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“What if PPAI were to require its
exhibitors and advertisers to satisfy a prod-
uct safety awareness course before we allow
them to exhibit at our shows or advertise in
our publications? Wouldn’t that help reduce
risk in the industry?”
Yes, of course it would. Paul was
spot-on. That escalator conversation was
followed by many others, and by
detailed study by PPAI staff, our
Product Responsibility Action Group
(PRAG) and, finally, by the entire PPAI
Board of Directors. Now, 24 months
later, with the strong support of PRAG
and the approval of the board, Paul’s
vision and leadership has come to
fruition in PPAI’s Product Safety
Awareness Program.
Starting next month at Expo East in
Atlantic City, any company that wishes
to gain access to the PPAI
marketplace
―
by exhibiting at any of our
trade shows, by advertising in our publi-
cations or by a sponsorship
―
must
obtain Product Safety Aware status. To
fulfill the requirement, the company
needs to assign at least one employee as
Product Safety Ambassador and also
fulfill an education requirement. This
can be satisfied by having the employee
complete four hours of product safety
education from a required list of three
one-hour webinars, plus one elective. As
you can see, it’s pretty simple.
There is no cost to any company to
become Product Safety Aware, and the
designation is
not
required to
attend
our
trade shows. Again, it is only required
for those companies that are exhibiting,
advertising or sponsoring.
Let me be clear. The Product Safety
Awareness Program is not intended as a
complete
solution for any company
wishing to develop a compliance pro-
gram. No one can become an expert
through four hours of education. The
purpose is to introduce exhibitors to
the full range of compliance and safety
topics we face in the promotional prod-
ucts industry, to educate them about
state and federal compliance require-
ments and to arm them with ways they
can better serve their customers’ safety
and compliance needs
―
with accurate
compliance information, with timely
and complete test reports and with
accurate product information.
I’m enormously proud to say that
PPAI is the first and only association to
implement such a program. At PPAI’s
Product Safety Summit in 2014,
Commissioner Marietta Robinson of
the U.S. Consumer Products Safety
Commission (CPSC) told attendees
that other associations come to the
Commission to complain about regula-
tions. PPAI, she said, comes to tell the
Commission how the Association is
helping members meet regulations.
Commissioner Robinson said the
CPSC considers PPAI the standard for
others to emulate through initiatives
like our Product Safety Awareness
Program, our Product Safety Summit
and the hundreds of compliance webi-
nars we produce every year.
I hope you’re as proud of your
Association as I am. Every PPAI depart-
ment has been involved in developing
and implementing the Product Safety
Aware Program
―
Professional
Development, Trade Shows, Marketing,
Business Development, IT, Public
Affairs, Publications
―
all collaborating
to meet our launch date.
We’re all the beneficiaries of this
work because in 2015 our industry is far
more product safety aware than ever
before. I want to thank the staff for get-
ting this program off the ground, PRAG
and the board for their hard work and
support and Paul for championing the
idea from its inception.
Congratulations to all for an excep-
tional accomplishment in protecting
our industry.
An Idea That Moved The Industry
PERSPECTIVES
4 •
PPB
• FEBRUARY 2015
T ALL STARTED WITH
a compelling question that PPAI President and CEO Paul Bellantone
posed to me while we were riding up an escalator at The PPAI Expo two years ago. We had just come
from an educational program highlighting the most serious compliance challenges for the industry.
Paul was quiet and contemplative and then, in typical Paul fashion, homed right in on the solution:
Rick Brenner, MAS
PPAI Chair of the Board
PERSPECTIVES
I