Community | Inside PPAI PPAI packed LDW’s schedule with learning opportunities for attendees looking for actionable or big-picture takeaways to bring back to their careers, coworkers or company. “The Leadership Development Workshop is a great setting for PPAI to provide educational opportunities for the leaders of our regional community and our emerging leaders in the industry,” says Jill Begun, professional development manager at PPAI. “On one hand, just bringing these influential figures of promo together, they are bound to learn through shared practices, but it is also our responsibility as an association to create panels and breakout sessions with expert speakers and relevant or forward-looking topics.” The event also recognized the winners of the PPAI Regional Volunteer Awards: Tim Hennessey Jr., president of Concepts & Associates, and Taylor Borst, senior director of marketing and vendor relations at American Solutions for Business. Most LDW attendees seemed to agree that just as valuable as the scheduled educational content was the chance to get together with peers from different parts of the country. “What I can take back to my board is that this is a shared vision of what we all want to do in the industry,” says Bob Levitt, acting director, Specialty Advertising Association of California. “It doesn’t matter what state we’re coming from. We’re all doing the exact same thing.” PPAI’s Emerging Leaders Conference Builds Up Promo’s Future IN CONJUNCTION WITH ITS LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP, PPAI brought together several up-and-coming figures in the promotional products industry as part of the debut of its Emerging Leaders Conference. The Association’s 2023 Rising Stars, along with other invited emerging leaders in the industry, enjoyed a day of education and networking at ELC. The event encourages and educates young professionals in the promotional products industry to get involved, make connections and position themselves and the field for unlimited growth. “We were so excited to invite our 2023 Rising Stars to the Leadership Development Conference,” says Lindsey Davis, MAS, director of business development at PPAI. “We want to give these emerging leaders the space to network with each other and the leaders of the regional community because they represent the future of our industry, and their collaborations can shape the changes that allow promo to keep evolving. What better setting to bring them together?” The ELC attendees’ schedule included joining several LDW sessions, as well as specialized programming focused on their own needs. Topics included the characteristics of successful leaders and what it takes to become one, networking best practices, and a panel of former PPAI Rising Stars on what they wished they knew as they and their careers grew, among other subjects. Simi Kasakwe-Welsch, a 2023 Rising Star and public relations specialist at American Solutions for Business, says, “I really enjoy being the guinea pig group. We get to see all of these super-great ideas come alive without it being filtered in any way, and we can say truthfully how they worked. We get to see this come to life and help make it even better.” Along with networking opportunities throughout the day and the night before, ELC concluded with a dinner and shared experience at Meow Wolf in Grapevine, an immersive art and storytelling installation. 94 • DECEMBER 2023 • PPAI
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