PPB March 2019

Find Expo photos, videos and more at expo.ppai.org/gallery and at pubs.ppai.org/media. What Attendees And Exhibitors Are Saying AboutThe PPAI Expo “In all my years at Expo—Dallas to Vegas—I don’t remember more great conversations, meetings, traffic and overall energy. Kudos to the entire staff.” —Brian Porter, vice president/ sales, Starline USA, Inc., Overland Park, Kansas “The PPAI Expo continues to evolve to be more relevant, easier to navigate and educational. In fact, the range of topics for professional development was vast and current making me want to clone myself to take even better advantage. I also have to comment on the overwhelming willingness of the PPAI team to assist at every turn during the conference. [It’s] a professional and energetic group of individuals who are always responsive all year long.” —Jae Rang, MAS, principal, JAE Associates Ltd., Oakville, Ontario “The thing I will remember most is when I went to registration to get my badge, the sweetest lady saw that I was from Simi Valley, which is right next to Thousand Oaks, and recently we’ve suffered from two massive wildfires, a shooting and now mudslides. She asked if I was okay, and how I was coping and handling things. As a first-time distributor, that’s going to be what I’ll remember most.” —Zubi Olin, owner, Central Coast Promotions, Simi Valley, California “It is good to come and get new ideas and see the people I’ve had relationships with for years. I do business with a lot of breweries, and I saw games and dart boards that I can definitely use to market to them.” —Andrea Damian, owner, Swag Promo, Los Angeles, California “I applaud every effort staff is putting in because they are gearing the show for the 22nd century. I love the mega data that we are getting on trade-show traffic and the testing they are doing with the pop-ups on the show floor. Everything is absolutely outstanding.” —Joel Schaffer, CEO, SoundLine LLC, Indian Land, South Carolina “It was an amazing experience. We had very, very good, quality meetings with distributors based in the United States and Canada.” —Loic Lefebvre, vice president of sales/ North America, Spector & Company “We’ve been coming to the show for 29 years and it’s always the best. We love our new [booth] location, and our traffic and the quality of people have been fabulous. It’s been another great show—I look forward to next year.” —Brad Bartlett, president, Optigraphics, Dallas, Texas “Coming out of the show we left on such a high. I couldn’t be happier with my staff, the amount of qualified leads we are chasing down and the seamless experience that PPAI puts into play each and every year. We cannot wait until next year!” —Daniel Roso, vice president/ sales, TravelChair Company, Gig Harbor, Washington Above: Kim Doe; Karie Cowden, MAS; and Kim Works from distributor Connect The Dots Promotions, LLC in Phoenix, Arizona, show off their caricature portrait from one of the pop-up events on the show floor. Right: Throughout the show, the Expo Live stage hosted face-to-face product demonstrations and interviews with speakers, exhibitors and industry leaders, including PPAI President and CEO Paul Bellantone, CAE. Tina Berres Filipski is editor of PPB. Best Of Expo | FEATURE | MARCH 2019 | 37