The IWDC rolled back into JW Marriott in Indianapolis June 22 – 24, 2025, to kick off this year's S & P theme, Building Value Together.
We had 111 Member companies, and 104 Vendor partners registered before the show, totaling 589 total people. With late registrations at the show, we are positive that we surpassed the 600-person mark and close to a new attendance record!
Sunday, June 22 started with two optional events. If you are unfamiliar with Fowling, it consists of throwing a football at bowling pins, with a pinch of optional cocktails. The group had a great time! We want to thank our Fowling event sponsors: Inweld/Masterweld, Oxford Alloys, Oxylance, Profax/Lenco, and Ray Murray. We could not have done this without you.
Our second event took place outdoors at Back9 Golfing. I am happy to report that no one fell into the netting, and it is apparent that we have some great golfers among us. Our thanks go out to our Back9 event sponsor, Milwaukee Electric Tool. A great time was had by all!
At 4 PM, Tina Estes led a Member/Vendor workshop on our current EDI platform buildout, with EDI One Source. We had great attendance and participation; Tina and the team are working diligently to make ERP agnostic EDI connections between our Members and Vendors.
At 5 PM, we held our Next Generation (INGG) Reception & Indiana Spirit Tasting event. This is a great networking opportunity for future leaders to build and foster professional relationships with other IWDC Member companies. We had over 100 next generation Members attend the event!
At 6 PM, our ever-popular Opening Reception kicked off. This year's theme was Totally 80s, and it did not disappoint. There were a lot of fishnets, gold chains, big hair, and a very nice Richard Simmons throwback. At the end of the night, it was decided that Cliff Mikula, from Welders Supply Company of PA, was the best costume winner of the Norton Abrasives $1000 award. Norton Abrasives also matched that award with another $1000 donation to this year's charity, Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity. There was a lot of great food, cocktails, arcade games, and relationship building took place. The Opening Reception was sponsored by Anthony Carts, CGW Abrasives, Saint-Gobain (Norton Abrasives), SFE group, and Victory Alloys. Again, these events would not be possible without the generous support of these sponsors. Thank you!
Monday, June 23 kicked off with a guest speaker, Steve McClatchy. Steve is an award-winning author that spoke to Leading Relationships, both personally and professionally. I think it is safe to say that everyone left the room with a solid reminder of how important our relationships are, between Members, Vendors, and customer partners.
Download "Leading
Relationships" Presentation
We very quickly pivoted to morning tours of the IWDC Distribution Center and Sutton-Garten's Dry Ice Facility. The tour of Sutton-Garten included four stations: Cold Jet discussing manufacturing and blasting equipment, Salof showcased the newly installed 100 ton reclaiming system onsite, packaging options and how pellet and block products are manufactured. Many thanks go out to Pat Garten and his team for being wonderful hosts and being so transparent.
Upon return from the tours, we immediately went into an afternoon of packed Gold Sponsor Forums with the following Vendor Partners:
After the Gold Sponsor Forums, we entered an Elite Hours Cocktail Reception. This was a great opportunity to catch up with old friends, and to establish new relationships as well.
Tuesday, June 24 started with keynote speaker Jason Bader. Jason spent many years in a family-owned distribution company before transitioning to speaking and business coaching. Jason's discussion was focused on "Finding The Balance: Inventory Turns and Customer Service." For those of us inventory enthusiasts, Jason offered many ideas and reminders to manage your inventory investment.
Download "Finding the
Balance" Presentation
After Jason's keynote, we presented Vendor and Member Awards.
Following the awards presentation, we shifted to our popular Reverse Speed Dating, consisting of 80 pre-registered Members and Vendors. Our Members were stationed at a high-top table, with our Vendor partners changing tables every 7-8 minutes.
We then rolled into Member-Only Workshops: Premier Sponsor CK Worldwide, Weldmark, and Savings4Members.
After lunch, we started our ever-popular Vendor Tradeshow. I witnessed amazing traffic and interaction between our Vendors and Members. Live feedback during the event was very positive, lots of POs and dialogue being exchanged.
At the end of the show, I hope all that attended had a great time. I also hope that they recognize the vision we had with our theme, Building Value Together. We spoke a lot about the importance of relationships and operational efficiencies, that are vital to our continued success together.
Cheers to a wonderful show this year, and we hope to see you all in Louisville in 2026!