PPB October 2015

CONNECT

INSIDE PPAI

ASHVILLE’S RICH HISTORY and unrivaled reputation as the heart of country music

was the perfect backdrop for this year’s PPAI North American Leadership Conference

(NALC), which delivered two-and-a-half days of education keyed onto innovation and

change to more than 120 industry leaders from companies across North America. Running August 9-11,

the annual event opened with the presentation of the

PPB

Rising Stars, and went on to feature numerous

networking opportunities and more than a dozen educational sessions on high-demand topics.

“North American Leadership Conference continues to be the most important and impressive,

high-level, content-driven, professional development event in the promotional products industry,” says

Paul Bellantone, CAE, president and CEO of PPAI. “This year’s program was specifically designed to

address our industry’s short- and longer-term challenges and opportunities, and from the feedback I

received from attendees, NALC delivered.”

Playing off the conference’s setting in Music City, NALC’s opening session featured a co-presen-

tation by veteran music producer and Baby Boomer Don Van Cleave, and music innovator and

Millennial Kevin Grosch, who drew a number of parallels between the music business and the promo-

tional products industry by discussing some of the economic challenges, disrupters and opportunities

the business faces. Not unlike what the promotional products industry has experienced, the evolution

of technology has threatened the way music is delivered and consumed.

NALC DRAWS INDUSTRY LEADERS TO LISTEN, LEARN AND NETWORK

86 •

PPB

• OCTOBER 2015

CONNECT

IN TUNE

ABOVE LEFT

Music innovators

Don Van Cleave (left) and Kevin

Grosch delivered an opening

session exploring the parallels

between the music and promo-

tional products industries.

ABOVE RIGHT

Daniel Burrus,

considered one of the world’s

leading futurists on global

trends and innovation and

known for his proven method-

ologies for capitalizing on tech-

nology innovations and their

future impact, led a strategic

foresight session with NALC’s

attendees.