Bringing the industry together: the Hardware Conference hits Marco Island

The Hardware Conference celebrated its 21st year of bringing retailers together in 2009, and over the past two decades the event has grown from a local gathering of a couple dozen retailers to an event that attracts hundreds of attendees from all over the country.

Run by south Florida retailers, Tom and Dale Chasteen, the event is held each year in Marco Island, Fla., to promote dialogue among all of the industry's channel members.

"We were very pleased with this year's event," says Tom Chasteen. "Despite the economy, retailer attendance was actually up about 5 percent this year and we also saw 30 percent of our attendees come from outside the Southeast, and we were very pleased with this."

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This year's event was held Sept. 8-12 at the Marco Island Marriott and brought together retailers, manufacturers and wholesalers in a casual environment. While training sessions and manufacturer meetings at this year's conference began on Wednesday afternoon, the North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA) All-Industry Cocktail Reception helped get the official proceedings started on Thursday evening.

The Hardware Conference and NRHA honored several members of the home improvement channel with Beacon Awards during a Friday night dinner.

The Beacon Awards are given to members of the home improvement industry for their commitment to excellence and for their dedication to serving the industry and their local communities.

This year's awards went to Ace retailers Alan Baro and Dan Hitchcock; Do it Best retailers Rick Heuser and Kevin Bolender; True Value retailers Bob Michael and Bob Silverman; and Orgill presented an award to California retailer Joe DeRoest.

A special Lifetime Achievement Award was also given to Ace Hardware's Executive Vice President Ken Nichols, who is retiring at the end of this year.

Open dialogue sessions took place on Saturday followed by a dinner and auction on Saturday evening. Saturday evening's auction raised nearly $30,000 for The Hardware Conference's charitable partner, Miami Children's Hospital Foundation.

Several new initiatives for the conference were announced including a new program for 2010 to honor members of the industry's wholesaling community. Retailers elected to start a program to recognize wholesale buyers who are committed to the continued success of independent retailers. "So, in 2010 we are going to hand out our first annual Buyer of the Year Awards," according to Chasteen. "We anticipate honor ing six to eight buyers the first year and have already received a significant number of nominations from retailers, who purchase merchandise from six different wholesalers."

For more information about The Hardware Conference or to attend a future event, please contact Tom Chasteen at (305) 853-0049, or visit www.thehardwareconference.com.