PPB June 2018

by James Khattak Paul Bellantone Speaks At Sales Seminar Hosted ByThe Partnering Group PPAI President and CEO Paul Bellantone, CAE, spoke at a sales seminar hosted by The Partnering Group, LLC, an exclusive industry organization comprised of 20 distributor members, this spring in Chicago, Illinois. He was joined by Perry Wehrle, CAS, executive vice president of promotional strategies at distributor Straub Marketing and a PPAI board member and past president of the Partnering Group board. The event brought together top-producing distributor salespeople and a select group of suppliers for a day and a half of high-value networking and education. PPAI’s Anne Stone Speaks At IMRAMarketing Conference PPAI Public Affairs Director Anne Stone joined the Incentive Manufacturers & Representatives Alliance (IMRA) in Memphis, Tennessee in April to speak at its 2018 Marketing Conference. HALO Completes New Headquarters Facility Distributor HALO Branded Solutions (PPAI 656996) announced a new chapter in the company’s 66-year history in April, with the move to new company headquarters at 1500 HALO Way in its hometown of Sterling, Illinois. The groundbreaking took place last year, and the project was completed on time and on budget. The HALO-owned building is situated on a portion of a 20-acre site and represents Phase I of what will eventually be a 280,000-square-foot facility. The company headquarters have been in Sterling since its predecessor Lee Wayne opened its doors in 1952. The state-of-the-art, 157,500-square-foot facility houses HALO’s 300-person headquarters team with workstations for 200 additional employees. The building includes a 90,000-square-foot warehouse for corporate promotional and recognition programs that were housed in two warehouses in the Sterling-Rock Falls community. Marc Simon, HALO CEO, who spoke at the headquarters opening, says HALO received ideas on the building from nearly every employee, and incorporated many of them into the building design. “This building was designed both for our valued employees of today, and for the employees we will be drawing to HALO for years to come,” he says. “We have collaborative meeting space, a wellness room, additional training space and the latest technology throughout the building to allow our support team to do the best job possible for our highly valued account executives and clients.” PPAI President and CEO Paul Bellantone, CAE (second right), delivered a presentation on the health of the industry, the trends within it and an outline of the Association’s strategic foresight initiative. He joined distributor executive Perry Wehrle, CAS (left), who is past president of the Partnering Group board, and others at the sales seminar. In her presentation, Stone provided a high-level review of recent tax reform and focused specifically on its impact on the rewards and incentive marketplace. She also spoke about how the legislation affects small and mid-sized companies. 96 | JUNE 2018 | CONNECT