PPB November 2017

by James Khattak CPSC Chair Anne Marie Buerkle joined the Summit through video conference to share her philosophy on her organization’s role and its collaboration with groups like the promotional products industry. Steve Gardner, CPSC compliance investigator at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach (right), joined Jim Joholske with the CPSC’s Office Of Import Surveillance to discuss import surveillance and why products get stopped. Rick Brenner, MAS+, Summit co-chair, led a panel discussion on establishing a quality control program. In Its Seventh Year, Product Responsibility Summit Continues Its Impressive Run Over the past seven years, PPAI’s Product Responsibility Summit has brought industry leaders together with policy makers, regulatory specialists and thought leaders to focus on the pressing business implications, challenges and opportunities associated with compliance. The 2017 Summit, held in September in Newport Beach, California, was no exception. More than 175 professionals responsible for ensuring the safety and compliance of the promotional products they sell gathered at Newport Beach’s Duke Hotel to share, discuss and better understand how to manufacture, source, ship and sell safe products. “I’m so proud of the pioneering role that PPAI has played in educating the industry and raising the awareness of product safety and compliance for branded promotional products,” says Rick Brenner, MAS+, president of RFBrenner, LLC, and co-chair of the Summit. “I want to recognize and thank all the members of PPAI’s Product Responsibility Action Group, our intensely committed volunteers who originally conceived this event so many years ago and who work tirelessly on behalf of all PPAI members. Your efforts have spawned so many product responsibility initiatives that our industry relies on, including our Code of Conduct and PPAI’s exceptional Product Safety Aware program.” The Summit’s speaker lineup, representing a range of experts from inside and outside the industry, tackled a diverse variety of key topics such as Prop 65, working conditions at production partners, what end buyers are looking for, the latest from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), small- business compliance challenges, factory audits, import surveillance and more. “By any measure, this year’s Summit was superb,” says Gene Geiger, MAS, co-chair of the Summit and CEO of distributor Geiger. “Because of our California location, we placed a special emphasis on [information about] bringing goods into the U.S. and the coming changes to California Prop 65, but the overall content was very wide ranging and relevant.” CPSC Chair Ann Marie Buerkle joined the Summit through video conference, speaking on the CPSC’s role, her philosophy and her expectations for the future. She opened her address by telling attendees, “It’s the entrepreneurial spirit of organizations like PPAI that make this country great, and it is the hard work and sacrifice of people like yourselves that keep the American dream alive and well. “Participating in a seminar such as this demonstrates your commitment to and understanding of the importance of product safety. This is an organization that gets the gold star for product safety education and awareness.” Leeton Lee, founder of consulting firm ComplyBox and a member of PPAI’s Product Responsibility Action Group, says, “I can’t believe this is our seventh Summit, and it keeps getting better in every way. The presentations and speakers have been superb, and we believe the binder that is given to each attendee is the best one we’ve ever created for suppliers and distributors. | NOVEMBER 2017 | 79 CONNECT