The ASA Emerging Leaders Division’s EMERGE2024 national conference recently obliterated the event’s previous all-time attendance mark. A record-breaking 240 registrants packed the Essex Ballroom at the Westin Copley Place Boston. That total easily surpassed last year’s nearly 190 registrants in Savannah, Georgia.

Attendees enjoyed a mix of education sessions, best practices sharing and ample networking opportunities.

During the popular EMERGE best practices roundtable session, attendees talked about common challenges and picked each other’s brains on solutions/paths forward to those challenges.

Common topics discussed included price deflation and market erosion, private label products, territory lines, mergers and acquisitions, rep consolidations and much more. All EMERGE attendees will receive a booklet this month that contains notes from all 29 discussion tables.

Additionally, EMERGE participants heard from a panel of customers that included a contractor (Kevin Walsh from EM Duggan), an engineer (Chris Curran from AHA Consulting Engineers), a builder (Jimmy Heighton from Fallon Company) and a designer (Betsy Bassett of Betsy Bassett Interiors) that answered questions posed by the Emerging Leaders Advisory Council and also took questions from the audience.

At the conclusion of the event, it was announced EMERGE2025 will take place May 12-14, 2025 at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas and Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce will be one of the keynote speakers. More details on EMERGE2025 will be forthcoming later in the year.