Meeting under the theme, “Communicate, Collaborate, Innovate,“ nearly 840 attendees turned out for the Power Transmission Distributors Assn.'s Annual Summit Oct. 18-20 at the Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, Calif.

“We're very pleased with this year's turnout,” said Mary Sue Lyon, PTDA's executive vice president.

During the three-day meeting, Michael Marks of the Indian River Consulting Group presented two workshops, one on reinventing your Web site to better serve customers and streamline operations and the other on successfully resolving conflicts between distributors and manufacturers.

In the Web site workshop, Marks said distributors and manufacturers need to ask themselves, “Exactly what are we doing with the Internet? What do we want to accomplish?” He advised members to “take a look at online communities in your marketplace, because your customers are on a site talking about you.”

Dr. Robert Kriegel, another speaker, recommended attendees eliminate “sacred cows” in their organizations as well as in their customer operations.

“Look to question why we are doing things. Go on a sacred cow hunt. If you've got sacred cows, so do your customers. Question everything,” he said.

Kriegel, author of the book “Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers,” advised members to get their employees involved in ridding their companies of sacred cows by soliciting ideas from all departments.

One pharmaceutical company, he noted, has cut 8 percent to 9 percent of its costs by simply questioning long-established procedures that had become “sacred cows.”

Other workshop speakers delved into such topics as growth and profitability, communicating across multiple generations and the impact of tax changes facing the U.S. economy.

For the second straight year, the Industry Summit included a motion control showcase, featuring information and demonstrations by motion control products suppliers.

In other PTDA business, James T. Moore II, a former president of Detroit Ball Bearing (later known as Invetech) was the 18th recipient of the Warren Pike Award for lifetime achievement in the power transmission/motion control industry.

Moore had been involved with PTDA activities for many years, serving as a board member and as the association's president in 1991. He also served on several PTDA committees.

The newly elected president of PTDA is John Masek, vice president of Bearing Service Inc. of Livonia, Mich. He succeeds Jeff Pickelman, president of Northern Industrial Supply in Saginaw, Mich.

Drew Tucci, director of sales for Eastern Bearings Inc. of Waltham, Mass., was elected first vice president; Craig Faber, president of Miller Bearings in Orlando, Fla., was named second vice president; and Don Latham, president of Belterra, Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, was elected treasurer.

Bob Ruland, president of Ruland Manufacturing, Marlboro, Mass., assumes the duties of the PTDA Manufacturer Council Chair in 2008, succeeding Bill Childers, senior vice president of the industrial business group NSK Corp. of Ann Arbor, Mich.

PTDA's 2008 Industry Summit will be held at in Miami Beach, Oct.30-Nov. 1.