December 7-8, 2010 • Hyatt Regency Schaumburg • Schaumburg, IL
 
Sponsors: American Foundry Society and

Metal Casting Design & Purchasing Magazine 

Where does Santa really want to be this December? At the AFS 2010 Marketing & Selling of Castings Conference Holiday Spectacular. The event will be held Dec. 7-8 at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg in Schaumburg, Ill. (20 minutes from O’Hare International Airport). This event will include everything you need to know to make your company more profitable. Ready to move ahead of your compeition? This event will advance your sales strategies faster than Santa moves at a buffet.

For a look at the spectacular conference brochure, click here. Note: there was a mistake on the printed brochure with regards to the hotel and phone number. The hotel listed is correct (Hyatt Regency Woodfield Schaumburg), but the phone number should be 847/605-1234. Please use the correct phone number when reserving your rooms.

This event will include:

• several casting buyers telling you what they want from their suppliers;
• sales and marketing strategies to enhance your bottom line;
• casting pricing and surcharge strategies to raise revenue;
• ways to find new markets and business to expand your customer base.

Back by popular demand, Dr. Daniel McQuiston, Butler Univ. and speaker at the 2008 Marketing & Selling of Castings Conference, will be the keynote presenter at the 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Castings Conference Holiday Spectacular. His presentation, titled Increasing Your Sales Force's EQ will discuss how an individuals emotional intelligence—EQ—the extent to which he understands himself, understands others and uses that understanding in business dealings. Nowhere in business is the importance of EQ more prevalent than in sales. The better a salesperson can understand their customer, the better their chances for success. In this session, Dr. McQuiston talks about EQ, how to better understand yourself and most importantly, how to better understand and approach your customers. This session is included in your conference fee.

Also, William Strauss,  Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, will be giving an up-to-the-minute report on the state of the U.S. manufacturing economy.

In addition, Dan Marcus, TDC Consulting, Inc., will be hosting the pre-conference seminar A Profit-Oriented Approach to Pricing. He will discuss how metalcasters are in business to make money, not castings. Specifically, we are in the business of maximizing profitability over time. At the strategic level, profit maximization begins when management acts to optimize the product mix and thereby strengthen the synergy between metalcasting operations and marketing.  Increasing synergy, in turn, drives out cost and multiplies opportunities to maximize profit. That’s where this session begins—with a pricing-centered overview of the key strategic interrelationships between operations, marketing and profit maximization. This pre-conference session will cost an additional $100. The sesion will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 7.

In addition to the presentations, this event will provide:

• Communications Assessments―NM Marketing Communications (NMMC) will be exhibiting once again offering their marketing and communications strategies. NMMC is a Chicago area-based marketing services agency with more than 25 years of experience serving metalcasting industry clients. NMMC will provide conference attendees with significant savings and discounts on new projects and programs contracted for during the first quarter of 2011.
• Forecast Data―Free Updated Metalcasting Industry Forecast Report for 2011-19 (updated November 2010 for all attendees)
  
• Tabletop Exhibitors―Opportunity to meet web designers, graphic artists, printers, marketing agencies and casting designers that can help you
• Advertising―Drawings for free advertising design
• Free Gifts―Drawings for free sales & marketing toolkits.   

Attend the 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Castings Conference Holiday Spectacular—metalcasting's holiday event you simply can’t afford to miss. To reserve a hotel room at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg, click here. The hotel cut-off for discouted rooms is November 16. 

Enter to win a free registration for the conference. Find the eight digit code on the front of your holiday card envelope, click on this link and enter the eight digit number in the registration box . You will immediately be notified as to whether or not you have won. If you have won, fill out the contact form and you will be contacted by AFS customer servce with registration details. If you have not won you will immediately be notified to that effect.  

Be sure to join the AFS 2010 Marketing & Selling of Castings Facebook Group to receive regular updates on this conference.

Conference Pricing:

AFS Member: $595 
MCDP Advertisers: $595
AFS Nonmember/Nonadvertiser: $845
Register

Attendees: For more information or to register for this conference, contact AFS customer service at 800/537-4237 or click here.
Exhibitors: For more information, contact Alfred Spada, AFS director of marketing, at 800/537-4237 x281 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .