Costco's Vic Curtis Urges Chains, Suppliers to Think Creatively as NACDS Total Store Expo Nears

PRESS RELEASE

August 26, 2012

NACDS Pharmacy & Technology Conference in full swing with dual focus on present and future

Denver, Colo. — A value-packed 2012 NACDS Pharmacy & Technology Conference kicked off this weekend with a call for an even more strategic approach to conference preparation as companies look forward to the 2013 launch of the NACDS Total Store Expo.

The urging for an innovative approach to collaboration was issued by Victor Curtis, RPh, senior vice president of pharmacy for Costco Wholesale dba Costco Pharmacies, and chairman of the 2012 NACDS Pharmacy & Technology Conference. During his remarks this morning, Curtis highlighted the new NACDS Total Store Expo, which will debut August 10-13, 2013 in Las Vegas, as an event that features an efficient format with enhanced strategic integration.

Curtis noted that the new trade show will combine the very best educational and business programming components — and offer some new ones – from the Supply Chain & Logistics Conference, the Marketplace Conference and the Pharmacy & Technology Conference.

“I am convinced that by bringing together these three meetings, NACDS will create a meeting that adds up to much more than the sum of three parts. By allowing strategic, cross functional department meetings to occur, with the right business partners, each similarly aligned, there is the potential to produce exponentially greater results,” Curtis said.

He challenged attendees to take a new approach in the way they prepare to conduct business at the NACDS Total Store Expo, emphasizing that the new format will challenge attendees to think about how they do business in a new way.

“You and your company will determine your success at the NACDS Total Store Expo. And that goes for retailers and suppliers alike,” Curtis told attendees. “My advice is to aim high. If we dialogue internally, if we identify synergies across departments, if we approach this meeting with new creativity, scheduling intelligently and with coordination, we are likely to achieve even greater results than you might have imagined.”

In addition to looking forward, Curtis described the 2012 NACDS Pharmacy & Technology Conference as an opportunity to achieve clarity and business-planning perspective given that “there has been no shortage of events stirring the pot in our operating environment.”

Noting the Conference’s attention to developments ranging from healthcare reform, to collaborative healthcare delivery, to pharmacy- and pharmaceutical-specific public policy, Curtis said, “the tightly-stitched program we have laid out for you at this Conference will provide some answers and some of that clarity we are all looking for.”

For more information on the new NACDS Total Store Expo, visit the event’s website.