If it wasn’t already official, just a mere hour after the sun had risen Monday, attendees proved that The PPAI Expo Conference has become a staple of The PPAI Expo, perhaps even as anticipated as the trade floor. Before what was billed as the “Welcome and General Session,” HPG’s director of sales, Jenna Quaranta, hosted an even earlier session at 7:30 a.m., titled “ROLL CALL: Where High Performers Report for Duty.”
Meant for the early risers ready to get a jump on their day, Quaranta’s session was packed. Setting the tone for the rest of the day, there wasn’t an empty seat in the room. When the rooms got a little bit bigger, expanding to ballrooms for the keynote speakers, the trend continued.
‘Cracking Creativity’
The promo world knows that growth doesn’t come from cost-cutting. Revenue and client value are driven by creativity. Posner is a former director of creative works at Google, who brought a three-step framework to unlock innovation in daily work through storytelling and real experience scaling creativity. Posner also hosts The Human Code Podcast, where she interviews creative thinkers across industries to uncover the principles of imagination and problem-solving.
“We are all going to be having a video conference at some point this week, and yet are all highly connected to the physical stuff around us,” Posner pointed out to the audience full of promo professionals.
Abigail Posner
Former Director of Creative Works, Google
Posner’s session was titled “Cracking Creativity: A Business Driving Guide For Human Ingenuity In The Age Of AI.” Having worked with some of the most iconic brands and companies through the rise of digital innovations that have disrupted how we look at marketing, Posner explained to the crowd the heart of what has always been successful through that time and how creativity never shrinks away from a successful branding campaign.
Unleashing The Inner Innovator
Attendees didn’t need to stop learning and experiencing while they took a lunch break. Monday’s second keynote speaker was a ticketed lunch event hosted by Leo Chan, chief innovation ignitor at Innovation Abound.
His session, “The POP: Discover The Power Of Your Personality & How To Infuse It Into Your Business To Elevate, Engage And Excel!” wasn’t for sitting around and taking some occasional notes. This one was hands-on and interactive.
Chan’s known for his engagement with audience members. He used LEGOs as an entry point to focus the audience as active participants in the session and help make many of his most crucial points. To Chan, both large and small-scale problems require human solutions.
“I’ll talk. You’ll build, reflect and share,” Chan instructed a sold-out ballroom full of promo professionals before he was drowned out by the sound of crinkle and crash as dozens of bags were ripped open and hundreds of LEGOs were dropped onto tables by a few hundred adults.
Leo Chan
Chief Innovation Ignitor, Innovation Abound
There was a rumble in the room when tables were asked to share and explain with each other the rationale behind their creations. Laughter disarmed them and genuine conversation seemed to follow. Chan explained the uniqueness experience between every single person in that room, and how “without sharing it, it becomes lost forever.” That would be wasted innovation. Harnessing that recognition through experimenting, tinkering, problem-solving or collaborating is a key to success in branding success and entrepreneurial possibilities.
Throughout the day, experts in promo and other subject matters led sessions that sparked interest and packed houses – to the point where PPAI had to begin turning away audience members, lest they be violating official safety regulations concerning room capacity. Fortunately, anyone missing out on a session could simply choose from another speaker or panel going on at the same time.
