Increased Participation Highlights 2015 VIPAR Heavy Duty Annual Business Conference

CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. - Dec. 1, 2015 - PRLog -- Crystal Lake, Ill. – Celebrating the theme “Vision, Innovation, Performance, Action and Results,” the VIPAR Heavy Duty (http://www.vipar.com/?utm_source=Vocus&utm_medium=PR&utm_campaign=2015Conference) Annual Business Conference was held Oct. 18-23 at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country in San Antonio, Texas. The event included close to 100 percent participation from VIPAR Heavy Duty stockholders and an increase over last year in supplier participation.

“The Annual Business Conference brings together our stockholder distributors, supplier and business service partners and colleagues with a vision to drive the mutual success of our organizations,” said VIPAR Heavy Duty president Steve Crowley in his opening remarks. “It is through innovation and determination to perform that we’re able to focus our resources on the continued success of each of our organizations and the VIPAR Heavy Duty network as a whole.”

The Annual Business Conference included a keynote speech on a “Game Plan for Success” by Lou Holtz, the popular former football coach and ESPN football studio analyst. A distributor educational session was led by Mark Dancer, vice president, global channel management at Henkel Corporation on “Becoming a Digital Distributor: Strategies and Tools That Create Value.”

A Young Leaders Forum and Lunch provided VIPAR Heavy Duty stockholders and suppliers who are 45 years old and younger the opportunity to network and collaborate with industry peers. The event included a presentation by Tanveer Naseer, an award-winning and internationally-acclaimed leadership writer and speaker.

This year at its annual business conference VIPAR Heavy Duty renamed its annual golf tournament the “Tony Pape Memorial Golf Tournament” to honor Pape’s memory, who died Aug. 3, 2015, and to provide a mechanism to raise funds for the Tony Pape Memorial Fund.

“Our industry lost a great friend in Tony Pape this past summer. Tony was a champion of the aftermarket, a devoted colleague, a great friend to many, and a man dedicated to his family whose passing came unexpectedly,” said Crowley. “Tony, like many, devoted so much time to his career and the heavy duty aftermarket. It is extremely gratifying to see our industry come together to help support one of our own through the donations made during the tournament and throughout the conference.”

A substantial contribution was raised as a result of this year’s event. Pape had a career in the commercial vehicle industry that spanned 27 years, most recently as director/aftermarket strategy and sales at Accuride Corporation.

The 2016 VIPAR Heavy Duty Annual Business Conference will be held Oct. 16-21 at JW Marriott Grand Lakes in Orlando.

For more information on VIPAR Heavy Duty, visit www.vipar.com or email info@vipar.com.