This on-demand webinar will examine how top companies are getting out of operational ruts and harvesting good ideas by tapping existing and prospective members of the supply chain for market growth.

FEDA Presents: 2025 Supply Chain Education Series

FEDA has partnered with The Association for Finance Professionals (AFP) for a second consecutive year to deliver customized finance education courses to members. Finance professionals who attend the live virtual webinars and complete the survey at the end of each course will be eligible to earn 1.8 CPE credits for their participation. The webinars are open to all members and there is no cost to participate.

The Tech Talks at the 2025 FEDA Annual Executive Leadership Conference cut through the noise with high-impact, real-world insights from senior technology leaders in the industry. Andre Fidellow, chief technology officer at Mission Restaurant Supply, shared proven approaches for using automation — particularly within ERP systems — to eliminate inefficiencies, overcome data challenges and enable growth. Next, Jamie Head, chief information officer at Parts Town, explored how robotics, AI-powered SKU management and predictive digital platforms are reshaping high-volume distribution by delivering greater control and higher customer satisfaction at a faster pace than ever before. Following the Tech Talks, Erik Brynjolfsson, a digital economy expert and the special guest speaker at the 2025 FEDA Annual Executive Conference, joined Fidellow and Head for a fireside chat. The trio answered questions about how businesses are using AI and automation in their operations and methodologies for effective implementation.

At the 2025 FEDA Annual Executive Leadership Conference, Joe Carbonara, editorial director for Foodservice Equipment & Supplies and restaurant development + design magazines, gave a presentation providing media insights into the foodservice equipment and supplies industry.

The State of the Industry presentations featured new insights from Mark Rossi, CEO and founder of Avanti, and Erik Lampe, president and CEO of The Vollrath Company, into the key challenges and trends dealers and manufacturers are tracking.

J Schneider, managing director at Dorn Group, leads a discussion about the future of the supply chain in the foodservice equipment and supplies industry. Panelists include Chad Autry, associate dean of faculty and research at the University of Tennessee's Haslam College of Business; Jameel Burkett, CEO of Burkett Restaurant Equipment; Brian Kadel, vice president of dealer sales at Refrigerated Solutions Group; and Kevin Brink, vice president of LTL solutions at Kuehne+Nagel.

Supply chain resilience enables the business to capitalize on emerging opportunities, maintain customer satisfaction, and reduce costs, ultimately positioning the company for long-term success and growth. This session presents proven methods for internal integration and external collaboration that help organizations to not only weather the storms of chaos, but to excel and win in the face of uncertainty.

In this course, the Association for Finance Professionals will offer members practical knowledge and hands-on experience in using descriptive analytics to enhance data-driven decision-making. Participants will learn how data analytics can be applied to various business domains. The webinar will discuss types of data analytics, the basics of exploratory data analytics, data profiling with central tendency and variation techniques, associative descriptive analytics, and correlation techniques. The class will include multiple case study analyses of companies effectively using descriptive analytics to advance strategic objectives.

The Special Guest Presentation at the FEDA Executive Leadership Conference featured Kevin Warsh, monetary policy expert and Shepard Family distinguished visiting fellow in economic for the Hoover Institution. Warsh reflected on his work to help guide the United States out of the 2008 financial crisis and covered the lessons from that period that can be applied to the permacrises facing businesses today. As a former member of the Fed Board, he provided an analysis of the Fed’s current policies, particularly regarding inflation, and explain how the board’s actions are impacting businesses. Finally, he decoded what business leaders can expect in both the short and long term and laid out a roadmap for how companies can spur economic growth and foster stability amid turbulent financial markets.