In June, we met with the consortium of industrial associations that sponsor the University of Industrial Distribution. The 2003 University was held March 2-5 in Birmingham, Alabama. It included 22 full and half-day courses over 4 days. The courses covered all major management topics with top industry speakers like Bruce Merrifield, Al Bates, Peter Land and Mike Workman. The 150 participants from 108 industrial distribution firms ranked the overall quality of the programs 4.5 on a 5-point scale. The most frequent comment we heard from the participants was that they couldn't wait to get back to their operation and start implementing all the great ideas, techniques and tactics they learned.