If it was fresh, original, different, exceptional, singular or extraordinary—one could find it in action at the industry’s No. 1 trade show.
More than 11,000 distributors packed the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas in January for the promotional products industry’s longest-running trade show.
This year’s PPAI Expo had a lot on the line. Not only did the nearly one million-square-foot show floor seamlessly relocate from two levels to a single level in sync with the Mandalay Bay Convention Center’s $66 million expansion late last year but this was the first Expo to require all participating exhibitors, advertisers and sponsors to be Product Safety Aware. That meant that every one of the 1,282 exhibiting companies designated a roster employee who completed a minimum of four hours of product safety education as the company’s Product Safety Ambassador before the deadline. And that’s not all. From the very first marketing pieces, this show was promoted as the best Expo ever. High standards? You bet! But sometimes it works best to start with the end in mind.
Building layer upon layer of successful Expos every year—and making each one better than the last—is a challenging assignment, but one that PPAI’s Expositions team and the rest of the PPAI staff are up for again and again. This was the show’s 14th year in Las Vegas, yet it was an opportunity to create an entirely new experience for show exhibitors and attendees alike.
“The PPAI Expo had a renewed energy like I have never seen before,” says Tom Goos, MAS, president of Image Source, Inc. and PPAI chair of the board. “Having all the suppliers and distributors on the same floor created a special buzz throughout the show. I had a lot more collisions with great suppliers and distributor friends than I have had in the past. The 2016 PPAI Expo was definitely the best Expo I have ever attended and this is my 18th consecutive Expo.”
The Product Pavilions featured hundreds of products to view–and capture–in four categories: New Products, Green Products, Made In The USA and Express Ship.
More than 11,000 distributors descended on the three-day trade show, which opened January 12, preceded by a day of committee meetings and volunteer recognition, and a full day of educational programming that featured a twist on the traditional keynote session. In the new concept, three powerful speakers shared snippets of their forthcoming topics, and attendees selected one for the second half of the session.
The PPAI Expo is not only big business for the promotional products industry–the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority estimates the overall non-gaming economic impact of the show on the city at about $19.4 million.
The excitement continued to build on day two as PPAI opened the new section of the show floor early, offering distributors an advance look at the Product Pavilions followed by early access to the brand. pavilion with its premium products and corporate gift ideas. For those who came early for the grand opening, there was live music, refreshments and drawings every few minutes for top-dollar items like a Weber grill and American Airlines tickets. Thirty-two lucky winners won door prizes during the grand opening.
While the show floor was humming downstairs, social media master Seth Godin was warming up the crowd in the ballroom upstairs with personal stories, fascinating statistics and unforgettable images in his keynote session, From Invisible To Remarkable: Dancing On The Edge Of A Revolution. In his animated style, he kept listeners in his sold-out session spellbound for nearly an hour as he detailed the giant shift that’s happening in marketing and how today’s marketers should be responding to it.
Throughout the show, there were numerous opportunities for attendees to network and learn, including more than 100 education programs, the promo equipment show DECORATE with live demonstrations, the brand. experience with interactive presentations and its adjacent beer garden, and the SAGE conference, skucon, the Recognition Professionals International Summit and other meetings co-located with Expo this year.
Mike McDermott at Footprints USA (right) shows off some of the company’s newest styles in flip flops.
“Our members make a significant investment in time, money and staff resources to attend the show and our goal is to ensure The PPAI Expo consistently exceeds their expectations,” says PPAI President and CEO Paul Bellantone, CAE. “To that end, we work hard to build on the show’s success year over year.” He cites two of the key drivers of those improvements this year as the relocation of the show floor to a single level—which added visibility for exhibitors and efficiency for distributors—and supporting safe products by requiring every exhibiting company to acquire its Product Safety Aware status in advance of the show. “The third piece of the show’s success I noted this year is the ‘big tent’ environment it provides for related meetings and conferences to run concurrently within our show. It’s another way the Expo serves to draw our industry together for shared success.”
Darel Cook, director of expositions, says some of the key themes he heard from attendees and exhibitors was that the new floor plan made the show easier to work and education offerings were creative and refreshing. “It was like going to the Expo for the very first time—everything was new!” he says. For someone who was unable to attend, he says he’d describe it this way: “Imagine being at the Super Bowl of the promotional products industry, hanging out with 20,000 of your closest friends, seeing over one million products and all the while enjoying the best educational and networking opportunities.” That’s The PPAI Expo.
In a joint session and individual breakouts, Wednesday’s General Session speakers (from left) Josh Tickell, Melinda Doolittle and Casey Gerald provided solid take-away value on reaching goals, solving life’s big problems and understanding Millennials.
Thousands of showgoers get ready to hear the keynote speaker, including Karie Cowden, MAS, president of Connect The Dots Promotions, LLC and Bruce Perryman, MAS+, CEO of Embroidery Unlimited, Inc.
It was a night for winners as PPAI honored dozens of individuals and companies with its annual awards in five categories at Tuesday evening’s Awards Presentation & Reception.
There were plenty of new products to see…
and new twists on popular and classic items in nearly 3,000 exhibit booths across the show floor.
See More In The Expo Daily And The Expo 2016 Highlights Video
In a show as winning as Expo, there were many individual and company winners too—and two events were needed to recognize them all. See who took home the honors for individual and company awards, read more about the speakers and events and view dozens of photos in the official show publication, Expo Daily. For the Expo 2016 Highlights video, click here.
