This summer, Butler Gas is proud to help host the 2026 GAWDA Seven Springs Regional Meeting at Seven Springs Mountain Resort, welcoming more than 250 leaders from across the gases and welding distribution industry to Western Pennsylvania for two days of education, networking, safety conversation, supplier connection, and business development.
The meeting includes a professional crisis communication workshop, executive industry speakers, distributor-supplier networking, sporting clays, golf, a Learn to Golf Clinic, and evening events designed to strengthen relationships across our industry.
For Butler Gas, hosting this meeting is more than an event. It is a reflection of who we are.
Butler Gas has been a member of the Gases and Welding Distributors Association, known as GAWDA, since 1960. For more than six decades, our company has believed that strong independent distributors are stronger when we learn from one another, serve the industry together, and stay connected to the broader supply chain and technical ecosystem that supports our customers every day.
Industry volunteerism is in our blood.
Our Chairman, Jack Butler, served as GAWDA President in 1993. Our President and CEO, Abydee Butler Moore, served as GAWDA President in 2020 and 2021 and has chaired the Seven Springs Regional Meeting since 2010. Ben Black, our Executive Vice President, serves on the GAWDA Board of Directors. Adam McQuillan, our Director of Safety and Compliance, serves on the GAWDA Safety Committee.
That level of involvement matters because it keeps Butler Gas actively engaged with the people, companies, safety standards, supplier relationships, operational ideas, and emerging issues shaping our industry. And that benefits our customers directly.
When customers choose Butler Gas, they are not only choosing a local, family-owned company. They are choosing a company deeply connected to a national network of manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, safety professionals, technical experts, and industry leaders. That network helps us stay informed, resilient, and prepared.
In practical terms, GAWDA involvement helps us bring customers:
- Broader supply chain visibility
- Stronger supplier relationships
- Access to best practices from leading independent distributors
- Better awareness of industry trends and product availability
- Ongoing safety and compliance education
- Peer-tested operational ideas that improve customer service
- A stronger voice within the gases and welding distribution industry
This is especially important in a market where customers need both capability and responsiveness. Industrial, specialty, medical, beverage, and propane customers depend on gases that are safe, available, properly handled, and delivered by people who understand the stakes. Through GAWDA, Butler Gas stays plugged into the larger ecosystem behind that promise.
Our goal has always been clear: customers should not have to choose between big-company capabilities and small-company service. GAWDA helps us deliver both.
We can remain independent, family-owned, and locally responsive while also staying connected to the supplier partners, safety resources, technical knowledge, and national distribution network that allow us to serve complex customer needs. That is part of the Butler Gas value proposition: large enough to serve, small enough to care.
The Seven Springs Regional Meeting also gives Butler Gas the opportunity to showcase Western Pennsylvania hospitality while helping industry peers collaborate on the issues that matter most. This year’s program includes a High-Stakes Conversations workshop with Dr. Vincent Covello, focused on communicating clearly during crisis situations; a Reverse Contact Booth that brings distributors and suppliers together efficiently; and a Business Session featuring leadership perspectives from across the industry.
For our customers, that means the Butler Gas team is not operating in isolation. We are listening. We are learning. We are contributing. We are building relationships before we need them. We are staying close to the supply chain and the industry standards that help us serve you better.
At Butler Gas, we believe industry engagement is not extra work. It is part of the work.
It helps us strengthen safety, improve service, protect supply, develop our people, and bring better ideas home to the customers who count on us.
We are honored to host the 2026 GAWDA Seven Springs Regional Meeting, proud of our long history with GAWDA, and grateful for the opportunity to represent our customers, our region, and the independent distributor community.
Check out more information on the GAWDA Seven Springs Meeting.