It’s been great seeing all the wonderful people who comprise our industry networking, sharing best practices with each other and learning valuable lessons they can take back to their businesses and put to immediate great use.

After a few months back home in South Carolina to catch my breath, next on the calendar is the granddaddy of them all — NETWORK, which takes place Nov. 10-12 at Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas.

NETWORK continues to be the place to be in November where key decision-makers from ASA-member wholesalers, suppliers and independent manufacturers’ rep agencies gather to take in education sessions, share best practices and, as the name of the event says, enjoy many networking opportunities with industry colleagues.

While I continue to be impressed by the sheer critical mass in attendance each year (nearly 900 industry professionals and more than 80 unique wholesaler firms were in Ft. Lauderdale last November), I am even more excited about how the program continues to provide more and more value to attendees each year.

In Las Vegas, things will heat up right of the gates with Kevin Brown’s presentation on creating a culture of heroes at every level.

ASA Business Intelligence Unit key contributor TJ O’Connor (Farmington Consulting Group) will reveal the results of the new ASA Voice of the Contractor survey (we sent surveys to more than 30,000 plumbing and mechanical contractors asking their thoughts on product training, ordering habits, relationships with wholesalers and much more), and will conduct a panel discussion with contractors representing PHCC, MCAA and ACCA.

Ryan Jenkins will also talk on that first day about the future of work and show attendees strategies to connect, work and lead effectively across remote and hybrid teams. That all happens on Nov. 10.

In addition to hearing from Erin Andrews, one of the most recognizable voices in sports, Manley Feinberg (building breakthrough momentum in the storm of chaos) and “Shark Tank” co-star Kevin O’Leary (lessons from a shark), attendees will hear the 2027 economic forecast from ASA Chief Economist Dr. Chris Kuehl.

One session I am particularly excited about is the Nov. 11 afternoon C-Suite best practices roundtable conversation on attracting, developing and unlocking the performance of your people — what’s really happening inside our workforce. This session, open to those in C-Suite positions, further emphasizes the importance of NETWORK, an event that in recent years has seen a significant uptick in company ownership and C-Suiter attendees.

There’s more. The day before NETWORK starts, ASA is holding its second Innovation Summit on Nov. 9 (and part of Nov. 10) at Caesars. The summit is designed for PHCP-PVF distribution, manufacturing and rep leaders and operators who need practical clarity on modernization, not hype.

Across digitization, applied AI and automation, the focus is on real operating environments: margin pressure, workforce realities, ERP constraints and adoption sequencing. Each session translates emerging technology into executable pathways, helping attendees reduce ambiguity, align strategy with operations and leave with concrete next steps appropriate for their organization.

As ASA Director of Innovation Nils Swenson brilliantly puts it, the structure of the summit is the point as much as the topics being presented. The Innovation Summit will close with facilitated roundtables, peer-driven discussions, organized around the questions attendees actually brought with them.

“The speakers (and there are some good ones, plus an ASA-member panel on robotics implementation) frame the territory,” Swenson says. “The operators in the room are the part you cannot get from a recording because the most useful thing at an event like this is not the slide deck. It is the person two seats over who already ran the pilot you are about to propose.”

Swenson adds the technology discussed at the Innovation Summit in November will likely have shifted again by spring. “That is not a reason to wait,” he says. “It is the reason the peer network is the durable part, because the people who worked through this round of tools will be the ones working through the next round, too.”

If you are already planning to be at NETWORK2026, the logistics are simple: the Innovation Summit runs the day before, at the same property. Arrive a day earlier and you get both (the Innovation Summit charge if you are also attending NETWORK is nominal).

Head over to the ASA website (ASA.net), go to “events” and then scroll down to NETWORK and the Innovation Summit. All the registration and hotel details are there for you.

See you in Las Vegas in November for the biggest and most impactful NETWORK yet.