ERA Announces 2019 Conference Committee


The Electronics Representatives Association (ERA) has announced the appointment of the chair, vice chair and members of the committee tasked with the development of its 50th Anniversary Management and Marketing Conference program, scheduled Feb. 24-26, 2019, at the AT&T Conference Center in Austin, Texas.

The chair of the committee is John Hutson, CPMR, of MacInnis Group and the vice chair is Mike Swenson of Mel Foster Company. Both Hutson and Swenson are returning committee members.

Hutson said, “It is an honor and a privilege to be chosen as the 2019 ERA Conference Chairperson. Although the incredible success of recent conferences, and the fact that the 2019 ERA Conference will be the 50th Anniversary Conference has set the bar exceptionally high, I am confident that delivering another gold medal performance will be possible with the outstanding conference planning committee that we have in place.”

The 2019 ERA Conference Committee is strategically made up of representatives, manufacturers and distributors with the goal of creating a diverse pool of experience and insight that result in the highest level of quality content to be shared at the ERA Conference.

In addition to Hutson and Swenson, other returning members of the ERA 2019 Conference Committee are: Ken Bellero of Schaffner EMC; Holly Myers, CPMR, of Wallace Electronic Sales; and Bryan White of Catalyst Sales Inc.

New members of the committee are: Kingsland Coombs, CPMR, CSP, of Control Sales; Paul Dosser of DigiKey; Brian Flynn of Sager Electronics; Terri Straube of Straube Associates Inc.; and Tom Vanderheyden of TTI Inc.

Coombs and Dosser will serve as co-chairs of the Keynote Committee; Straube and Vanderheyden will serve as co-chairs of the General Session Committee; Flynn and Myers will serve as co-chairs of the Breakout Sessions Committee; and Bellero and White will serve as co-chairs of the Sponsorship Committee.

ERA staff members on the committee are: Walter Tobin, the association’s CEO; Erin Collins, the conference coordinator; and Neda Simeonova, the conference app coordinator.

“This year’s ERA Conference Committee is made up of industry leaders who exceed all the criteria necessary for the making of a successful conference, and I am excited to watch them collectively work their magic,” Hutson said. “The right conference planning committee is vital to a successful conference, but so too is the commitment of the attendees. I hope that the industry shows its support for our Golden 50th Jubilee, and our industry as a whole, by supporting the conference through record-breaking attendance and sponsorship.”

ERA CEO Walter E. Tobin added, “ERA is thrilled to be hosting its 50th Golden Jubilee Conference at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center in Austin, Texas. This will be the fourth year in a row that we have held our conference at this great venue in such a great city. Following on the success of our last conference, which drew a record number of attendees, the 2019 Conference Committee is tasked with the mission of developing another outstanding program. I am confident that the 2019 50th Anniversary Conference will be a success!”

For more information about the 2019 ERA Conference, go to era.org.

About ERA

The 83-year-old Electronics Representatives Association (ERA) is the international trade organization for professional field sales companies in the global electronics industries, manufacturers who go to market through representative firms and global distributors. It is the mission of ERA to support the professional field sales function through programs and activities that educate, inform and advocate for manufacturers’ representatives, the principals they represent and the distributors who are reps’ partners in local territories. ERA member representative firms (often called “reps”) provide field sales services on an exclusive basis to manufacturers of related (but non-competing) products in a defined territory. For more information about ERA, visit era.org.


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