All photos by NAW

The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors’ 2026 SHIFT Conference — held May 12-14 at the Inverness Denver — offered a tremendous blend of peer group discussion, main stage programming centered on wholesale distribution’s most pressing topics and networking opportunities for attendees and service providers of all kinds.

I travelled home from Denver with numerous conversations and speaker points of emphasis replaying in my head, which compelled me to capture them in writing during my flight. There was far too much to fit into one article, but here, I wanted to capture what stuck with me most. 

Change Management Drives Cohort Discussions

Our 2025 SHIFT event was the first one that incorporated small group roundtable discussions across four cohort topics — Hybrid Sales, Digital Transformation, Data Analytics and Culture. It’s something NAW has seen incredible success with for years, and it has taken SHIFT’s networking to the next level. 

I facilitated the discussions for this year’s Data Analytics cohort. To no surprise, data governance was the most commonly cited struggle among distributors in the room, alongside data cleanliness to enable AI applications.

The goal of those roundtable sessions is not necessarily to find a perfect fix to the problems attendees voice. Instead, the goal is to encourage non-competitive attendees to share prominent organizational challenges, discuss what has and hasn’t worked so far on that front, and brainstorm potential solutions. Odds are, at least one of their cohort tablemates has dealt with that same challenge in the past or has expertise on possible remedies, and it resulted in excellent constructive conversation across SHIFT’s three days.

This led to our Data Analytics cohorts recommending specific service providers and change management methods for others to consider. It was great to see attendees jotting down so many notes as their peers shared mini case studies that led to a lot of “that’s interesting, tell me more” in their conversations.

While Data Analytics was the overarching topic at-hand, table discussions naturally centered around the change management of people — defining who should own what responsibilities; how to get them to embrace technology; cross-functional leadership; and numerous cultural components. Staff and attendees from the other cohorts echoed that sentiment.

Perspective Cross-Pollination

Along with that work towards problem-solving, those cohort discussions — and SHIFT overall —  foster a cross-pollination of perspectives that is unique in the industry. While many industrial associations likewise offer group discussions at their conferences, they tend to be made up of distributors representing one main product vertical or closely adjacent ones. SHIFT, meanwhile, brings together attendees who represent numerous different product verticals and company demographics. Whether one is a $2 billion revenue building materials distributor or a $50 million JanSan distributor, there’s a good chance they’re facing similar change management issues across those aforementioned cohort topics.

One of our Data Analytics cohort attendees was from a $36 million industrial supplies distributor, and the rest of his roundtable was comprised of attendees from distributors with $1 billion, $500 million, $200 million and $100 million. He said it was a little intimidating when his table was making introductions and he learned those revenue figures, but once they started sharing challenges, it put him at ease to know they were the same ones his company is facing. 

We heard that sentiment time and again throughout SHIFT, along with how much attendees appreciated getting outside of their market bubble and sharing perspectives with attendees from verticals they normally don’t cross paths with throughout the year.

A Powerful Showing for Women in Distribution 

NAW acquired MDM at the start of 2024, and one of the best things we’ve since done on the content side is our Women in Distribution feature, which debuted in 2021 but had lapsed until 2025. Our 2026 version was published throughout April and showcased 20 honorees of women leaders in the industry, and we were thrilled to have about half of them attend SHIFT this year.

• Meet NAW’s 2026 Women in Distribution — Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
• What Our Women in Distribution Honorees Say About Joining, and Thriving, in the Industry (Premium)

Three of those honorees — Global Industrial CEO Anesa Chaibi, Galco President & CEO Allison Sabia and Marshall Wolf Automation President & CEO Tina Hueppe — comprised a panel moderated by MDM Senior Editor Vesna Brajkovic during a Women in Distribution forum on SHIFT’s opening night. It was a powerful conversation in which that trio discussed key moments in their career trajectory, how to boost visibility of women in the industry and the need for colleague sponsors — not just mentors — to help level the playing field for women striving to climb the corporate ladder and “send the elevator back down” for others.

The forum was open to both women and men attendees, and at one point, the panel asked for a show of hands for how many women have ever been the only woman in a company meeting. Almost every woman in the room immediately raised their hand. It was a striking moment that men in the industry can’t collectively relate to, but can recognize and respect the challenge it represents. The panel acknowledged the considerable progress that has been made for women’s representation in distribution, alongside plenty of runway for more.

NAW’s 2026 Women in Distribution were later recognized on the main stage to begin SHIFT’s third day.

Tech Success Relies on Winning Hearts & Minds

We knew AI change management would be top of mind for all SHIFT attendees, and the event’s content was built to deliver on that. To kick off SHIFT’s second day on the main stage, NAW’s Research Director, Patti Rausch and myself presented the results of our major industry research study “In Pursuit of Value: Where 400+ Distributors are Investing in AI Today” that identified the top AI application areas the industry is concentrating on, and what the ROI — or lack thereof so far — has looked like. 

Our key takeaways from that research were amplified by the panel of experts from McKinsey who shared what success with AI and broader technology looks like in distribution. The key message I took away from their discussion was that success depends equally upon winning the hearts and minds of the people in the organization using technology as it depends upon the quality of the technology itself. That starts with top leadership — not as dictators, but through their ability to identify other leaders further down the org chart to champion that tech to the ones using it day in and day out. A CEO telling frontline employees to use AI because the company needs to be more productive isn’t nearly as likely to resonate as having the direct managers of those frontline employees drive home why it’s going to make their job easier.

Graybar CEO Provides Motivational SHIFT Closing

NAW’s in-person events have always done a great job of delivering a strong closing session, and SHIFT 2026 absolutely delivered. It featured a conversation between NAW CEO Eric Hoplin and Graybar Chairman, President and CEO Kathy Mazzarella — who also chairs NAW’s Board of Directors. Mazzarella exudes an inspirational speaker-type energy that’s rare among large company CEOs, and she channeled it into discussing pivotal moments in her career — which made plenty of attendees misty-eyed in the process. She shared her perspective on AI’s role in distribution; how leaders navigate change while keeping employees, customers and financial performance in harmony; and why distribution is built to remain an absolutely critical part of the U.S. and global supply chain and economy.

NAW’s latest “Distributors Deliver” podcast episode likewise provided a great conversation between Hoplin and Mazzarella.

Join Us at SHIFT Next Year

I departed the conference a little exhausted from my staff responsibilities and with a tired voice, but at the same time energized about the many conversations I had with attendees representing distributors of all types and sizes. It’s a big lift to plan and host such a successful executive conference like SHIFT, so major kudos to NAW’s events team for generating such a valuable three days for its attendees.

SHIFT 2026 closed by announcing the dates and location for next year’s event: SHIFT 2027 will be held May 18-20 at the Inverness Denver. Whether you’ve attended in the past or have been curious to, I highly recommend it. We know that the event has been particularly effective for companies that send multiple representatives, as teams are more likely to take action on what they learned from the event rather than individuals reporting back solo. SHIFT is all about turning strategic concepts into change management, and we want more of the industry to benefit from it.