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IT directors, chief information officers
and business analysts were among the
80 industry IT professionals joining
PPAI’s second annual Technology
Summit, August 11-12 in Nashville,
Tennessee. The opening of the confer-
ence dovetailed with the final day of the
PPAI North American Leadership
Conference and shared an opening
reception on Tuesday evening.
The event packed 10 educational
sessions into the day-and-a-half program
with outside experts such as Joshua
Grippo of Radolo, who spoke about
design first development, and presenta-
tions from industry practitioners includ-
ing a panel on integrations moderated
by PPAI Technology Committee Chair
Jon Norris of Starline and featuring Eric
Alessi, Essent; Irwin Goldstein, HALO
Branded Solutions, and Eric
Shonebarger, Hit Promotional Products.
“Just like last year, the thing that sur-
prised me the most was how engaged all
the IT people were in getting to know
each other over meals. Someone needs to
tell our IT people that they are supposed
to be shy, reserved and not want to talk to
anyone,” says Dale
Denham, MAS+,
CIO of Geiger and
leader of the Tech
Summit Work
Group, which
planned and imple-
mented the confer-
ence with PPAI
staff. “During the
meetings, I was
extremely
impressed at how
90-plus industry IT
professionals col-
laborated to solve
industry problems.”
On Wednesday
morning, PPAI pre-
sented two inau-
gural awards:
Internal Innovator
and Industry
Collaborator. The
Internal Innovator
winner was the
Jetline IT team,
comprised of Sam
Hornstein, Erik
Osterud and
Adrian Todd.
Hornstein was on
hand to accept the
award. Winners of
the Industry
Collaborator award
were BIC Graphic
USA and Hit Promotional Products with
key contributors Tim Nale of BIC and
Eric Shonebarger of Hit at the confer-
ence to accept. Each winner took time to
present and discuss their award-winning
programs and answer questions.
“The Tech Summit was a rewarding
experience for me due to three key
aspects: knowledge, perspective and rela-
tionships,” says attendee Sharon Zarter,
senior business analyst, AIA Corporation.
“I learn more about what works or per-
haps doesn’t, I get insight from both the
distributor and supplier side of the indus-
try and I love meeting that person on the
other side of the email or the LinkedIn
group. It has tremendously helped me
move forward on some of the integration
initiatives for AIA.”
Another satisfied attendee was Jason
Nokes, president of industry services
provider DistributorCentral. “The PPAI
Tech Summit was a great event that
brought technology leaders together to
learn and collaborate in a way that will
better our industry,” he says.
Even those not directly involved with
their company’s technology on a daily
basis found value in this year’s program.
“I attended this conference with
Vernon’s VP of technology, Chris
Lanagan,” says Dave Regan, vice presi-
dent of sales and marketing, The Vernon
Company. “While I can say that I love
technology, I must openly admit that I
am a sales and marketing guy at the
core. I am the person Dale Denham
described at the beginning of the con-
ference who attends the shows and
meetings, and returns to the office all
excited about something that I learned
about. I go running to our IT staff trying
to convey what I saw or experienced. It
was clear to me that there was a lot of
firepower at the Tech Summit when you
consider the key suppliers, distributors
and service providers.
“I thought the sessions were terrific
for a few reasons: the topics were real
life and relevant, and as a ‘non-techie’ I
was pleased that I could understand the
88 •
PPB
• OCTOBER 2015
CONNECT
PPAI Tech Summit Starts Fast And Finishes Strong
TOP
AIA Corporation IT Director Paul Weller (center left) and CEO
David Woods, MAS, (center right) visit with fellow techies at the
second annual PPAI Technology Summit.
BOTTOM
Catherine
Graham moderates a panel on moving to the cloud with panelists
Garret Ausfeldt, Jason Nokes and Sam Hornstein.