined distribution" for electronic components. Digi-Key is a leading edge distributor of electronic components that derives more than 85 percent of its sales from the Internet. The power of this redefinition is clearly substantiated by the performance of Digi-Key relative to its peers. This performance has resulted in major gains in market share, with Digi-Key rising from 20th largest electronic components distributor to fourth largest distributor in North America in just six years. Worldwide, Digi-Key has grown from 11th largest to sixth largest distributor of electronic components in just the past several years. This is particularly remarkable in the respect that Digi-Key's growth has been totally organic, i.e., without any acquisitions.

Scott moved into the manufacturing world after many years as a second generation manufacturers' representative and owner/president of the Colorado-based Lindberg Company, the firm founded by his parents, C. Edward and Janet Lindberg in 1963. As a rep, Scott served on many ERA boards and committees and chaired the ERA Conference Committee in 2001. He was one of the first reps to earn the Certified Professional Manufacturers Representative (CPMR) designation and then became a member and officer of the Board of Governors that oversees that program. He was also a member of the executive committee of the Manufacturers' Representatives Educational Research Foundation (MRERF).

William A. Strauss
Senior Economist and Economic Advisor, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank

Bill Strauss is a senior economist and economic advisor in the Economic Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, which he joined in 1982. His responsibilities include analyzing the current performance of both the Midwest economy and the manufacturing sector for use in monetary policy. He produces the monthly Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index and organizes the Bank's Economic Outlook Symposium and Automotive Outlook Symposium.

Bill earned a B.A. in economics and geography from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an M.A. in economics from Northwestern University. He has taught as an adjunct faculty member at Loyola University Chicago and Webster University in Chicago. He now teaches at the DePaul University Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and at the University of Chicago Graham School of General Studies where he received the 2010 Excellence in Teaching Award in the Business and Professional Programs.

His research papers include analysis of the manufacturing sector, the automotive sector, the Midwest regional economy, the trade-weighted dollar, business cycles and Federal Reserve payments operations. Bill has been interviewed on numerous television and radio shows and quoted in many major publication. He has also provided testimony concerning manufacturing issues to the U.S. Senate. He is a past president of the Chicago Association of Business Economists, a past board member of the National Association for Business Economics, a member of the National Business Economics Issues Council and a member of several university advisory groups.
GENERAL SESSION: Economic Outlook 2011 and 2012: How the Fed Sees It

Robert Terwall
ERA Director of Member Services
rterwall@era.org ~ www.era.org
Robert G. Terwall was employed by the Cherry Corporation for 31 years and retired in 2005 from the position of President of the Cherry Electrical Products Division with responsibility for profit and loss of the North American business unit. He had served on the senior management team since 1986 and previously held positions in the sales and marketing arena.

Since his retirement, Bob has engaged in consulting work for assorted U.S. and international clients with an emphasis on new business development, strategic planning and operational/profit improvements. His educational background includes a bachelor's in business administration degree from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater and a master's degree in business administration from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Bob has been active in industry organizations including Electronic Industries Association, National Electronic Distributors Association and ERA. He is now ERA's director of member services. Bob is a past president of the board of the Electronic Distribution Show and Conference (EDS), past chairman of the board of the Kenosha (Wis.) Area Business Alliance and past chairman of the Kenosha YMCA. He also serves on the advisory board of Marshall & Illsley Bank.
GENERAL SESSION: Principals' Growing Demands on Reps: What Are the Satisfactory Solutions for All?

Walter Tobin
Corporate Vice President for Global OEM Accounts, Future Electronics, Inc.

Walter Tobin is currently the corporate vice president for global OEM accounts at Future Electronics, Inc. He has more than 30 years of distribution experience in the areas of sales, marketing, value added services, general management and executive management. He has held senior vice president positions in sales and marketing for two different top five distributors. Walt spends most of his time on the road visiting global OEM customers, helping them to resolve their supply chain needs. Walt is well-known to the ERA community as a long-time advocate of the manufacturers' rep function and a proponent of the need for distributors and reps to work more closely in engaging their customer bases.
BREAKOUT SEMINAR: Working with Distribution: Maximizing the Channel

Marcia Weinstein
Director of Marketing, Arc-Tronics, Inc.
marciaw@arc-tronics.com ~ www.arc-tronics.com
Marcia Weinstein, director of marketing at Arc-Tronics, Inc., has held a variety of positions and responsibilities within the company. She has a strong background in the electronic manufacturing services (EMS) business, and her diverse experience in the industry coupled with product knowledge has led her to the co-ordination of marketing in all aspects of Arc-Tronics. She is currently concentrating on business development and marketing. Arc-Tronics specializes in low to medium volume manufacturing focusing on high-end military, medical, aerospace, and life science markets. Marcia has been involved in the growth of Arc-Tronics and has helped the company to achieve the highest quality standards in the industry: ISO 9001:2000, ISO 13485, AS 9100. Arc-Tronics is an ITAR registered organization. Marcia participates in industry related conferences and has a paralegal degree and a B.A. in marketing from Roosevelt University.
BREAKOUT SEMINAR: The View from the Other Side: How Today's and Next Gen Reps and Manufacturers See Each Other

Nicki Weiss
Founder and President, Sa1eswise
nicki@saleswise.ca ~ www.saleswise.ca
Nicki Weiss, founder and president of Sa1esWise, is an internationally recognized certified professional sales management coach, master trainer and workshop leader. Since 1992, she has trained, certified and/or coached 8,000+ business executives, rep firm owners, rep salespeople, corporate sales executives, entrepreneurial business leaders in small to medium sized companies and sales teams of all shapes and sizes. Prior to estabishing her firm, she held sales and sales management positions, consistently achieving top-ranking status. The mission of Sa1esWise is to help sales professionals in the rep world take the complication and confusion out of business relationships in order to drive more revenue ... sanely and humanely. Nicki partners with a variety of associations, including ERA, to deliver free teleforums on a variety of topics around sales and sales leadership. She is also the sales columnist in ERA's magazine, The Representor.
BREAKOUT SEMINAR: Creating a Tribal Sales Culture to Help Manage Change

Tom Wichert
Vice President of Sales, TDK-Lambda Americas
tom.wichert@us.tdk-lambda.com ~ www.us.tdk-lambda.com
Tom Wichert joined TDK-Lambda in 1998 as the business development manager and was named to his current position in early 2001. He now directs all his company's sales activities in North and South America, including working with reps, distributors, regional sales managers and key account managers. Prior to his move to TDK-Lambda, Tom was a design engineer and then program manager at Aerospace Avionics, Inc. He holds a BSEE from West Virginia University and MBA from Hofstra University.
GENERAL SESSION: What IS a Sales Territory Today? How Can Reps and Principals Build Win-Win Agreements When Traditional Territories Are Disappearing?

Al Wright
Director of Sales, Laird Technologies, Performance Materials Division
al.wright@lairdtech.com ~ www.lairdtech.com
Al Wright is the director of sales of the Laird Technologies Performance Materials Division. This division designs and manufactures electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding and thermal management that provide protection for a range of electronic devices in the information technology, consumer electronics, telecom, medical, aerospace and defense, industrial and instrumentation markets. He has more than 25 years of leadership experience in sales and marketing with manufacturers and in the distribution industry and previously held senior management positions with Phoenix Contact, Thomas and Betts, the Carlton Bates Company and Sager Electronics. For this year's conference, Al served on ERA's Manufacturer Advisory Committee.
GENERAL SESSION: Tracking (and Keeping) Business When It Moves Off Shore: Who Does It Best and How

Chet Zaslow, CPMR
President, Zaslow Sales
czaslow@zaslowsales.com ~ www.zaslowsales.com
Chet Zaslow, CPMR, is a second generation manufacturers' representative who joined his father's firm in 1982. He has been president of the company since 1987 and earned his CPMR designation in 1998. Zaslow Sales has been an active member of ERA since 1962, and Chet is a past president of the New England Chapter as well as the current national board delegate. He has been heavily involved in the chapter's activities and has also been a featured speaker at ERA National Conferences, ERA programs at EDS and at ERA-MANA Small Rep Firm Forums. Since 2001, Chet has chaired ERA's Chapter Leadership Council, and in 2006, he was the first recipient of the Jess Spoonts - ERA White Pin Scholarship Award.
GENERAL SESSION: What IS a Sales Territory Today? How Can Reps and Principals Build Win-Win Agreements When Traditional Territories Are Disappearing?