PPAI Expo 2014

First of all, I still can’t believe that it is 2014!  This will be my fifth year in the promotional industry which will match the time I spent in college earning my finance degree.  I definitely have to say I’ve learned a lot more in these five years than I did in those five years and that’s not a shot at higher education.  It’s just a true statement about how much more there is out there to learn.  I think that no matter what the level of education, if you don’t keep educating yourself at a higher degree you will become uneducated among your peers.  That is one big reason why I hope I am able to continue to go to the PPAI Expo every year.  So forget about the last five years of learning... let me just some up what I learned at PPAI 2014.  Listed from least important to most important...Slot machines are not my friends and sports betting will never be my profession.  Sad Face.No matter how much I work out, I’m never in good enough shape to feel good after PPAI Las Vegas.When I apply myself in the classroom I learn more.  Who would have thought my grade school teachers knew so much?Good public speakers are amazing...I hope that someday I am able to capture people’s attention the way some of speakers at PPAI did.The biggest and best companies grow just like the smaller ones. There are three ways to do that... 1. Mergers/Aquisitions  2. Sell more to current customers.  3. Get new customersUse technology to maximize your efficiency.  Then keep up with it!  Ex. Voice Recognition, AutoCorrect, Unroll.me, Last Pass, Dropbox, Evernote, etc...We (Promotional Solutions) are doing a lot of things right and we have committed, motivated team members that are better than a lot of what you see at PPAI.You never know who or what is going to blow your mind so don’t turn your back on those possibilities. Ex. Augmented reality http://mashable.com/2012/12/19/augmented-reality-city/Logoed apparel has become branded apparel.  With some many different styles and decoration methods out there, it is going to be hard to sell those easy standard left chest embroidery orders now.  Please, ask me what I mean by this!Promotional products are so versatile that there will always be a high demand for them.  There is even a product out there that for $95.00 you can get your customer to look at it every day, twice a day, for the rest of their lives.  (Min 12 with a $50.00 set up) Please, again, ask me what it is!Next year there will be bigger and better things to learn and share!“Why not you?” – Ok that was from Russell Wilson’s dad... But he just won the Super Bowl so I thought it was necessary.- Matt Oye