While travel budgets for distributors and manufacturers were likely set before Jan. 1, we at MDM want to help guide your planning for 2025’s slate of industry events — a list that continues to lengthen with each passing year.

Below, you’ll find a list of events that are on MDM’s radar, which includes a handful that we host.

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But first, some context:

In October 2024, MDM’s survey of approximately 400 firms — the vast majority being distributors — found that 37% said their spending on industry events has declined over the past several years, with large distributors responsible for most of that inclination. This correlated with commentary from that same survey in which smaller distributors articulated the value they get from these events more than their larger counterparts. In fact, for those firms with less than $50 million in annual revenue, a slight majority indicated an increase in their event spend.

Whether this spending diversion between company demographics is a long-term trend remains to be seen — MDM will plan to benchmark this stat going forward. But regardless, it doesn’t change my view that events are the best way to see and absorb what the B2B supply sector has to offer in the form of networking, education and a platform to show and tell your company’s value proposition to a swath of the industry all in one place.

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Before we get to the list, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give plugs for several in-house events that we are excited to offer the MDM audience in the first half of the year.

The first is NAW’s Executive Summit, set for Jan. 27-29 in Washington D.C. As NAW’s biggest event of the year, it will bring a who’s-who of distribution market movers to the nation’s capital for 2.5 days of top-notch programming and plenty of networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities. It will also essentially mark the one-year anniversary of NAW’s acquisition of MDM.

On March 12, we will host MDM’s Virtual AI for Distributors Summit — a free event offering four hours of case studies, how-tos and application thought leadership around infusing AI into your business and/or scaling what you’ve already done with it. Stay tuned for registration info.

And on May 11-13, MDM will host our fourth annual SHIFT Conference in Denver. Registration is open for our marquee in-person event, which serves as a change management event for teams of distribution leaders. Besides its move from the fall to the spring, we are infusing this event with NAW Executive Roundtables for focused, small-group discussions that are perfect for gathering change management input from your peers.

Those are besides MDM’s ongoing webcasts, including our Annual Industry Outlook (free) on Jan. 16.

With that out of the way, here is our rundown of nearly 40 industry events in the first half of 2025 that are on MDM’s radar across industrial, commercial and building supply product sectors. Of course, this isn’t a complete list. There are undoubtedly more events that I just haven’t been made aware of that are worthy of adding to this list. This list doesn’t include vendor user conference, and most distributors’ company expos/conventions. If you know of any events that should be added, let me know at [email protected], as I’d like for this blog to serve as an industry resource. I’ll look to post a second-half preview sometime in May.

I hope to see you out there!