HIGH POINT — The American Home Furnishings Alliance has scheduled two events during August, including its annual marketing meeting and the launch of a new supply chain management conference.


The 2013 Marketing Meeting, Aug. 2-4 in Savannah, Ga., will be a Branding Boot Camp designed for industry executives at every level of developing, launching, marketing or competing with branded collections.

Carl Nichols Jr., a brand strategist, will lead the event, taking marketing executives through the key steps to identifying and keeping a dominant selling idea, which he says is essential for successful branding. Nichols is co-author with Bill Schley of “Why Johnny Can’t Brand: Rediscovering the Lost Art of the Big Idea.”

Among other presenters are Charles Kennedy, senior vice president of social trends for DYG Inc., who will highlight a new target demographic group — YOCOs, or Young Cosmopolitans; and Jeremy Fox, an associate professor at Appalachian State University who taught Chinese MBA students for two semesters in Shanghai, who will present “China Today: Opportunities and Challenges of Globalization.”

AHFA’s first-ever Global Supply Chain Management Conference, set for Aug. 10-12 in Myrtle Beach, S.C., is designed to help home furnishings manufacturers handle the convergence of global sourcing, changing business models, new competition and shifting channels of retail distribution.

Among key presentations will be “The Seven Principles of Supply Chain Management” by Donavan Favre, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University.

For companies with import operations, attorney Rob Pisani will present “Customs Update: Integrating Compliance and Security,” offering advice on how to avoid Customs audits, as well as an update on new enforcement actions under the Wood Packaging Rules and an overview of the new security measures required by C-TPAT (Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism).

David Bennett, vice president of sales for Globe Express Services, will look at issues linked to West Coast ports, including anticipated terminal and rail congestion, labor and controversial California legislation.

More information on both events is available on the AHFA Web site at www.ahfa.us under the Events tab.