Bellagio Resort & Casino (Las Vegas, NV)
For Executive Leaders of HVAC Distributor Companies
Your organization is invited to be our guest at Distributor Day 2026 and EPIC2026. You can register up to two executives or senior management staff members to attend both events for no cost, while space is available!
To secure your complimentary registrations for both Distributor Day 2026 and EPIC2026, please fill out the form below. Please note, this offer is only available to the first 100 leaders from HVAC distribution businesses on a first-come, first-served basis.
Agenda
Wednesday, February 11
2:00PM – 3:15PM: Kickoff Presentation
Start with the Vision – the 6 Steps to Effectively Plan, Create Solutions, and Take Action
Presenter: Steve Shallenberger
Steve Shallenberger and Becoming Your Best Global Leadership researched 50 leading organizations over many years to see how employees and leaders planned and problem-solved. The goal: identify what worked and what did not. Less than 10% of organizations have a company-wide problem-solving process they teach their leaders and employees. Yet, 82% of leaders feel like their team members could improve their problem-solving skills. To close the gap, a new approach to planning & execution was born, The Six-Step Process.
During this session on the Six-Step Process, you will learn how to:
- Solve Challenges: Use the Six-Step Process with individuals, teams, and your organization to work through the biggest problems and challenges.
- Plan: Develop a plan of who will do what by when; the plan aligns the team, creates accountability, & clearly defines the path forward for stakeholders.
- Improve Execution: The clarity of the plan in hand and inherent accountability allows all team members to quickly execute and see results.
- Develop Talent: Teach staff, managers, and leaders how to work together, align, brainstorm, and solve any problem & challenge.
Each attendee will receive a free copy of Steve’s best-selling book
3:15PM – 3:30PM: Survey Executive Summary
2026 HVAC Contractor Survey Takeaways Critical for HVAC Distributors
Presenters: David Holt, Matthew Bratsis
During this quick executive summary session, you’ll be the first to hear the key takeaways and major discoveries that were uncovered during EGIA’s 2026 Contractor Survey for HVAC Business Leaders. The discussion will center around the survey findings that are most important to HVAC distributors, and will provide valuable new insights on how distributors can best position themselves to earn contractors’ business in the years ahead.
3:30PM – 3:45PM
Break & Refreshments
3:45PM – 4:45PM: Contractor Panel
Voice of the Customer – Live Q&A with 5 HVAC Contracting Business Owners
Moderator: Lauren Roberts
This panel session will provide unique access to hear directly from 5 HVAC contracting business owners and allow you to receive their feedback to your specific questions in real-time. We’ll uncover what really moves the needle for HVAC business owners when it comes to their relationships with distributors and discover what support and services are most important to them. Get your questions ready and don’t miss this rare opportunity to truly get inside the minds of the customers your distribution business serves.
4:45PM – 5:45PM: Closing Presentation
SERVICE THAT ROCKS: How to Create Unforgettable Experiences and Turn Customers into Fans
Presenter: Jim Knight
Every business has competitors. And how you set yourself apart will determine whether your customer will fall madly in love with you…or not.
This high-energy, interactive and visual presentation will focus on how to differentiate your organization from the rest of the competition to become the business of choice. This program will deliver thought-provoking best practices to create mind-searing customer obsession.
Keynote speaker, best-selling author, and EPIC2026 master of ceremonies, Jim Knight will act as a thought-starter for the session. He will use the visceral backdrop of Rock ‘n Roll and several well-known brands, including Hard Rock International—via his 21-year run with that brand as the head of Global Training & Development—to discuss key strategies to set the stage for us to get into the memory-making business.
Key unique concepts will include:
- Becoming Customer-Obsessed
- Embracing a Differentiated Service Mentality
- Avoiding Acceptable Mediocrity
- Eliminating 4-Letter Words
- Building Mental Shelf Space
- Empowering Employees
- Writing Yourself into the Story
- Increasing Value Proposition
The time allotted is chock-a-block full of visual PowerPoint slides, out-of-the-box thinking, book quotes, videos, personal stories, industry statistics, case studies, and an interactive handout for some real “take aways”…all told through the spirit of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Impactful edu-tainment will be served!
6:00PM – 9:00PM
Evening Party at Bruno Mars Pinky Ring Lounge inside Bellagio
Food, Open Bar, Networking & Entertainment
February 12 – February 13
The premier educational conference for the HVAC Industry! Over 1,000 contractors, distributors, manufacturers and service providers in attendance.
- Celebrity Keynote Presentations
- Industry-Specific Educational Breakout Sessions
- Large Product & Services Expo
- Unforgettable Blowout Evening Party
- Valuable Peer-to-Peer Networking Opportunities
Full details for the highly anticipated EPIC2026 conference will be announced in August.
Distributor Day Presenters
Steve has more than 40 years of experience as a successful business owner, trusted senior executive, professional corporate trainer, and best-selling author. He is the founder and president of Becoming Your Best Global Leadership. Steve and his team provide award winning training and keynotes helping teams and leaders tackle some of their greatest leadership challenges around the world.
As a young entrepreneur, Steve successfully built numerous organizations from the ground up. During those years, he continued his education at the Harvard Business School. Steve was also a trusted advisor for Stephen R. Covey. Steve was a key leader in Covey’s organization who helped build the world-renowned Covey Leadership Center. He led a stalwart team and was responsible for the development and distribution of the original Covey planner.
Before joining EGIA, David spent nearly four decades serving the HVAC industry. He started out by sweeping floors and running parts at his grandfather’s HVAC business. After graduating from college, he founded a software company that developed one of the industry’s first DOS-based service management and dispatching programs. David also served as president of the family HVAC business and was elected to ACCA’s national board of directors. After the family business was sold in 1999, David transitioned to a career in HVAC training, coaching, and consulting, holding various roles with Comfort Institute, Profit Strategies, National Comfort Institute, and SilverBullet Price Page.
David graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Business Management, majoring in Management Information Systems.
After attending Virginia Commonwealth University, majoring in Psychology, Matthew started his journey in finance and customer experience in 1995. He began at American General Finance, followed by stops at Equity Lending, Greensky and Renovate America.
As the former head of Global Training for Hard Rock International for two decades, Jim’s role involved creating and managing all staff and management training materials and programs; facilitating Hard Rock’s corporate university; overseeing management training locations; producing training videos; directing company e-Learning initiatives; facilitating leadership transitions; and traveling to properties to deliver onsite classes and measure company standards.
Jim is also the best-selling author of Culture That Rocks: How to Revolutionize Your Company’s Culture, a how-to business book designed to amp up a brand in any industry. Entrepreneur Magazine listed the book as one of the “Top 5 Books That Will Transform Your Business”. His latest books, Leadership That Rocks: Take Your Brand’s Culture to Eleven and Amp Up Results and Service That Rocks: Create Unforgettable Experiences and Turn Customers into Fans were amazon #1 Best Sellers.
He has been featured in Forbes Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, Entrepreneur Magazine and Fox Small Business News. Today, Jim Knight is the Owner & CEO of Knight Speaker, delivering numerous programs worldwide on leadership, organizational culture, customer service, and employee engagement and was listed in the “Top 10 Most Booked & Rated Speakers in the U.S.” by The Speaker Experts.
REQUEST FREE REGISTRATION
This session on February 11th, as well as the full EPIC2026 conference on February 12th and 13th, is FREE for executive staff of distribution businesses on a limited first-come-first-served basis.