Top 40 distributor AIA Corporation (asi/109480) recently welcomed more than 150 participants to its annual National Sales Meeting. Hosted virtually for the second year in a row, “Unite 2021: The Promo Evolution” was packed with educational sessions, industry guest speakers, interactive workshops and AIA’s annual Be Bold Awards.

Dan Pantano, CEO of Top 40 supplier alphabroder (asi/34063)/Prime Line (asi/79530), delivered a keynote speech that focused on the current state of the industry’s evolution and the importance of providing value to the end-user beyond simply selling and sourcing products. Fellow industry leaders Chris Blakeslee, president of Bella + Canvas (asi/39590), and Jeremy Lott, owner and president of Top 40 supplier SanMar (asi/84863), also gave presentations.

“Unite 2021 was fun-filled, informative and extremely helpful,” said Mindy Moss, owner of Moss Marketing and 2021 inductee into the AIA Hall of Fame. “I am very appreciative that I was able to learn from the speakers and meetings. I can’t wait for the AIA community to all be together again.”

AIA also hosted its YOUNITE Under the Stars Awards Gala recognizing owners and suppliers across a variety of categories. Peter Kubanyi, owner of Colorado-based Promotional Connection, Bruce Steinman, president of Indiana-based Image Pros and Tom Bagli, president of Colorado-based Bluestone Marketing Inc. (asi/444126) all received the AIA Lifetime Achievement Award.

Maryland-based Headwear USA (asi/60282) and New Jersey-based AAA Innovations (asi/30023) received Platinum Supplier Awards, Florida-based Clothpromotions Plus (asi/45513) and Georgia-based Logo Included (asi/67837) received Gold Supplier Awards, Minnesota-based NUCOM (asi/74600) and Ohio-based Links Unlimited (asi/67617) received Silver Supplier Awards and SanMar received the Workplace Engagement Award.

“Last year, we were faced with the abrupt reality of needing to quickly reimagine how to successfully move forward during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Nancy Schmidt, CEO of AIA. “Although we were virtual again this year, our collective energy was at an all-time high as we shifted our focus to the evolution of our owners’ businesses. Our goal was to provide owners with the confidence and training to implement bolder thinking, be open to new ideas and rethink possibilities to gain new perspectives, own their journey by embracing and living their purpose and to surround themselves with people who inspire them to drive change.”

With reported 2020 North American promotional product revenue of $146.2 million, AIA ranked 16th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry.