Winter 2021 – News Beat
ERA ANNOUNCED 2021 VIRTUAL CONFERENCE BREAKOUT SESSIONS
ERA announced the Breakout Session lineup for the 2021 ERA Virtual Conference, scheduled for March 1-3. Over the past nine months, volunteers on the Breakout Sessions Sub-Committee have been working diligently to develop 13 Breakout Sessions for the upcoming conference, including:
• How to Collaborate Effectively While Everyone is Working Remotely
• Guidelines Used by Reps and Distributors to Assess a Manufacturers ROI
• Selling Through Storytelling: How the Art of Storytelling Can Help You Engage Customers and Improve Sales
• Incubators to Accelerators, Start-Ups to Scale-Ups: Sound Strategies for Calling on Developing Accounts
• Nefarious Business Experiences: Protecting Yourself in Today’s Work Environment
• Onshoring: Myth or Reality?
• Services Selling: New Revenue Areas in Subscriptions, Software and Solutions
• Strategies for Success for Manufacturers’ Rep Firms of All Sizes
• Successfully Managing and Motivating Your Remote Sales Team
• The Five Best LinkedIn Strategies for Generating Qualified Leads
• Using Data in Real Time to Drive Sales
• Virtual Selling: How to Survive and Thrive in the Virtual Sales World
• Work Smarter, Not Harder: Powerful Time Management Strategies to Boost Your Productivity
For more information about the upcoming conference and details about speakers and sessions, visit https://era.org/era-events/era-conference.
ERA UPDATES, CHAPTERS OF THE YEAR AND COLT PROGRAMS
Due to safety restrictions for in-person meetings in 2020, many ERA Chapters have transitioned their in-person chapter activities to virtual events. To reflect these changes, the new Chapters of the Year program introduced new recognition categories — Education, Membership and Networking. ERA chapters were invited to nominate their member activities in January.
ERA also announced that the 2021 COLT Program is moving to a virtual platform and will be available free for any chapter members who wish to attend. As such, Chapters of the Year award recipients will no longer receive a scholarship to the COLT Program. In its place, each Chapters of the Year award recipient will receive one conference attendee registration for the ERA Conference in 2022. The registration will apply to a selected member of the awarded chapter and is not transferrable outside of the chapter.
All Chapters of the Year award recipients who have not been able to use the COLT scholarship from previous years also will be awarded an ERA Conference registration for 2022. The following chapters are eligible to receive this from prior years: Empire State, Chicagoland-Wisconsin, Florida-Sunshine, Southwest, and Arizona.
ERA RELEASES NEW MANUFACTURERS’ REP TOOLKIT
ERA released a new Manufacturers’ Rep Toolkit which contains many different ERA tools — videos, white papers, PowerPoint presentations. This ERA members-only resource is designed to build on and validate the specific elements of the rep value proposition. The toolkit was developed by ERA Special Consultant Cesare Giammarco and is available as a downloadable PDF, PowerPoint file and interactive digital flipbook on the ERA website. These different products are copyrighted documents of ERA and available ONLY for use by ERA members (password required).
SEMICONDUCTOR R&D SPENDING TO RISE 4% AFTER 2020 RECORD
Research and development (R&D) spending by semiconductor companies worldwide is forecast to grow 4 percent in 2021 to $71.4 billion after rising 5 percent in 2020 to a record high of $68.4 billion, according to IC Insights. Total R&D spending by semiconductor companies is expected to rise by a compound annual growth rate of 5.8 percent between 2021 and 2025 to $89.3 billion.
ERA ANNOUNCES PASSING OF BOBBY HUDSON
ERA is saddened to report the passing of Bobby Hudson on Nov. 29, 2020. He was 92.
Hudson owned the rep firm of Arva-Hudson in Bellevue, Wash. He served as an officer in the Cascade Chapter (now Pacific Northwest). Hudson was a national vice president of ERA and became a White Pin member in 1982. Hudson is survived by his wife Gloria of 55 years.
Condolences can be sent to Gloria Hudson, 44035 Royal Troon Drive, Indio, CA 92201.