A Letter to Seminar Participants

Dear Seminar Participants:

I have received some phone calls in recent months asking about several of the seminars and speeches that I used to give relating to many different aspects of purchasing and supply management. Regrettably, I am now winding down my seminar business, and am no longer doing most of the seminars that I have done in the past.

I first began doing seminars for purchasing professionals in 1977, when the hot topic was seminars for C.P.M. Review. Needless to say, it was a different world back then. For each seminar, we provided lunch, several college textbooks, and instruction all for $50 per day. The C.P.M. instruction, which took several days, provided a review of the information needed to pass the four modules of the C.P.M. certification program.

In the years that followed, the C.P.M. Review class provided the path to offer several other seminars, including a "Fundamental of Purchasing" seminar, an "Advanced Purchasing Topics" seminar, and several other programs that were aimed at the development and advancement of the purchasing profession.

In 1984, I coauthored a book entitled "The Win-Win Negotiator." My focus then shifted to doing negotiation seminars, although some of the other seminars were also part of a typical year. On some occasions, I remember as many as 150 people attending a single seminar. Therefore, by the time I discontinued the public seminars in 2005, I could claim that as many as 30,000 people had attended my seminars from 1977 to 2005.

Otherwise, as noted in the section on "Speech Topics," I am now limiting my presentations to topics relating to the economy, as well as relating to the results of the monthly surveys of local purchasing activity that I have conducted since February of 1979. I am also working on a new topic, "A Brief History of the Purchasing Profession, 1976-2010" which encompasses a perspective of the many changes in the profession that I observed in my 35 year career as a university professor and purchasing educator.

In 2008, I accepted an appointment to the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University as "Director of Supply Management Research." It is a part time appointment, and my major contribution to the program is that I am now putting the university's name on the business surveys. As I transition into full retirement, it is my hope that the university will pick up the survey and continue it into the foreseeable future.

Finally, part the purpose of this letter is to thank all of the 30,000 people that made my academic and seminar careers a success. If you have any comments or questions, I would of course like to hear from you. If you would like additional copies of the book, "The Win-Win Negotiator," I do have a few remaining copies that I am willing to share with past participants.

Sincerely,

Brian G. Long
Kalamazoo, Michigan
May, 2010