Detroit Trade Day 2026: The People Made the Trip

I spent a few days in Detroit this month, most of it built around the 15th Annual Detroit Field Office Trade Day at Huntington Place. On paper, the trip was about compliance content: executive order updates, exclusion orders, supply chain security. In practice, the part that stuck with me most was who I was standing next to while I learned it.

The Trade Day Itself

CBP’s Detroit Field Office puts together one of the more substantive trade events I’ve attended. Executive Assistant Commissioner Susan Thomas opened with a keynote on where the Office of Trade is headed, and the sessions that followed backed that up with specifics rather than generalities.

Three things landed for me:

Direct time with CBP on live issues. Some of the most useful minutes of the whole trip happened in the exhibit hall, not in a session room. We got real clarification from CBP officers on port-specific challenges we’ve been running into with certain shipments. That kind of face-to-face problem-solving does not happen over email.

The executive order briefing. The session on the latest executive order and what it means for enforcement was exactly the kind of forward-looking detail that shapes how we advise clients over the next few months, not just how we react after the fact.

Steering Compliance: Know Your Customers. This session hit differently for me. It was not just a regulatory checklist, it was a reminder that knowing who you are doing business with is a compliance function and a relationship function at the same time.

The Part That Actually Mattered

Here is the honest version: I could have gotten the trade content from a webinar. What I could not have gotten remotely was the rest of the trip.

I spent time with coworkers based in the Detroit area, including my Senior Director, in a setting that had nothing to do with a scheduled call or a status update. I met a few of my direct reports face to face, and for one of them, this was the first time we had ever been in the same room. Eleven-plus years into this career, I still notice how different a working relationship feels once you have shared a meal or stood next to someone in a crowded exhibit hall instead of just a shared calendar invite.

I also had the chance to meet with clients in person rather than on a screen. Those conversations covered the same ground as our usual calls, but they moved faster and went deeper, because trust built in person tends to carry over into everything that follows.

What I Am Taking Back With Me

The trade updates matter, and I will use them. But if I am being straight with myself, the real return on this trip was relational. Regulatory knowledge keeps me sharp. Time with the people I lead, the people I work alongside, and the people I serve is what actually keeps the work meaningful.

Detroit gave me both. I will take that trade.