The 53rd Annual ISDA Meeting in Scottsdale, AZ, was a wonderful time! We gathered from May 13th – 16th 2026 at the Scottsdale Resort & Spa to network, engage, and educate ourselves.
Attendees arrived to check in at our registration desk with ISDA Membership Director Jessica Kir the afternoon of Wednesday, May 13th, before our evening welcome reception.
The reception was short and sweet, lasting from 6:30 – 7:30 PM (Mountain Time), so that business partners could take members out to dinner immediately following.
We started our 2026 meeting on Thursday, May 14th, after breakfast at 8:30 AM with opening remarks from Board President Randy Brant of Southwest Solutions. Randy welcomed the present member owners and salespeople, business partners, speakers, and staff.
ISDA Executive Director Jim D’Emidio then also formally welcomed the assembled group. He briefly discussed the fiscal year 2025 and how he intends to add value to the Association in 2026 and beyond.
Our amazing keynote speaker Jim Ryerson a perennial favorite, then launched into a high energy presentation and furthered attendees’ knowledge of AI, segueing perfectly into brief introductions of the other speakers and how their discussions on AI would tie in with and complement his over the course of the next few days.
The 2026 Annual ISDA Meeting Platinum Sponsor, Pegasus Medical Concepts’ Jacob Surak then delivered an illuminating and practical presentation on the company’s offerings and what sets them apart within the healthcare storage space. The assembled member owners and salespeople and ISDA staff were pleased to see so many high-quality before and after shots. Something we always enjoy and always try to include in our business partners’ Dropbox folders when possible.
Anthony “Tony” DeSimone of You’re The Expert Now! then presented, blowing the minds of most attendees with his knowledge of artificial intelligence and how to apply it within specific business contexts. He discussed his “people first, people last” AI usage model which stresses the importance of human direction for artificial intelligence.
While Tony’s information was still fresh in mind, we launched into this year’s Member Panel which focused on practical uses for AI. Patrick O’Brien of O’Brien Systems, Craig Crock of Southwest Solutions Group, Member (and Board Member) Jake Reynolds of Reynolds Business Systems, and Karen Gunther, ISDA Marketing were ISDA’s 2026 panelists.
The panelists dug deep into their own experiences, focusing on how they are using AI within their own respective companies. They gave a variety of perspectives given that Patrick is in sales, Craig is an owner, Jake is both, and Karen has vast knowledge of AI both personally and professionally.
Attendees were then treated to a lovely lunch outside, courtesy of Gold Sponsor, Global Industrial. While it was quite hot, the dry heat made this & all of the other outdoor meals very enjoyable.
Derek Shebby of Modern Sales Training then discussed AI with a focus on sales. For instance, even how to integrate the old school method of hitting the pavement along with data sourced via artificial intelligence to make the most of lead sourcing and “cold calls.”
Gold Sponsor Global Industrial’s Frank Pomponio and Eric Paparigian proceeded to tag-team their presentation which not only covered the breadth of products they have but how to approach selling said products in very substantive and pragmatic ways for ISDA member owners and salespeople.
We finished the meetings of the day with the first of three rounds of speed networking before the evening reception and dinner.
Friday morning we started with Robert “Bob” Goldberg, ISDA Legal Counsel, who joined us via Zoom. He tied in with the unifying theme of AI, highlighting how companies should all have an AI Usage Policy in place already. Even the business partners present asked questions at the end and had positive takeaways from the presentation.
Steve Waller of new ISDA Business Partner and Gold Sponsor, Lift and Store, then spoke on their products and solutions. He delivered a well-paced presentation and the group very much appreciated his before and after pictures.
Our third and final Gold Sponsor, Eagle Group’s Kevin King, closed out the sponsors’ presentations with a succinct and polished discussion on what Eagle can offer ISDA members and what sets them apart, especially in regards to their expertise in stainless steel.
After a break, the second round of speed networking rook place before another lunch outside in Bennie’s Courtyard.
ISDA Marketing’s Karen Gunther then briefly but thoroughly discussed AI in relation to marketing, discussing how she uses ChatGPT and Claude along with an n8n workflow automation system to maximize her efficiency and output.
Members were then split into two groups for the round table discussions, with one group being headed by speaker Derek Shebby and the other by speaker Tony DeSimone. The groups discussed which takeaways they had about AI from this year’s meeting and how it relates to future growth and how ISDA can best serve them and be more valuable as an association. It was very interesting to hear a range of perspectives, yet again, with older more seasoned owners and salespeople having a lot of information, even relating to succession planning and other issues, while tapping in the running conceit of artificial intelligence. A few members hadn’t yet implemented much, if any, AI usage themselves and came out of the round table and meeting overall with many nuggets of information on where to start and how to best proceed in their use of artificial intelligence moving forward.
The third and last speed networking round took place on Friday afternoon prior to the awards dinner which was a fantastic time. It is the final hurrah each year as the next day is member shareholders only after breakfast.
This year’s Award Winners are:
Members
Association Excellence Award – worked with the highest number of ISDA Business Partners during FY 2025
Reynolds Business Systems, Inc.
We love to see this, Jake and Keith – this award is so representative of the ISDA Network!
Top Revenue Producer FY 2025
Southwest Solutions Group, Inc.
It is great to see our Board President, Randy Brant, and Craig Crock, leading the way for ISDA!
Largest Revenue Growth FY 2025 (New Member)
O’Brien Business Systems
Happy to have the next generation in attendance and engaged – thank you Jess Viola and Patrick O’Brien!
Largest Revenue Growth FY 2025 (Established Member) – not pictured
Donnegan Systems, Inc.
Business Partners
Top Revenue Producer FY 2025
Panel Built
Great to have two first-timers accept an award – welcome to Austin Dyer & Matthew Wasko!
SpaceGuard Products won TWO Awards this year!
Largest Revenue Growth FY 2025
Association Excellence Award – worked with the highest number of ISDA Members during FY 2025
Wow – way to go, SpaceGuard!
Saturday, May 16th, saw a fruitful and frank shareholders’ meeting which ended in the later morning before a small group of staff, member owners and salespeople, and business partners played golf in the afternoon.
Thank you to our Platinum Sponsor, Pegasus Medical Concepts, and our Gold Sponsors: Eagle, Global Industrial (who also sponsored our Thursday lunch), and Lift and Store. We couldn’t have held such a substantive, quality event without your support.
We would also like to thank all of our 2026 Annual ISDA Meeting attendees. We know you make time for what is important to you and greatly appreciate your dedication and loyalty to The Association.
Click here to access the ISDA Facebook Page’s Event Photo Album!
See you in 2027, dates & location TBD!
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