[EVENTS]: Mexico & Texas — two must-attend trade events this fall

Machine Operated Script:

Annik  00:00

Welcome back to the simply trade Roundup. Today is a little bit of a different episode. Me and Andy are hosting, Hi Andy,

Andy  00:08

good morning, depending on where you are listening to this, good morning or good afternoon.

Annik  00:13

Yes, great to have you here. Lalo is a not here in the studio, but we got it, don’t worry. So today’s episode is extra special, because we’re talking all about the upcoming icpa conferences, not just one, but two big events you won’t want to miss. I mean, I’m going to be at one of them, and I can’t wait. First, we got a brand new icpa conference. Well, it’s an mic partnered with icpa conference in Mexico, which that just sounds like so much fun. And then, of course, the annual ICBA fall conference, which we will also talk about, which is what we’re calling it, the trade days, right, taking place in Grapevine, Texas. So I’ve got some wonderful guests. We’ve got a big panel here. We have Bonnie, Lila, George Andy Elizabeth Allison, and I I’m sorry I didn’t introduce you with first last name. We really don’t have time for that right now, but I’m sure everyone knows you in the industry, and we’ll link everything down below so you will not miss a single person. So starting up, we have the upcoming Mexico conference. It’s mic and ICBA partnering, which sounds incredible. And Allison and Elizabeth, I would say you guys are kind of in charge of that in this group. So Allison, I kind of want to touch on it. So can you kind of give us a roundup on when the conference is and what made you go to Mexico? What? What? What is the idea with going to Mexico? Because we haven’t heard an icpa or mic conference being in Mexico,

Speaker 1  01:40

sure. So mic has been actually doing this conference in Mexico for a couple years, and I had brought the idea to Elizabeth at icpa and said, hey, you know it’s kind of one place that you’re not and let’s maybe partner with bra Miller as well, since they have a lot of clients down there, and see if we can get a conference going. So we will be having a conference down there November 5 and sixth in Mexico City. Registration is open on the icpa website. Anybody that wants to attend, either in person or virtually, should register as soon as possible, and you just basically be learning more about the trade agreements, the tariffs in between US and Mexico,

Annik  02:22

and it’s in Mexico City, correct? Yes, where? What Hotel? Is it a whole located in a hotel, or

Speaker 1  02:30

it’s right in Reforma at the Sheridan Isabella.

Annik  02:34

Okay, so there’s a lot of new people in trade, and there’s obviously very seasoned professionals. Do you advise all to go? Or is this a conference you know that anyone can just attend?

Speaker 1  02:45

Yeah, I would say anybody that really wants to learn more about the agreements between US and Mexico, we will have some tech experts and business leaders, candid conversations, a lot of networking opportunity. It’s a day and a half conference. So we plan to pack as much in as we can.

Annik  03:04

You know, I think it’s incredible, because there’s a lot of news around Mexico right now, the new reform coming in 2026 and, yeah, I’m sure you’ve heard all about that as well. If you want to touch on that real quick,

Andy  03:16

well, there’s a lot of changes, a lot of things going on. One of the key things that people doing business from Mexico to the US, obviously, or vice versa, or Mexico, rest of the world. There’s a lot of things happening right now with trade agreements and obviously the US tariffs situation and all, one of the big things are going to be you need to come back around to the usmca or the US NAFTA, 2.0 I think a lot of folks called it content. It’s like the percentage of content you can get up to speed with that. Secondly, is working with your vendors, from their perspective, the frustrations or the positives. What do you got to do to do business on it, and what will help each other out. There’s a lot of positives with this agenda that I’m just scanning over again. MIT has been great. Icpa has got some great speakers in here, and this is going to be one of those where, if you want to get up to speed, if you will, proficient on the latest situation, but also make some good context on what’s going on regarding the tariff situation and the impact on your specific manufacturer, the transportation and all of that. This would be a good conference to look at that, because things are sometimes are changing hourly, if not daily, and weekly, and so there’s a lot going on. So I would highly recommend, again, make your relationships, develop those contacts and those relationships. Secondly, hear firsthand what people are thinking the impact is, and then go in and educate yourself on what’s going on.

Annik  04:51

Yeah, I like that. And then I have another question. So some people might be asking, Okay, well, do I choose the Texas one or the Mexico one or. Or do I just go to both? What would you say?

Elisabeth Sherrell  05:02

Elizabeth, I would say it depends on your area of focus. The Mexico one really is heavily focused on all trade coming and going outside of Mexico. I would say, right. Allison, I think even the session titles alone, the speakers are, there’s some government speakers. I think, I think professors too, right? I mean, of course there’s Brenda Cordova, who is, she is Imax, as far as I’m concerned. So and then, if you’re talking about the fall conference, you’re going to get not just the regular, you know, trade compliance issues that are the hot topics of the time. But towards the end of the week, the ITAR E, A R aspect of it. So in my opinion, there, they couldn’t be more different. They’re both offered virtually reduces the cost to your company or yourself dramatically and so and as a matter of fact, the one in Mexico is priced so low I can’t imagine your company’s not allowing you to go. I mean, it is. It’s really meant to just gain some interest and share some knowledge. More than anything, I think they’re, I don’t know how you pick put it on a spinner wheel. They’re very different.

Annik  06:12

Okay, thank you. Okay, Allison, do you have anything else to share, like, something special about the Mexico conference? I know you just touched on a speaker, but I know you have some incredible speakers. What is like, one of your favorite things about this conference

Speaker 1  06:24

we do so I’ve been working with Brenda Cordova from bra Miller, and we just a lot of the speakers that we do have will be new to this conference, and besides the professors and the ex government employees, and I just think it’s going to be a really good mix. Great.

Annik  06:45

I’m excited. It sounds so fun, and I can’t wait to hear back from when it happens. So anyone wanting to attend, we’ll put all the information down below and obviously on our LinkedIn and you can check it out. You can still register so it is happening. Can you remind me of the date, exactly November 5 and sixth. Okay, perfect. Well, you heard it here first. So now run to the website before pause this podcast. Run to the website, sign up and then come back, because now we’re shifting gears to the ICP fall conference trait days. Love that in Grapevine, Texas. So very Andy shiles coded because, you know, you have to have your cowboy hat on also, I have to say it is going to be Halloween. So if you want to come in your best costume, then that’s also fine, right? Elizabeth, I mean, I don’t know,

Elisabeth Sherrell  07:31

it’s not only fine, it’s encouraged, right? Bonnie, I mean, like this is the most exciting time to hold a conference for us, because we’ve got this cowboys and cobwebs theme going. So if you want to bring your boots and your hat, please do but yeah, I think it’s it’s encouraged for you to dress up and just cut loose. And I’m

Speaker 2  07:50

wondering how many people are going to do the terrified t shirt, right? Because it’s Halloween,

Speaker 3  07:55

it’s already in the works. What are you talking about? Yes, we

Speaker 2  07:59

should do like bingo cards, like Spot, Spot, the terrified t shirt. Spot, the trade nerd shirt, the trade nerd pin, right?

Andy  08:07

Just great idea. Here we go. I love that.

Annik  08:11

Well, you know, I wanted to kind of Elizabeth, or anyone that can answer this question, what are the differences? I know you’re making some changes to the conference. You are upgrading. You’re listening to people, you’re you’re doing it all to have the best conference you’ve ever had. You know you always have to step up, and that’s what you do. What do you think is going to be different? Or what do you have planned that’s different?

Elisabeth Sherrell  08:35

This bingo game that Lila just does, that is the kind of stuff that I get excited about. Here’s what’s really different for us. We’ve had a very good ITAR ear conference for the last three years. And by good, I mean the content, the speakers. This was a brainchild of Lila, our very own, Lila Landis and Blaine Carroll, that I will never forget. They came to me, gosh, what? Four or five years ago, Lila. And instead of walking, I mean, instead of just talking at you, which is what some of the other conferences maybe did. I don’t want to say anything. I’m not supposed to hear Lila. So we wanted to create a different environment. And I don’t let Lila you explain that part, because it really was You really helped us get off the ground. And you say it much better than I do anyway. So explain that aspect, please. Yeah.

Speaker 2  09:21

So, you know, at the times, this was, gosh, seven years ago now, I think maybe six or seven years ago now, I came to Elizabeth because I had gone to an ITAR training. I was working in aerospace and defense at the time, and very heavily ITAR focused. And the ITAR training that I went to, it gave me this huge binder of paper, printouts of presentations that were all in black and white, and there’s no electronic materials, and you don’t get to ask questions of the speakers. You can just write down a question on a post it note, and maybe they’ll choose your question, and maybe they won’t, and they would have panels, but it would just be each person talking individually, and no. Engagement between them. And I just thought, you know, this can be done so much better. ITAR training doesn’t have to be this boring and stale, and icpa is the one that can do it better. Because, you know, icpa really focuses on practitioner led training, where these are people getting up and talking to you about their real world experiences in trade compliance, not just reading off regulations to you, and it’s engaging. It’s meant to to be a discussion with the audience of people asking questions and getting into real world scenarios. And so then that’s why I pitched, you know, hey, let’s do ITAR training, and do it the icpa way, and make it fun and engaging and really relevant for people that are out there in the field, instead of just having somebody, you know, read 22 CFR to them, right? Because nobody wants to sit there and listen to that. And, you know, thankfully, Elizabeth jumped all over it. And so then we started the ITAR conference, and then she had this amazing idea of, you know, rather than continuing to have it as a standalone event, why don’t we do a whole trade week where we have the fall conference that we traditionally have with a mix of import and export topics, and then plus ITAR. And I thought that that made so much sense, because when I think about the role of a person in a trade compliance, role in ITAR, yeah, ITAR is definitely a big part of what they do, but er is in play too, right? There’s definitely er issues that come up every company you know that is an ITAR has some er as well. And then customs compliance is still a thing. And I think in a lot of aerospace and defense companies, customs compliance tends to be kind of back burner and a bit neglected sometimes, because all of the risk seems to be on the on the ITAR side. And so then it felt like this would bring so much value to those trade compliance teams who can then attend both parts of the event and get this really dynamic and complex set of training and update Exactly.

Elisabeth Sherrell  11:49

And I think that for us, it was about also ensuring that those ITAR ear folks could lump it into one travel budget. And for some reason, even though I’m willing to bet that the government contracts are very lucrative, just based on Hollywood’s version of it, right? These people seem to have less training budget than anyone, and it’s not pencils and shirts, it’s guns, you know. So for me, I’m like, they need the training. How can we make it to your point? You know? Lila, it to be the icpa way, and there is so much overlap. And the other thing that made us come to this decision was I really got tired of hearing that isn’t the fall conference, just a smaller version of the annual Oh, I mean, are, let me ask you, this, are your trade habits the same today as they were six months ago? Now? That works in my favor this year, because they were different in the last six days. I’m saying realistically trade. I don’t think trade is going to go back to being boring, no matter how many buttons we print. Right like I just don’t feel it. I don’t even want it, because we were in Europe just a few weeks ago, and the theme of the event in a European environment was diversity. That’s the new word, and it’s exciting, because companies are going all over the world and trading in ways that they never were before. So that’s where we come into play, that that’s the global reach that we are excited about. So anyway, speaking of global there’s,

Annik  13:13

there’s, I’m gonna leave the mic to Andy. I’m sure he has some questions for you all well.

Andy  13:18

As as, as we always say with all these conferences, icpa is one that, you know, again, the organization is so great. You make so many different wonderful contacts. You network. And all of us have, probably, our careers have, really, you know, moved forward, and because of our contacts, it’s, it’s a small industry, as far as the import, export compliance, the brokerage, and then the transportation, and it links in there, and then you have the sourcing. What would be ideal is for future is like bringing in a conference of purchasing, logistics and transportation and your compliance all in one fell swoop. That would be a great agenda for now. This is great because right now, people are changing sources for manufacturing. They’re looking at different scenarios because of the different trade negotiations going on. That said this is a way to get in one room, the ability to listen firsthand what people are thinking about the roundtable discussion, even like what we’ve got here. Here’s another thing. We have a lot of folks that come down and attend from Canada. Canada is another scenario where we had a Canadian conference. Well, there’s been a lot, and I think Elizabeth, you hit the nail on the head. Have your trade practices changed in the last six months. Yes, there’s a lot of different variables that have come into play. So with that, everybody’s trying to do what they can, as far as even budgeting. Budgets have been blown out of the water, and now the dust is settling back down and getting an idea on a few things. But with that, I gotta say this is that. With the discussions, there’s been some really intense feelings stress, I don’t know, between our Canadian partners and us, and I would like George, I don’t know, from the great white north up there, as far as US attending, you know, and getting this conference, what are your what’s your perspective from the Canadian side of the table?

Speaker 4  15:20

So I mean, in terms of DFW, I just, I gotta echo what you said, like, I’ve met so many important contacts in my life, including Bonnie. Was the first time I really got to know Bonnie was at DFW. But there’s a whole host of other people that I have met and got to know and relied on as I’ve sort of progressed during my career, so it’s just been, it’s just such a fantastic conference. And in a way, it’s better than the annual conference, because it’s big, but it’s not, you know, huge. It’s not, you know, the State Fair, if you will. It’s, it’s something closer down. So as a Canadian coming down, you know, ICP has always been great about bringing in Canadian speakers, recognizing that a lot of folks in the US are either non resident importers or they’re managing a Canadian affiliate on their importing and as we always like to say, you know, mistake number one, Canada, separate country, separate rules, Got to be careful. So you’re going to get great information with the tariffs. In particular, there’s going to be a speaker there this time, for example, to talk about valuation. Because, you know, tariffs come in, and one of the first questions you always get is, okay, what can I do with my values to lower this ad valorem tax? I’m going to be talking about Carm. Everybody needs to blow their heart. If you don’t know about what Carm is, what I have to tell you is it went live new platform like Ace in the United States, icpa brought the world’s first webinar about Carm, literally the day after it went live, and we’ll be convening again in DFW to talk about all the things we blank about. Carm. That’s my working alternative title. So if you look at the agenda, just keep that in mind. But you know, for us folks trying to figure out what’s going on up in Canada, because it’s on their desk, and also for Canadian folks who are trying to understand, you know, they’re acting as importers into the US struggling to keep up with the changes. This is the one stop shop. This is what you need to go to. This is you will walk away, not only with the presentations, but the contacts to make sure that you can handle, you know, talk about changes in the next, last six months. What about the next four weeks or four months? Well, I was,

Andy  17:40

yeah, and with that, here’s the other thing. Is that, as we’re looking back and forth when we’re talking about this, is that, you know, getting, if you will, again, up to speed of the current. And folks, if you are doing business to or from Canada, what George just mentioned on Carm, I’m telling you the way that has been rolled out. It’s some of the folks involved in that would screw up a two car parade with a one block route. It is one of those things that is that the trade has just been going crazy, hopefully, and by hook or crook or whatever. I don’t know it’s it, things are finally getting hammered out, as you just mentioned, but it’s like you need to know the latest saying that let me also ask Bonnie, is from your perspective of what you’ve been seeing, obviously, you have played a key role in several different companies. You have your own business now. And what’s the latest hubbub that you’re seeing that where the fall conference may be a benefit for folks that attend?

Bonnie Kersch  18:37

You know, there’s so much changing all the time. The the latest hubbub that I tell you today may change before the conference, but, you know, piggybacking on what George was just talking about right before this call, I just finished writing basically a step by step guide on how to get an import permit into Canada for your steel goods so that they’re not subject to tariff rate quotas. So, you know, there’s, there’s that going on in Canada, there’s, we just found out what last week about new tariffs being imposed on upholstered furniture into the US, as well as other wooden goods like cabinets and humanities and that sort of thing. Along with pharmaceuticals. There’s just new things happening literally weekly, if not more often than that. And of course, the biggest thing in my mind that’s going on is the Supreme Court case that’s about to be heard on November 5 about, there’s the dog in the background. You can see we’re going to hear a Supreme Court case on November 5 about whether President Trump’s tariffs that he enacted under the IEEPA framework were able to be enacted that way, to put it very simply. So that’ll be really, really interesting to hear those arguments and to see what the Supreme Court decides on that. And frankly, could mean really, really big money back for importers into the US or not. We’ll have to wait. And see,

Speaker 2  20:01

I think that’s a really great point, Bonnie, about what then what you can get out of networking at the conference, right? Because then what are you doing to try to preserve your ability to get refunds if the Supreme Court does uphold the CIT decision? Right? There’s not a lot of great guidance out there as far as from customs about what that may look like, right? And there’s plenty of good reason for them not to issue any formal guidance on that right at this time. And so then this is where talk to other other trade compliance professionals, by networking, either in person or virtually, and finding out from them, what are you doing? How what kind of conversations are you having with your broker? Are you suspending liquidation? Are you preparing reports right now? How are you talking to your leadership about the potential for refunds and making sure that you’re kind of managing expectations that this isn’t going to be some kind of like instant flow of cash that happens the day after a Supreme Court ruling. And so that’s where I think the networking comes into play, and is such a huge part of any icpa event, is the ability to just talk to other trade compliance professionals about what they’re doing. And we do have two virtual networking events. So of course, if you’re going to be there in person, then you should you talk to people in person, at breakfast, at lunch, in between sessions after sessions. But then we also have two virtual events. We have a pre conference event that we’re going to be doing the week before the conference that that I’ll be hosting along with Bonita Lee, and we’ll be talking about how to get the most out of your icpa conference experience, and you’ll have an opportunity to do virtual networking. And then we’ll have a post conference event where you can digest what you’ve learned from the conference and do some additional networking. So whether you’re there in person or virtually, there’s opportunities for you to connect with others, and it’s one of the best ways to get a lot of value.

Andy  21:49

Hey, Lila, you hit on something that, again, folks, you need to be listening for. This is, how are you communicating with upper management? Are you preparing reports or not? What types of reports. What are the things you’ve got to be careful? And most compliance folks, they’re in there and they will it. Will draft up a dissertation. You can’t do that. You’ve got to be able to keep it simple, translate the complexity into the simplistic. It doesn’t mean that they’re ignorant. It just means they that’s not their bellyweg. You need to figure out, what is it that you need from them? What is it they need to know, what action decisions do they need to make? So there are some things in there that you can hear firsthand from other people. What are they doing to communicate up the chain? I will also say one of the sessions, Cindy Allen is going to be speaking on and she’s got a title briefing the organization. All right. Briefing is a communication how to sparkle in the boardroom. I love how Cindy does

Annik  22:50

that. Well, she’s the Taylor Swift to trade. What do you expect? Yeah, I love Cindy. What are you expecting? And, by the way, is releasing her album today. Okay, because of Swifty, we have to be aware, I have a lot of things going on this week. You know, Taylor Swift related.

Bonnie Kersch  23:04

You pre ordered, right? You pre ordered? I did everything and all the versions,

Annik  23:08

because you just it’s so unrelevant to these people. But you know what she is, if you know who Taylor Swift is. And then we talk about Cindy Allen. I want you to know Cindy Allen is the Taylor Swift to trade. If you see her session, you attend. Would you not go to a Taylor Swift concert? I don’t think so you would. And it’s

Bonnie Kersch  23:24

included in your price, like you don’t even have to pay extra to see Sunday Allen. So what a bargain.

Annik  23:30

And that brings you to a good point, so anyone can go to these conferences

Bonnie Kersch  23:36

and front row seats, front row seats, just show up early. Yeah, there’s great

Annik  23:40

there’s a great point here, because there’s me listening to Taylor Swift, and there’s, you know, people that are, like, 40 years older than me listening to Taylor Swift, which is incredible. And I think the same with the conference here we are, because if you’re just barely starting out, you can go to this conference, and you should tell your boss, hey, I want to attend this conference because I need to learn these things, and I want to be the best so our company can thrive. But if you’re a seasoned professional, you want to be like, wait, I need to stay up to date. Like, I can’t be, you know, I need to stay with the times AI is happening. You have a lot of sessions on AI, you know, icpa is really moving forward with the trends. And whenever you’re going to the conference, you’re going to get the latest updates. And that’s kind of the beauty of it. And then the networking aspects is just incredible to to really figure out, like, what you can do to be your best in in this industry, because it’s, it’s tough out there. And so I kind of want to end on on this note, because there’s such incredible things, and I don’t want to make it longer, and we’re 27 seconds. My 27th is my favorite number. And the 27th is also when the conference is starting. Right? I say it’s the 27th correct, not the 26th the 27th

Speaker 5  24:52

Well, six. Go ahead. Go, Bonnie, go.

Bonnie Kersch  24:55

Thank you. The 26th is the opening reception you should check in that day. You should, you know, go around and meet all of the wonderful sponsors at all of the booths. There are some games associated with that too, a new game coming out this time. So we won’t spoil any fun on that, but definitely walk around and visit all of the sponsors. But you also have the opening reception that night, right? Elizabeth, and is that when we’re doing the calf roping? Yes.

Elisabeth Sherrell  25:21

That is, like, you don’t want to miss the opening recession for the annual or the fall, because it’s always exciting. Not only that, we’re going to have a line dancing, yes, and we’ll have line dancing. We have DJ cam, which everybody loves first of all, and then, Andy, do you remember last year we had that group that came in and was teaching dancing? Like, I can’t remember what the lady’s name that was there, but we have them again. They were really good. It was fun.

Bonnie Kersch  25:43

They were good. I was really bad at it, but not because of them. Yeah, it was my own doing.

Andy  25:48

Like you and I swing dance, and we have a

Bonnie Kersch  25:51

great time. We have so much fun dancing. Andy, and this, I was gonna say, you know, along the networking path, and I know you’re trying to finish this up, but along the networking path that is so important. I mean going to the sessions and learning all the material, obviously important, but the networking. I mean, I cannot stress enough how much networking through icpa has helped my career, personally, but also it has helped me, like, make wonderful friends, many of whom are on this call, who I know I could pick up the phone and call for professional advice, or, frankly, for personal advice, too. So it’s just it feels like a family, right? And so I think that that, you know, is really important, and one thing I try to do is every meal that we have at icpa, whether it’s breakfast or lunch, I sit at a table of people I don’t know, right? Purposely, I don’t sit with my friends. I go sit with people I don’t know, and I say, Hey, who are you guys? Nice to meet you. I’m Bonnie. Let’s chat. You know, what do you do? Like, what kind of focus Do you work on, or whatever? And it just helps so much to meet more people, and wonderful people, honestly. So I can’t stress the importance of

Speaker 2  26:51

that. Icpa is like a family reunion of trade nerds, and it’s the best family totally, they’ll ever go to

Annik  26:57

and don’t be afraid. We’re not mean girls. You can sit with us.

Bonnie Kersch  27:01

You know, Taylor Swift’s song, mean is not about icpa, no.

Speaker 6  27:05

Well, one of the things too, I’ll just say, is that if you are looking at attending, if you can bring anybody from your finance area, anybody from your purchasing, sourcing area, or and or the logistics area, that would be, this would be a great conference to bring them to some of these sessions, so you can sit down after some of the sessions and talk about your own company specific issues, because you need to approach this as far as international trade holistically and and go from there. So it’d be a great thing. Hey, folks, listen. We go ahead. I was just, just real

Speaker 2  27:41

quick. I was gonna say, if you come to our pre call, our pre conference or post conference events, we’re also going to show you how to create a really short, snappy three slide presentation to take back to your leadership, to show you got out of icpa. And so then that’s also something for anybody who couldn’t attend. You can go, take that to your purchasing or sourcing department or your finance department, and tell them about what you learned that’s going to affect your organization and what you can do about it.

Andy  28:07

That’s really cool. Folks, listen. Thank you so much for your time. We need to wrap this up and it just listen again. CPA, there’s a conference down in Mexico’s we started out with in the

Speaker 6  28:19

November 5 and sixth, then we have October 26 on a Sunday evening is when the reception is. And then the 27th and 28th

Andy  28:32

would be for the regular conference. And then the ITAR related would be the 29th 30th and first. So that whole week, all said and done. Thank you for listening to this. Icpa, you need to be there. It is a great conference, worthwhile, and can’t say enough about it. Please share this. Share it with other people in your company that this is a conference. You would be great to bring a group of people from your own company and go through these things and listen to different things. So with that, everybody, have a great day. Thank you so much for listening to simply trade podcast.

Annik  29:10

Thank you. And don’t forget, the simply trade podcast will be at icpa, so we will be there, and again, that’s how we’re thank you so much. Andy, this is so fun because we never do a podcast together anymore, but here we are. We’re signing off and it is Monday. What day is this? Possibly because we’re recording on October 2. Listen to Taylor Swift. Have to throw that in one more time. We will see you all at the ICBA

29:37

conference. Thanks guys. Bye.

Annik  29:39

Thank you so much for attending

Bonnie Kersch  29:41

bye. See all leader. You.