NEMRA Goes Big with 2021 Annual Meeting; Fights for PPP Deductions

With the dramatic surge in COVID, last month NEMRA pivoted from its planned, 2021 face-to-face annual meeting planned for Orlando (that already had over 500 registrants), to a virtual conference.

And unlike conferences in every industry that seem to reduce their content, NEMRA took a page from events such as Rockwell’s Automation Fair (55 sessions) and Schneider Electric’s Innovation Summit (lots!) and decided to “go big.”

Jim Johnson looked at this change as an opportunity and suggested NEMRA take advantage of the new format.

NEMRA’s “going big” is reflected in the additions that they made to their agenda. Recognizing that a virtual conference created more options, NEMRA decided to:

Add sessions that feature each major distributor entity. These 30 minute sessions will enable national organizations such as AD, IMARK, CED, City Electric, Graybar, Rexel and WESCO to present an overview of key initiatives and highlight how manufacturer representatives, and manufacturers, can most effectively call on them.

Added sessions from service providers including:

• Rep Management Systems from RepFiles, Rep Fabric and Trade Tech Solutions
• Get the Insurance You and Your Employees Need by LIG Solutions
• An overview of the new NEMRA U which features over 800 training courses, inclusive of many from manufacturers
• Market Outlook and Insight perspectives from Christian Sokoll from DISC and Jim Lucy from Electrical Wholesaling
• How to Maximize Your Digital Presence by StrategicX Marketing
• HR Solutions for the people who matter by TriNet
• POS … turning data into dollars by SPARXiQ

And two sessions related to NEMRA:

• The NMG (NEMRA Manufacturer Group) will hold a panel discussion on the Value of Membership and Participation
• The NEMRA Executive Committee will also participate in a panel discussion on the value of membership

This is in addition to opening its Professional Sales Development Workshop conducted by Craig Wortman which is now projected to have over 400 attendees … the largest sales training event ever conducted in the electrical industry.

These features are in addition to the planned agenda that includes:

• A presentation from David Long, President of NECA on “Working with NECA Contractors, What You Need to Know”
• John Selldorf, CEO of Legrand North America will share his perspectives on the market
• Tammy Livers, Senior VP Marketing of Sonepar, will talk on Powering Difference in Distribution.
• A presentation from the CEO of the IEC, Spencer VIllwock, on “Working with IEC Contractors”

Plus, a keynote presentation from Tim Tebow and the presentation of the NEMMY Awards.

Overall, NEMRA now has 26 sessions in addition to Manufacturer Sales Meetings (MSM) and the potential for manufacturers to schedule one-on-one meetings.

(Note: Virtual Manufacturer Sales Meetings create the opportunity for manufacturers to be creative in this session … perhaps live from a training room, or from the plant floor, or have an engineer who designed a product present it or integrate customer feedback or bring in overseas presenters or senior management. Something other than the traditional “this is what we did, this is what we’re going to do and here’s a couple of awards.)

NEMRA also made the conference affordable.  The fee for manufacturers AND manufacturer reps is only $200 to attend all sessions. The Craig Wortmann 3-hour workshop is in addition but affordable (and has received rave reviews from others who have attended his live events.)

The new conference has been well received. To date over 700 people have registered!

According to Fran Pollart, Pollart Electrical Sales, “The 2021 conference will be an Educational based conference. The list of speakers is just fantastic. We have heard many times bring back education. Well, the board has heard you now is the time to show up and be a part of an education-based conference. And most of all support NEMRA and get your teams involved with the conference.” Fran shared that he has registered 15 people from his company, and he expects all his manufacturers to be in attendance.

Scott Lessing, from Ewing-Foley, who has registered 30 people, commented “Every year we look forward to the conference to rekindle relationships and focus our efforts on new products, initiatives, and planning for our markets. The conference is virtual this year, but it has been on our calendar for a long time. We intend to make the most of our time online, attending educational sessions, NEMRA business sessions, planning with our manufacturers, and listening to fantastic speakers. NEMRA has also significantly reduced the registration fee this year. Combined with travel savings, we will triple the number of attendees this year, exposing some of our younger associates to this unique industry, once a year experience.”

Lessing further said, “We are encouraging our manufacturer partners to register and engage with us during this week. We set this time aside a long time ago to focus on planning activities with our partners. We have too many ad-hoc distractions as it is, so let’s use the time and format we have all been planning for.

My fellow reps need to participate virtually this year NEMRA 2021 offers more than any other NEMRA conference has offered and this will be a key jumping off point for starting 2021 fresh.”

Click here to register for NEMRA 2021

PPP Taxation Issue

To further support its members, NEMRA joined other electrical associations with a letter to Congressional leaders to remind them on their commitment in the CARES Act.

Many recall that the intent of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was for loan forgiveness if specific criteria was met. Specifically, there was a phrase in the CARES Act that stated “shall be excluded from gross income” for tax purposes. Lo and behold, the IRS is trying to change the program to consider it as “taxable income”, which could result in up to a 37% tax increase for small businesses.

The IRS has also recently stated that expenses funded through a PPP loan are not deductible for 2020  the taxpayer reasonably expects to receive forgiveness of the covered loan on the basis of the expenses it paid or accrued during the covered period, even if the taxpayer has not submitted an application for forgiveness of the covered loan by the end of such taxable year”. (You can read the letter here.)

December has been a busy month for NEMRA. Pivoting to a new, more educational and informative conference that is also more cost-effective for its members while also helping to fight to ensure that PPP funds are not unfairly taxed.

Sounds like NEMRA is helping its members recharge to take on 2021.