Preparation is underway for Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week (HDAW) 2019.
Event organizers announced Thursday that Ian Johnston of Harman Heavy Vehicle Specialists and Brett Penzkofer of Meritor will serve as co-chairs for the upcoming event, which will have a theme of “Connecting to the Future.” The 14th annual event will be held Jan. 28-31, 2019, at the Mirage in Las Vegas.
As Vice President of Operations and Marketing at Harman HVS, Johnston will serve as the event’s distributor representative. Penzkofer, vice president, North American Aftermarket at Meritor, will serve as the event’s supplier representative. Sean Ryan, president and treasurer at Point Spring & Driveshaft, will be the distributor vice chair.
“Our unique industry backgrounds make our partnership expertly qualified to drive the direction of this year’s program,” says Johnston. “Our goal is to bring insight that attendees will be excited to apply in their workplaces in the years to come.”
“The HDAW conference has an incredible reputation in our industry, and the task of delivering relevance is a big one,” adds Penzkofer. “Having seen the joint operating committee and HDAW planning committee volunteers in action, I have no doubt that this year’s HDAW will exceed expectations.”
HDAW distributor and supplier co-chairs are responsible for the strategic leadership of the event and involvement with the volunteer/staff program planning teams, which consist of more than 40 individuals from aftermarket supplier and distributor companies and organizations. Among the recent decisions made by the event leadership team was the selection of “Connecting to the Future” as the event’s theme.
“We looked at our industry’s primary challenges, from both the supplier and distributor angles, and will focus the education program on bridging concerns to solutions,” says Penzkofer.
“In 2019, HDAW is going to focus on customers, employees, products, and technologies, and the issues that keep us up at night,” adds Johnston. “We want to identify and confront business pain points with resolutions that we can actually use.”
HDAW 2019 will offer industry participants four days of a highly-targeted distributor education program, including a world-class product expo with the latest and greatest in heavy-duty parts-services and information, peer networking, social activities, and the extremely valuable one-on-one meetings during which suppliers and distributors spend time discussing opportunities for growth in their relationships to serve end-user customers better, organizers say.
For more information about the event, please CLICK HERE.
