Last year I walked away feeling empowered that I wasn’t alone.

Carol Carlson
CEO, Federation of Pharmacy Networks

It’s one of those must attend events.

David Levy
Principal, Consult Levy

What I think is really important about attending this conference, is the ability to remain contemporary with what’s going on - the threats and the risks that our business model is needing to deal with. And the opportunity to share with other thought leaders that are in this space is really quite special. What I’ve really noticed this year, and I’ve been to four of them now, is the increasing international flavour.

Trent Bartlett
Independent Director, CBH

Who should come to Accelerate? I think anybody who’s involved in the buy process, the cooperative process, the buy group structure. I think the value you get out of this environment is not germane to your industry, it’s learning best practices from parallel industries, other businesses that have similar structures but might have slightly different nuances to how they operate their buying group. I would think if you’re an executive of a buying group, it’s an absolute must.

Ken Jenkins
President, Castle Building Centres Group Ltd.

Other conferences I’ve attended really haven’t had the complete level of senior leadership [attendees] and the commonality of the challenges that those have at those levels and I think there was a lot of great transparency that was shared in the questions and the Think Tank this afternoon and at other conferences, I know, you just don’t get that open frank conversation.

Marianne Thompson
Vice President, Merchandise LBM, Home Hardware Stores Limited

What makes Accelerate different? Well, first of all it’s the attendees, the quality and calibre of the people who are here. They’re truly peers, they’re truly experienced and professional folks so they represent lots of great thinking, lots of great ideas. And the other thing that’s really different about it is the sharing, people are very open. They’re very willing to give you what you need, what you ask for, and try to be part of your solution, regardless if you’re a competitor or not. It’s really an interesting format and I think that makes it special.

Tom Mahlke
President & CEO, Mid-States Distributing, LLC

Certainly the international aspect of this Accelerate conference has been fantastic. Usually, I’m limited to a Canadian first, or even a North American reach, but meeting people from Europe and New Zealand and Australia, is really a unique aspect that I haven’t experienced before.

Matthew Mumley
Director of Retail Strategy, Sports Excellence Corp.

The biggest treat to me is the quality of the speakers. I have been so impressed with some of the things that I’ve learned at this conference. Employee retention they talked about this morning, that’s huge. The private label branding, that was amazing. I just really, really enjoyed it thoroughly.

Carol Shackelford
Consultant, Sphere 1, Inc.

One of the big takeaways for me from the conference is business cards. There’s so much to take in, that you can’t take it all in at once. But I do know by giving these folks a call, they’ll respond to me, they’ll help me, and they’ll point me in the right direction.

Chris Hayward
Managing Director, NMBS

The ability to chat with folks from around the world with common issues, common challenges facing their group, has just been wonderful.

Kevin Higginbotham
CEO, Evergreen Marketing Group

I think one of the huge values of coming to Accelerate is the networking that’s available. The planned content is always exceptionally good and really caters to buying groups and cooperatives which I think makes it unique, but the opportunity to talk with people that are all engaged in co-ops and buying groups and group structures, is invaluable. I’m not aware of any other place where you can get that sort of interaction and that sort of knowledge .

Simon Treptow
General Manager, Irrigear

If you’re a senior executive of a purchasing cooperative, whether it’s a cooperative or a buying group, Accelerate is the place to be.

Howard Brodsky
Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, CCA Global Partners