Executive Director MAPP
Nearly 600 processing executives assembled in Indianapolis during the first week of October for MAPP’s Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference. These industry professionals, who came from 32 different states and traveled from abroad, gathered for the purpose of improving – to become better business professionals and leaders.
If you’ve not yet experienced this event, it’s hard to explain. It’s not a normal event, nor is it a normal industry gathering. Newcomers often say, “I’ve never experienced anything quite like it.” Event veterans explain time and time again that, “Attending this event has become a mainstay in my life because of the level of community I experience.” One overseas CEO attendee even said, “I’ve never been a part of something so grand, yet so focused on our industry and making it better, and I’ve traveled the world!”
In roughly 16 hours of conference programming, this year’s attendees heard mainstage presentations from hall-of-fame motivational speakers, a Washington insider, an economist and a business analyst who provided clarity on performance metrics separating best-in-class organizations and the rest. Adding more information were nearly 40 breakout sessions from plastics industry professionals (your peers), along with technology vendors, consultants and service providers at the top of their games. And then, sprinkle in some quality networking time to top it off.
I was fortunate enough to provide a simple keynote opening in welcoming all attendees. No ice baths for me in front of this year’s audience, but rather lessons learned over the last 12 months from living outside of my comfort zone due to promises I secretly made at last year’s event. My message, which seemed to resonate with many, was that leaders continually must work on improving the ease of belonging in their organizations. Because a strong culture provides a competitive edge for most businesses, ensuring that employees easily can become part of a company’s fabric or DNA brings forth great outcomes, including improved performance, better engagement and increased employee longevity.
As I was combing through the feedback from the those who attended the conference, I was struck by the commonality of the takeaways:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) – AI is not a trend that’s coming, it’s here and will revolutionize how business is done! Many attendees were surprised at the number of practical uses of AI and the speed at which AI is developing. As a result, leaders felt like they were behind in its adoption.
Leadership and the Impact of Attitude – Attitude impacts everything, including morale, productivity and teaming. Positive attitudes are contagious, and leaders who possess positive attitudes set the tone for their organizations. Although not rocket science, attendees were sensitized on simple tactics that elevate positive behaviors, including the concept of smiling, making eye contact and focusing on “something good.”
Connections – In most of life’s circumstances, there is never a direct route to solving a problem or finding innovative ways to improve. Attendees, faced with unprecedented speed of change amid a difficult business environment, were reminded that their organization’s level of success can be impacted positively by a vast array of connected people. At the basic level of this feedback was the fact that networking and meeting new people should be a constant exercise for all.
Sales and the Near-Term Forecast – The plastics manufacturing economy is not as robust as in the recent past, and the near-term business forecast was not as bright as many had hoped. As one attendee noted, if you are a business development professional and not working harder and smarter, you probably shouldn’t be in business development.
Reflecting on MAPP’s 23rd consecutive best practices event, one thing for me is clear. Like-minded leaders who gather, benchmark, exchange ideas and integrate themselves with a community run better companies and simply are better off. I’ll see you all in Indianapolis on October 1 for MAPP’s 2025 Benchmarking event.
