Last year at the 2009 STAFDA (Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association) tradeshow we were pretty amazed to hear the news that Sarah Palin would be the 2010 keynote speaker. Speakers in the past have been notable but not nationally recognized $100k per appearance type of speakers but we didn’t give it too much though at the time. Several months later it was announced that registration for the 2010 show was up dramatically, so clearly Mama Grizzly was doing a good job of helping bring some more distributors out.
We still didn’t know what the connection was until yesterday as the 2011 incoming STAFDA president Mike Kangas was speaking and apparently was long time neighbors of the former Governor in the very small town of Wasilla, AK (only 7,000 total population). You can read the full cover story of Mike Kangas and his interesting company Alaskan Industrial Hardware (AIH) in the recent issue of Contractor Supply, Top of the World. He seems like a great guy from our very brief meeting so we felt a little bad when we still had the though; I wonder if his pull with a big time keynote speaker swayed some votes his way for the 2011 STAFDA presidency?
One thing was clear when it came to Sarah Palin, whether people loved her or thought she was over the top everyone wanted to hear her speak. It was pretty much standing room only in the huge Phoenix Convention Center auditorium. There was probably the most applause when she said “A president from Alaska, imagine that” referring to Mike the new STAFDA president but obviously making light of the prospect of her running in 2012.
No word yet on who the 2011 keynote speaker will be when the STAFDA show goes to San Antonio, Texas. Most likely not anyone famous enough to get their own reality show and have a daughter on Dancing with the Stars but hopefully the economy will have come back a little by then and attendance will be up on its own, you know to see the tools.
