2018 ACI Annual Meeting & Industry Convention

This year, we launched our first-ever mobile app! Attendees were able to have Convention details such as the agenda, attendees list, messaging, etc. right at their fingertips! More than 1,000 business leaders came to the American Cleaning Institute’s 2018 Annual Meeting and Industry Convention, representing 176 companies and 27 countries, to network, participate in business-to-business meetings, committee meetings, receptions, charity events as well as strategic motivational speaker sessions.

Speaker Sessions

Several speaker events took place throughout the week, with experts sharing must-have information for attendees. Many of the presentations are available on the ACI Members Only Website (MOW).

ACI’s Global Industry Updates hosted International Association Executives sharing key issues affecting the cleaning products industry in their country or region:  Bronwyn Capanna (Australia), Shannon Coombs (Canada), Roberto Scazzola (Europe), Sanjay Trivedi (India), Tsutomu Katagiri (Japan) and Carlos Berzunza (Mexico).

The Consumer Panel Presentation, "Coming Clean with Millennials. The deep, down and dirty when it comes to the task at hand." was highly ranked by attendees. The session was sponsored by Takasago International Corporation (USA) and moderated by Janis Gaudelli. Attendees listened to millennials talk about what cleaning products they purchase, cleaning habits and their best practices for using these products.

At the ACI Issues Briefing, Standing Committee Leaders and ACI staff updated the audience on their committees’ top priority issues and the most recent technical and outreach work on liquid laundry packets and ACI sustainability initiatives.

Olympic Medalist Bonnie St. John spoke about her experiences in overcoming hardships and obstacles in her life and turning them into wins. Her session focused on High Performance Resilience and how each person, if armed with the right attitude and a desire to win, can overcome anything that is thrown their way. The first 25 attendees received an autographed copy of her book, "Micro-Resilience."

An educational workshop hosted by Heidi Berenson of Berenson Communications, Be a PRO@CON-troversy: Touch & Go from any Question to YOUR Message, focused on effectively communicating timely and critical information. 

Women’s Networking Forum and Panel, sponsored by BASF Corporation, provided a unique opportunity to learn about Inclusive Leadership: Leveraging Differences to Drive Business Results. Attendees gained insider tips through this timely topic from Jennifer Thorpe-Moscon (Catalyst) and panel of ACI Board of Directors Linda Rendle (The Clorox Company), Audra Davies (Amway) and Scott Thomson (BASF Corporation). This forum shared insights on how to overcome differences to succeed in creating positive business results.

The 3rd annual Innovation & New Technology Showcase invited ACI member companies to the stage to highlight their companies’ latest technology or product. Presenters selected to speak at the 2018 Showcase were:  Ben Sales (Ashland Specialty Ingredients), Peter Stuut (Corbion), Greg Smith (Croda), Robert Butterick (The Dow Chemical Company), John Shaw (Itaconix), James A. Faunce (Stepan Company), Gurpreet Kohli (Unilever).

Check out the highlights of the 2018 ACI Annual Meeting & Industry Convention in video below, produced by Happi.

The ACI Convention, the cleaning product supply chain’s top global business forum, took place January 29-February 2 at the Grande Lakes Orlando.