ThomasNet Audience Development Update

The ThomasNet grassroots audience development program continues to gain momentum.  Recent presentations were given to a “Wake Up with Wire-Net” meeting in Cleveland, OH. WIRE-Net is a business-led organization that focuses on the shared interests of manufacturing companies and urban communities.

ThomasNet was invited to meet with members of the Global Purchasing Department at Caterpillar. The invitation to present ThomasNet.com came from the team that is responsible for ensuring supplier diversity at Caterpillar. While they had already been sharing ThomasNet.com with their category procurement teams as a best practice, they requested the Audience Development Team come in to speak with them personally.

Directly from Caterpillar, the ThomasNet team traveled to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the National Association of Engineering Student Councils (NAESC) Conference , where ThomasNet.com was the lead sponsor for the 2nd year in a row. This sponsorship is part of our commitment to invest in the future of manufacturing in North America and educating the next generation on ThomasNet.com. Tom Greco was given the opportunity to address the 300+ student attendees at the opening breakfast. He shared statistics from last year’s IMB study, announced the new scholarship program, and gave an overview of ThomasNet.com.

In the afternoon there were three breakout sessions on how ThomasNet.com can help these students fulfill parts lists for their Capstone Design Projects and be an invaluable resource in their professional careers.

Next stop was the Governmental Purchasing Association of New Jersey’s Annual Conference in Atlantic City, NJ, connecting with government buyers from across the state.