PPB October 2016

6 / 112

perspectives Perry Wehrle
PPAI Board Member
IIn August, I attended the PPAI
North American Leadership
Conference (NALC) in San Francisco
and I want to share with you some of my
experiences from the perspective of a
distributor as well as a board member.
This was my second time attending NALC
and, as expected, I was not disappointed.
I could fill the rest of this space telling you
all about the compelling keynote presenters,
but I would rather tell you about what I call the
H-2-H factor. Human-to-human interaction is
what I valuemore than anything and it is what
drawsme in at events like this one. At the first
cocktail meet-and-greet, I spent time visiting
with several first-time attendees who traveled
fromall over the country—scratch that, from
around theworld—to be part of NALC. In
visitingwithMark Sacharowitz, jointmanaging
director at distributor All Branded Promotions
inAustralia, I discovered some of the challenges
his firm faces in doing business with clients
located across the globe. He shared howhe had
just completed an order of beach balls withHit
Promotional Products in Florida, and had it
shipped back toAustralia for distribution. All of
it was done seamlessly. Talk about leveraging
relationships and how small our world really is!
Spend a fewminutes, like I did, visiting
with the amazing Catherine Graham, CEO
of Toronto’s commonsku, and youwill
discover what is happening in her busy
part of the world and see why I think she is
one of themany talented treasures in our
industry. She, along withDavidNicholson,
president of supplier Polyconcept North
America, led the NALCWork Group and,
with the help of the work groupmembers
and PPAI’s Professional Development team,
worked to create a powerful and highly
relevant series of educational sessions taught
by experts fromboth inside and outside
of the promotional products industry.The
programming was incredibly timely and gave
us plenty to talk about between sessions and
afterwards, during the networking events.
During one of those opportunities, I chatted
with attendee Jeff Batson, CAS, president of
supplier NEXT Products, about the future of
the catalog. Yes, folks, what does the future
hold for the traditional printed full-line
catalog?Will it fade away and be replaced by
the digital options?Without question, this
is a big trend and I heard several suppliers
during NALC say they would print less and
invest more in providing higher-quality
digital assets. I’mall in favor of saving
the environment by printing less and having
less in the landfill at the end of the year,
but personally, I feel there is still a need for
both. Let’s see how this trend takes shape.
During the conference, I alsomet
with Allison Bendis, account executive
at distributor Klondike Advertising in
Anchorage, Alaska. As aMillennial, her
perspective on the industry was refreshing and
energizing for me to hear, as well as learning
where she sees her market heading (her key
market is energy), and how the economy
is affecting her organization.This ties in to
what one of the presenters said: “Agility will
allow for survival.” Specifically, there is value
to the organizations that are able to see what
disrupts their business and then react and
implement a plan of change. Duncan Logan,
one of the presenters, put it best when he said,
“Encourage the disruption…get themout
of the darkness.” It’s an interesting thought.
As I reconnectedwith Allison during one of
the evening dinners, she toldme she is ready
to take the CAS examand is looking forward
to applying her knowledge as she builds her
business experience. She definitely appears
to be one of the industry’s up-and-coming
young leaders we’ll hear more about.
On the final night, I ran into ToddGabel,
CEOof supplier Toddy Gear, andwas
impressed by his comments about NALC. It
was his first time at this event, and he wanted
to knowhowhe could bemore involved
next year. He commented that the format
was perfect, and his overall impression of
the conference was off the charts. When
I asked if he could giveme one negative
point—something we could improve next
year—he paused for several seconds and
said, “I don’t have any negative points.”
I can understand Todd’s perspective—and I
share it. For me, NALC provides an unmatched
format to network with industry leaders and
meet the brightest andmost influential heads
of businesses, all the while being inspired
by a host of keynote speakers who openly
share their remarkable experience. Read
PPB’s coverage of this event on page 82.
I already have next year’s dates blocked
off onmy calendar (August 13-15,
2017). Hope to see you there.
This month’s guest columnist is Perry
Wehrle, president of PAWMarketing, Inc.
in Des Moines, Iowa, and a member of
the PPAI board of directors, Class of 2020.
Reach him at .
NALC: A ‘Perfect’ Learning Environment
There is value to the organizations that are
able to see what disrupts their business and
then react and implement a plan of change.
4 | OCTOBER 2016 |