We were honored to be invited to represent one of many manufacturing companies in New England at the 30th annual Bryant University World Trade Conference.  I was excited to be a guest lecturer at this event.  It was exciting to meet Ray LaHood, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, and discuss important things that affect Factory Five Racing in the global marketplace.

My presentation was with Marina Dippel, Social Media Services Director for Sheppard Leger Nowak Inc., and we discussed global marketing strategies and the use of social media.  The Factory Five 818 was used as a case study, and I talked in depth about the Factory Five community and how central it is to our success.

The Factory Five 818S was on display outside the main hall for the duration of the event.

The Factory Five Mk4 Roadster was on the other side of the entrance to the main forum.

The standard issue Factory Five jeans, t-shirt, and work boots got a rare day off.

Factory Five’s Chris Ronni and Tony Zullo brought the cars over in the morning of the event.

Huge thanks to Bryant University for the great event!  There were a great number of very qualified speakers from companies like Raytheon, Holk Global, New Balance, Haemonetics, and Black & Decker.  Maria Contreras-Sweet, Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, joined Dustin Burke from the Boston Consulting Group and Ray LaHood, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, as just some of the very qualified speakers.  It was an honor to participate, and it was cool bumping into Ray LaHood in the parking lot.  We had a great conversation about custom cars.  Ray is from Peoria, IL and is a big car fan.

Dave Smith
President