ITA made several changes to the meeting format this year in response to several requests from members of the Suppliers Committee. ITA has returned to the Saturday through Tuesday format.

Suppliers Subcommittee meetings begin on Saturday morning, October 23 and will be held consecutively to give everyone a chance to attend each session. The opening reception and dinner will be Saturday evening.

Sunday will start with an Air Quality Committee meeting, followed by an all day General Engineering Committee meeting. The Lawyers Committee, the Statistics Committee and the Canada Committee will meet Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon, we're planning a visit for our guests to Villa Vizcaya, a Renaissance-style museum built on the inland water way. For those not visiting Vizcaya or attending the GEC meeting on Sunday afternoon, golf and other leisure activities are available.

ITA will host a special reception honoring associate members on Sunday beginning at 6:30 p.m. No ITA dinner is planned so that associate members are encouraged to meet with their customers. A list of attendees and local restaurants will be sent to all registrants in early October.

The 2004 annual meeting will focus on the growing market in China. As previously announced, Cascade has underwritten the cost to have nationally renowned commentator Nick Lardy (International Institute of Economics) moderate an early Monday morning session on doing business in China. His talk will address both buying and selling, and the type of services that are available from the China Industrial Truck Association to address both issues. Participants will be announced shortly.

The 13th annual Presidents' Forum Monday morning will again feature PowerPoint presentations by Ambrogio Bollini (CESAB) on behalf of FEM, Takeo Shibuya (Komatsu) on behalf of JIVA and President Dirk von Holt (Jungheinrich) on behalf of ITA. Peter Bradley (DC Velocity) will moderate this year's session. This forum will offer you the first opportunity to look into expectations for 2005.

ITA also hosts the 7th meeting of the Alliance of Industrial Truck Organizations, consisting of the Management Committees of FEM, JIVA and ITA. While that meeting is restricted to those individuals sitting on those committees, participants from abroad will be attending the various receptions and dinners.

In addition to the golf and tennis tournaments on Monday afternoon, ITA is scheduling a four-hour air boat tour of the everglades. The trip will present the thrill of a lifetime for those unaccustomed to skimming the alligator infested waters. All will return in time to attend the Awards Reception and Dinner on Monday night.

On Tuesday morning, President von Holt reviews the state of the association. Breakfast concludes the meeting for all but Board of Directors' members.

Looking ahead, ITA has scheduled its 2005 spring meeting March 14-16 in Washington and its 2005 annual meeting October 29-November 1 in Rancho Mirage, California.