PPB November 2015

CONNECT

INSIDE PPAI

PAI’S PRODUCT RESPONSIBILITY SUMMIT, held in September in Bethesda,

Maryland, featured three days of insightful and extensive product safety and compliance

programming. Formerly the Product Safety Summit, over the past five years the Summit

has grown into PPAI’s most well-attended education conference and the must-attend program for

safety and compliance professionals at companies throughout the promotional products industry.

“We’ve come a long way over five years of Summits,” says Gene Geiger, MAS+, president of

Geiger, event co-chair and chair of the Product Responsibility Action Group. “In the beginning we

worked to bring awareness of the importance of product safety. Now we are diving deep into com-

pliance and responsible sourcing with sourcing and risk management professionals. This year we

added the rapidly emerging issue of corporate social responsibility to the program. Consumers and

large companies are increasingly concerned that products they buy have been made in factories where

worker rights and safety are respected. Attendees were given the knowledge and tools to begin to put

CSR policies and procedures in place in their firms. “More than 170 industry professionals were on

PROGRAMMING SCALES NEW HEIGHTS AT THE 2015 PPAI PRODUCT

RESPONSIBILITY SUMMIT

74 •

PPB

• NOVEMBER 2015

CONNECT

COMPLIANCE MASTER CLASS

ABOVE LEFT

Employees at the

CPSC’s National Product

Testing and Evaluation Center

take PRS attendees through the

center’s testing labs, among

them its Offroad Power Sports

facility.

ABOVE RIGHT

PRS

offered attendees numerous

opportunities to engage with

speakers and share experiences.