AHMA Executive Conference and Annual Membership Meeting

The American Hardware Manufacturers is holding an Executive Conference and Annual Meeting at the Navy Pier in Chicago on June 4th thru the 7th. My first reaction was, fantastic, I need to be a part of this event. I looked at the price tag and got sticker shock. Then I looked at the list of speakers and understood why the price was so high. The speakers list is full of big ticket speakers. Some names I recognized right away and others I had to do some digging.

Most all of us will recognized names like Bill Clinton, Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Porter. All important figures for our times, but none of them are Hardware Gurus with the possible exception of Colin Powell who I think worked in a hardware store as a kid.

The list of speakers continues with Malcolm Gladwell (author of Tipping Point and Blink), Michelle Peluso (Travelocity), Knichi Ohmae (globalization strategist), Dr. Liu Jiren (Software), Bruce Chizen (Adobe Exec.), Marcus Buckingham (Personal Development) and Dennis Nally (Price Waterhouse Exec.).

This looks like a cast of thousands and costs of hundreds of thousands, maybe even a million or more. These speakers individually charge tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each. They are big picture people and will be talking in generalities.

It was after I looked all these people up that I began to question whether or not I really needed to be at this event. This will consume 4 days, it is going to be general and long term in nature and it will not do a thing to help my business in the short run. If I am a small business owner can I afford to take the time and spend the money on this? If I am a large business executive, what do I think that Clinton, Powell, Giuliani and others can do to help me with improving investor's returns?

I can't help but wonder how the industry is going to respond to this extravaganza?