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PPAI Public Affairs Director
Anne Stone and Diversity
Development Manager Seth
Barnett joined Jonathan Riegel,
MAS, executive director of the
Specialty Advertising Association
of Greater New York (SAAGNY);
Alan Baker, MAS, owner of dis-
tributor Creative Marketing
Concepts and a former SAAGNY
board president, and Rick
Brenner, MAS+, the PPAI
board’s
immediate past chair. Together,
they held 18 meetings with legis-
lators and their staffs during their
day in Albany.
“It was a great experience to
see what goes on in the capitol
and how legislators navigate
through everything,” says Baker.
“And it was good to be able to
sit in front of our representatives
and explain to them that they
need to look at the ramifications
legislation can have on the indus-
try in our state. Promotional
products are an $800 million
business in New York alone.”
Riegel says, “Our meetings in
Albany are an opportunity to
introduce New York’s legislators
to the promotional products
industry, and educate them on its
economic impact and the people
and companies that make it up.
And we want them to know
about SAAGNY, its constituents
and that we’re a resource avail-
able to them.”
L.E.A.D. Local
New York was pro-
duced in collabo-
ration with SAAGNY, and PPAI
will continue to work with SAAG-
NY on its government relations
plans.
Baker adds, “We also talked
about the effectiveness of pro-
motional products. Many of them
were aware of the products
they’d used them in their cam-
paigns, but maybe not the indus-
try behind them.”
The industry travels to
Washington, D.C., May 25-26 for
visits on Capitol Hill. To stay con-
nected with L.E.A.D. and PPAI’s
legislative efforts, visit the
Association’s legislative website at
or follow
@PPAILAW on Twitter.
APRIL 2016 • PPB • 73
L.E.A.D. LOCAL NEW YORK TAKES THE INDUSTRY’S
MESSAGE TO ALBANY By James Khattak
TAKING
THE LEAD
INSIDE PPAI
ON FEBRUARY 24, PPAI JOINED industry professionals in Albany for
L.E.A.D. Local New York. Drawing on practices established with PPAI’s
annual Legislative Education and Action Day (L.E.A.D.) in Washington,
D.C., L.E.A.D. Local is the Association’s state-level legislative outreach
effort to deliver the message of the promotional products industry to
state legislators.
ABOVE L.E.A.D. Local partici-
pants Alan Baker, MAS,
owner Creative Marketing
Concepts (right) and Anne
Stone, PPAI director of public
affairs (center right); meet
with State Sen. Phil Boyle
(center left) and a staff mem-
ber at one of the 18 meetings
the group held during their
day at the state capitol.
Anne Stone and L.E.A.D. Local participant Rick Brenner, MAS+,
(right) with John Banville, legislative director for New York State
Senator Michael Venditto in Albany.