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NALC ExaminesThe
Weighty Issues In Today’s
Shifting Business Climate
The 2016 PPAI North
American Leadership
Conference (NALC) brought
more than 130 industry
leaders from across the
country together for a high-
powered education and
networking event in August
at San Francisco’s Hyatt
Regency San Francisco.
NALC kicked off on
Sunday, August 14, with an
opening dinner recognizing
the 12
PPB
Rising Stars
who are spotlighted in
PPB
’s September issue
and featuring after-dinner
speaker Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier
who, at age 13, was forced to fight during the
brutal civil war in his home country of Sierra
Leone. Introduced by Jonathan Isaacson, CEO of
The Gem Group, Beah, in his moving, inspiring
and remarkable story, held the room captive as
he recounted how he was eventually rescued by
UNICEF, was adopted by an American woman
and went on to become a human rights activist,
bestselling author, husband and, his latest
role, a father. In his extraordinary life story of
redemption and hope, his message resonated
clearly: enjoy every moment of life.
This year’s NALC was the
result of months of planning by
PPAI staff and a volunteer work
group headed by Catherine
Graham, CEO of commonsku,
and David Nicholson, president
of Polyconcept North America.
“Our focus this year was on
innovation, leveraging the San
Francisco location to bring in some
excellent speakers,” says Graham.
“We brought in speakers on
wide-ranging topics from artificial
intelligence and innovation in
technology to the
impact of the
election on the economy and
our industry.”
Nicholson adds, “We also
balanced the agenda with a
number of sessions that connect
these themes with our industry
and highlight implications for the
attendees’ businesses.”
This year, NALC’s sessions
explored issues critical in today’s
business climate, including
the economy and the potential
impact of the upcoming election; competition
through business innovation and enterprise
marketing; business models and innovation,
business disruption and how demographics,
technology and globalization could affect the
industry landscape by 2020.
More than 130 principals and key
executives representing many of the industry’s
top companies were in attendance from across
North America and as far away as Australia.
Of these, 25 percent were first-time attendees.
Long-time NALC participant Bobby Lehew of
distributor ROBYN, Inc., who led a breakout
session on the most frequently used apps, readily
shared his thoughts about the program. “There’s
a spirit at NALC that I love, that of deliberate
progressiveness. Disruption, in and of itself, can
often be viewed as an incendiary act, something
with clear winners and losers. But an open
attitude toward deliberate progressiveness is a
disruptive attitude we can all embrace, where
change and the willingness to change becomes a
rational response to our own
creative evolution.”
PPB
Rising Star Kenny
Ved of supplier Goldstar,
says he is glad to have
attended the conference.
“As a first-timer, I really
appreciate the education side
of it. I’m having a different
perspective just looking at the
marketplace.”
His colleague, Howard
Cubberly, explained his
reason for attending. “We
NALC Work Group members are (from left) Jeff Batson, CAS; Rod Brown, CAS; Lee Strom; David Nicholson; Catherine Graham and Nate Robson.
Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier
from Sierra Leone, spoke during
NALC’s opening dinner on the journey
that took him from the battlefield to
his life as an author and father.
NALC kicked off in earnest with
an opening session led by famed
economist Dr. Arthur Laffer. Laffer,
whose presentation focused on the
economy and the potential impact
of the election, has been called the
father of supply-side economics and
is credited with triggering a worldwide
tax-cutting movement in the 1980s.
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