The Only Constant Is Change
PPAI honors Steve Slagle as its 2016 PPAI Hall of Fame Inductee
By Jen Alexander
In the midst of changes that might shake any other industry to its core, Steve Slagle, CAE, kept PPAI and its promotional products business members on a steady course toward continuing growth and success. Slagle, who served as the Association’s president and CEO from 1996 to 2012, is being honored as the 2016 PPAI Hall of Fame inductee.
He helped lead the Association through major changes as it worked to move the industry forward against a tide of changing consumer habits and the explosive growth of technology, including the internet boom. His calm, somewhat reserved demeanor belies his passion for promotional products businesses and the association that serves them.
Slagle graduated from the University of Tennessee with a journalism degree that focused on advertising and marketing. After graduation, he served two years in the U.S. Marine Corps, after which he enrolled in graduate school, again at UT. His first job in association management came in 1977 when he joined the National Association for Campus Activities in Columbia, South Carolina.
“For five years I was the director of communications and I edited a magazine, and I later left to work for an advertising agency. I was invited back to NACA where I was hired as executive director, a position I held for 13 years. I really enjoyed it those years and I decided association management was my career choice.”
When the opportunity to work with PPAI came along in late 1995, Slagle says, “I really felt like I was in the right place. I wanted to work with an association that represented small-business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketing professionals, and PPAI was the perfect match. I left an association that was much smaller, but I quickly learned it’s all relative. My first impressions about PPAI and the industry came just two weeks after I was hired when I attended the PPAI Winter Show, as the Expo was then called, in Dallas. I was incredibly impressed with the array and diversity of products being exhibited,” Slagle recalls. “I was really struck by the size and scope of the show, and with the people I’d met. I remember being interviewed by the search committee and having the feeling PPAI was on the verge of significant change … the industry was beginning to be challenged by technological changes. As the internet allowed buyers to have access to more information in the mid- to late ‘90s, the best-kept secrets about the industry were being exposed.”
Slagle adds that competition became more challenging to PPAI in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, especially in the trade show arena and in membership services.
“Everyone was competing for dollars in the marketplace. But we became better because of it. We changed as the industry changed,” he recalls.
With an eye on the future and a passion for making the present profitable for members and the Association, Slagle teamed up with volunteer leaders to launch new products and services, and to forge stronger relationships with industry groups including the regional associations.
“We looked at things other associations had done that PPAI had not tried. When I first joined PPAI, we didn’t have a sales team or a marketing team. Our staff was more “order takers” than “order makers” and it took awhile for both our board and our staff to become more competitive and aggressive in our approaches. We had to bring more of a sense of urgency to the competitive changes we faced.”
Some things we tried didn’t work, and not everything was successful,” says Slagle. “We struggled to find technology tools that our members wanted and needed, but PPAI finally got it right by partnering with a company that was already providing valuable technology tools to the industry–and that was SAGE. I’ve always been a believer that if you don’t have a few failures along the way, you’re not really trying anything new. I tried to keep our focus on having the Association be relevant to its members, and I believe we did a pretty good job of that through the years.”
One of the industry’s most significant competitive decisions came in 2003, when The PPAI Expo relocated from Dallas after 26 years to Las Vegas. And the preparation leading up to the shift proved just as monumental, Slagle says.
“We had made the commitment to compete aggressively in the marketplace, and there came a point in 2001-2002 when we were trying to figure out how to better position our premiere trade show. As a group, we believed we needed to consider moving the Expo to generate better attendance and more excitement, so we moved the Expo to Las Vegas.
“We finalized the decision in one month, just nine months before the show’s launch in 2003. There was a huge risk involved—a lot financially, but also for our reputation,” he says. “When we finalized the decision, the facility [Mandalay Bay Convention Center] wasn’t complete. So we had all these contingency plans. That’s a significant tactical decision, but our staff executed the plan really well. I was really proud of our board and our staff for making the decision pay off.”
Slagle says none of the Association’s progress during his tenure would have been possible without volunteer key volunteer leadership and commitment.
“It seemed like we always had just the right volunteer leaders in key positions to help lead the Association when challenges arose. PPAI is blessed with terrific volunteers, and the list of those I had the pleasure of serving with is far too long to mention. We also had a terrific staff, people I leaned on through the years, including more recently Paul Bellantone and Bob McLean,” he adds. “I was really blessed to have so many very skilled and competent professionals to work with over my 16 years at PPAI. Without a doubt I can say that almost everything I accomplished or was given credit for was done in partnership with volunteers and staff.”
Among the numerous accomplishments that occurred during his tenure, he is particularly proud of pursuing and establishing an international outreach, including founding and participating in a federation of international promotional products associations starting in 1999, visiting numerous trade shows throughout the world, and eventually visiting factories, trade shows and product testing labs in Hong Kong and China in the mid-2000s. “When product safety became a major issue for consumers and buyers of promotional products just a few years ago, PPAI was ready to help its members,” he says.
Slagle recognizes the elite company he now keeps as a member of the PPAI Hall of Fame. “While I don’t personally know every individual inducted into the Hall of Fame, I was fortunate to meet and work with a lot of them. I have tremendous respect for these men and women, as they are incredible individuals who’ve made incredible contributions to PPAI and the industry,” he says. “I’m really proud and pleased to have been inducted and to be considered worthy of joining these accomplished individuals in the Hall of Fame.”
