New Year, New Connections
Monday January 4, 2016 | Filed under:
Happy New Year!
ASI® is thrilled to usher in a new year with its first major show of 2016 at ASI Show® Orlando, followed in a few weeks by our Dallas show, which is Tuesday, February 9 through Thursday, February 11. In July, we return to the great city of Chicago.
In a digital world, where it feels like everything is available at our fingertips, it’s more important than ever to form a strong personal bond that comes from a handshake and an in-person conversation.
Our three largest shows feature everything you’ve come to expect from an ASI event, like great education, industry awards, gala celebrations and inspiring keynotes by the likes of J.R. Martinez in Dallas. Martinez is an Iraq war veteran who suffered severe burns while serving his country. After enduring numerous surgeries, he went on to win Dancing with the Stars and launch a career as a bestselling author and motivational speaker. I’m honored he’s joining us.
When you hit the show floor in Orlando, Dallas and Chicago, you’ll find dozens of new suppliers and all the latest products, along with demos of the newest ASI technology and special features to help you jump-start your business. We’ll have staff on hand to answer your every question (and if they don’t know, look for me).
We also revitalized the keynote that starts off the first exhibit day. This year, “Sell to Win – Hot Markets, Hot Products” features ASI hosts Dave Vagnoni and Joe Haley, with Joe going head-to-head with audience members to see who can deliver the best product pitch – for a $50 prize. It’s a fun way to see what’s new and should give you great tips on fine-tuning your presentation skills.
And, at the close of every big show, we’re hosting a new Passport Plus drawing. Members who complete the passport that comes with their show badge can compete for thousands in prizes – and qualify for free shipping.
I also encourage everyone, whether you’re at the shows or not, to search Twitter for our hashtags (#asiorlando, #asidallas, #asichicago) to see your friends and coworkers in action.
That’s not all.
To keep pace with changes in our industry – and in direct response to your suggestions – we shook things up for 2016 and are introducing a brand-new trade show format called Engage to best serve the West Coast and Northeast – two of the strongest regions in the country for promotional product sales.
Engage cherry-picks the best features from our national trade shows, hosted-buyer events and regional Roadshow tour to provide a smaller, more focused business-building event for 75 suppliers and 200 invited distributors who each sell a minimum of $300,000 worth of promotional products annually.
Over two full days, suppliers and distributors meet in private settings especially conducive to serious deal-making. The third day features a half day of exhibits and the kind of solid educational workshops you’ve come to expect from ASI. The exhibit hall will include all of the distributors, and buyers will be escorted while on the floor.
Engage West is March 14-16 at the Anaheim Marriott and Engage East is May 9-11 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City.
In addition, we’re celebrating the 10th year of the ASI Roadshow, which starts January 25 with a round of tabletop shows in the Southeast and crisscrosses the U.S. and parts of Canada before ending September 29.
Let me know what you think of the new features, and if you have any suggestions at all, I’d love to hear them, so please email me at tim.andrews@asicentral.com.
Happy selling!