Fall City Event
SCHEDULE | ESPS | EDUCATION | REGISTRATION | HOUSING | GENERAL | ATTENDEES
Keynote Address - Election 2008
Howard Fineman, Senior Washington Correspondent & Political Columnist for Newsweek
Thursday, September 18
9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Howard Fineman, one of the nation’s leading political reporters and commentators, joins NFDA in Chicago to discuss today’s hottest political issues and how the 2008 Presidential election will impact your business.
A captivating and standout political analyst, Fineman is Newsweek’s senior Washington correspondent and columnist. His Living Politics column appears regularly in the magazine and on Newsweek.com. He also writes a separate weekly installment for MSNBC.com, where the column originated in 2000.
On television, Fineman is an NBC news analyst, contributing to the “NBC Today Show,” MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” and “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.” Fineman also is a regular panelist on the Sunday morning, NBC-syndicated “Chris Matthews Show.” Additionally, he has authored scores of Newsweek cover stories, and has interviewed and written about every president and major presidential contender since 1987.
Fineman’s 2003 cover story, “Bush and God” helped Newsweek win a National Magazine Award for General Excellence. His freelance work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, and on Forbes.com. His new book about politics, The Thirteen American Arguments, is scheduled to be published by Random House later this summer.
General Session - Exclusive Financial Analysis of NFDA Members
Michael O’Shaughnessey, iLumen Director of Customer Integration
Wednesday, September 17
7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
In the fourth quarter of 2007, NFDA introduced the iLumen Financial Analysis and Industry Benchmarking Tool to its membership, which provides access to financial trending analysis, financial benchmarking, industry intelligence, industry communities, and allows member companies to securely connect their financial performance, industry information and business advisors all in one place.
Through the secure network, companies can upload their monthly financial data into the iLumen system. It then provides a customized dashboard unique to each company to easily track individual financial performance. Individual company financial data can then be benchmarked directly against other participating NFDA companies of like size or like region. Additionally, the iLumen network allows participating companies to benchmark against the broader fastener industry as a whole.
During this General Session, Michael O’Shaughnessey, iLumen Director of Customer Integration, will provide an overview of the iLumen program and will give a detailed financial analysis and industry benchmarking report based upon data submitted by NFDA members since the launch. To have your company’s data represented in the analysis, visit www.nfda-fastener.org and click on the “Financial Analysis and Industry Benchmarking” graphic.
In addition to his knowledge of iLumen, O’Shaughnessey brings a solid background to share with NFDA members. He graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics from Vanderbilt University and began his career in banking as a commercial lender for middle market companies. In his 10 years as a commercial lender, he focused on determining the cash needs of growing companies and the appropriate financing sources for those needs. He then used his financial background in his role as a CFO handling mergers and acquisitions, and turned that experience into a consulting practice where he conducted training classes in accounting and finance. Throughout his career, O’Shaughnessey has gained experience working with construction, wholesale, retail, manufacturing and service companies.
General Session - The Importance of Standards to the Fastener Industry and a New Way for Suppliers to Stay Technologically Connected
Joe Greenslade, Director of Engineering, Industrial Fastener Institute (IFI)
Thursday, September 18
7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.
Fasteners are “engineered components.” Every fastener was engineered to perform some specific kind of joining function. Every fastener design is captured and maintained in a fastener standard by one of the world’s engineering authorities like the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the International Standards Organization (ISO), or the Industrial Fasteners Institute (IFI).
Fastener quality is dependent upon suppliers providing fasteners that conform to the requirements of the applicable standards. To do this, the suppliers must know which standards are applicable, what the standards mean and how conformance is determined.
In 2007, NFDA and IFI created the Fastener Industry Educational Group (FIEG) to elevate the understanding of the importance of standards to the fastener industry. Joe Greenslade, Director of Engineering for the IFI, will present a brief, informative program on the information developed by the FIEG. In addition to the FIEG information, Greenslade will explain and demonstrate the new IFI online service called the IFI Technology Connection™. This service enables fastener suppliers to obtain all fastener standards data on specific parts within seconds that in the past would require 30 minutes or more to accumulate. Using this service there is no excuse for a fastener supplier not to know what the engineering and quality requirements are for any fastener they sell.
Greenslade has worked in the fastener industry in a wide range of capacities since 1970. He first worked for CAMCAR-Textron and later Rockford Headed Products in positions including sales, applications engineering, product management, research and development engineering, and plant management.
He later created a firm that supplied fastener manufacturing tooling, gaging, processing services, and equipment throughout the world. Greenslade has written over 300 articles related to fastener manufacturing, inspection and use, and has a dozen fastener-related patents. He is now the Director of Engineering for the IFI and serves on all of the fastener related committees: ASME, ASTM, SAE and ISO.