The National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) announces that registration is open for the 2009 National Electrical Leadership Summit. The Summit will take place May 16–20, 2009, at the Westin Diplomat in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The agenda features an expanded lineup of top-quality speakers, industry panels, educational workshops, and networking opportunities that will provide members with the ideas, strategies, and trends analysis needed to help their companies survive today’s economic challenges and create new opportunities to thrive.

With the theme “Expanding Our Horizons,” the conference will focus on strategic leadership issues in key areas of new markets, finance, risk reduction, and the economy.

Sponsors of the National Electrical Leadership Summit include: diamond sponsor Eaton Corporation; platinum sponsor Activant; and gold sponsors ABB, Siemens, OSRAM SYLVANIA, and Universal Lighting Technologies. Additional companies are sponsoring at the silver level or onsite events.

Keynote speakers include: FOX Business News Anchor, Economist, and Correspondent Stuart Varney who will cover how the American economy is being re-shaped by our new president; Senior Analyst for the Institute for Trend Research, Alan Beaulieu who will discuss the economic outlook for our industry and for the global economy; and leading management expert on intellectual capital and its impact on performance, Dr. Nick Bontis who will provide specific strategies and tactics that will enable leaders to shift quickly during these turbulent times.

Other highlights include:

-A series of panels covering hot industry topics including “Washington Insider Panel: The First 100 Days,” “Pros & Cons of Getting into the Renewable Energy Product Market,” and “Green Buildings: Lessons Learned From LEED®.”

-Solution-oriented workshops on industry trends and management strategies including: “Dealing with Contracts, Payment Bonds and Liens When Stakes are High and Markets are Down,” “Risk Reduction Strategies for Potential Value-Added Service Liability,” “Crash Course in Credit and Cash Flow,” “Preserving Competitive Advantage Through the Economic Cycle,” “ What’s Important to Green Building Customers and How to Sell to Them,” and “Hot Segments: Are You Headed in the Right Direction?”

-Special networking opportunities including the popular Strategic Planning Booth Sessions which provide opportunities for high level trading partner executives to meet, and the Women in Industry Networking Luncheon where the speaker will present “Defusing Workplace Violence – Risk Factors, Prevention and Survival Strategies.”

Financially based sessions provide opportunities for CPAs to earn CPE credits.

Visit http://www.naed.org/meetings/national/index.htm to register. The early bird registration deadline is March 27. For more information, contact the NAED Conference Department at (888) 791-2512.

NAED is the trade association for the $70+ billion electrical distribution industry. Through networking, education, research, and benchmarking, NAED helps electrical distributors increase profitability and improve the channel. NAED’s membership operates in approximately 4,400 locations internationally.