The PPAI Expo gets the promo industry’s year started. The exciting trade show, insightful education and myriad opportunities to connect light a match for an explosive year ahead. For industry professionals traveling to Las Vegas with professional development on their agenda, The PPAI Expo 2023’s PPAI Expo Conference is set to deliver.

To be held January 9, the PPAI Expo Conference education schedule brings together several high-profile speakers in keynote sessions – such as James Pogue, PhD, and Maureen Zappala – as well as numerous breakout sessions attendees can use to tailor their experience to their needs.

The Conference’s breakout sessions are grouped in a series of education tracks important to the promo industry, including DEI/CSR, digital transformation and the Promotional Product Works program. For PPAI Expo attendees looking for the latest trends and best practices in sales and marketing, the Conference’s breakouts offer has plenty to offer.

Breakout Session: Maximizing Your Time Management by Evaluating and Segmenting Your Clients
Speaker: Cliff Quicksell, MAS+, president and CEO, Cliff Quicksell Associates
Time management for small business entrepreneurs is one of their greatest challenges. Being more strategic and at the same time differentiating oneself is more critical than ever. Quicksell’s Expo Conference session speaks on how clients and prospects are looking for a higher level of marketing expertise than what is found in a catalog – they are looking for relevant messaging. His breakout unveils a vertical marketing strategy through the segmentation and classification process. This process improves time management, boosts sales, improves profitability and increases client loyalty.

“Business owners and salespeople in our industry, tend to chase the shiny object, which often derails their productivity, sales and profits,” says Quicksell. “The impact I want for my audience is for them to walk away empowered with solid information, that if implemented will help them focus, be more productive, set them way above their competition, sell better and make explosive profits. One other important aspect is for them to see how to market smarter with targeted, relevant engagement that generates a solid, more profitable, stress-free business.

“A business owner or salesperson can certainly create sold workflows if they embrace these tactics and put them into motion. This year, one of my client’s sales teams – three people – went from roughly $800K in sales collectively, to $1.8 million by following this process, not easy to get off the ground, but once initiated – it’s magical!”

Breakout Session: Own The Brand, Own The Business
Speaker: Bill Petrie, founder and creative director, Brandivate
Buyers of promotional merchandise have evolved. It’s no longer good enough to simply sell them products with logos on them. In his Expo Conference session, Petrie will explain how to fully own every aspect of a client’s branding and marketing efforts. His goal is to make his audience members and their businesses an indispensable resource to their clients for years to come.

“More than anything, I hope the session will help attendees position their respective companies as an indispensable marketing partner to forge loyalty far beyond having the lowest price,” says Petrie. “To become that vital resource, we need to shift our mindset from simply and reactively decorating products with logos to proactively understanding every aspect of client marketing and branding – and this needs to be executed before homing in on the right branded merchandise.

“In the session, I’ll provide a tactical and actionable framework to own all aspects of a client’s brand that attendees can implement immediately once the conference concludes.”

Breakout Session: The Art of Wickedly Creative Product Design, Packaging, and First Impressions
Speaker: Jason Lucash, general partner, HPG
Savvy companies work hard to make themselves, their products and their brands stand out in a crowded marketplace. Over the last decade, Lucash made a name for himself in the promo industry through cutting edge products in ultra-creative packaging. In his Expo Conference session, he will dive into how he did that, the importance of packaging, why first impressions matter most and where the inspiration for his creativity comes from.

“I’m really looking forward to my education session on the art of Wickedly Creative Product Design, Packaging, and First Impressions at Expo this year,” says Lucash. “I want to help light a creative spark for attendee’s businesses this year by showcasing how you can win a client over with your first impression, whether in the form of packaging, brand messaging or product positioning. In addition, I’m hoping to show everyone what inspires my creative ideas for product design and ultra-luxe packaging, and why the packaging for a product matters as much, if not more, than the actual product itself.

Breakout Session: 5 Secrets Of The Fastest Growing Companies In North America
Speaker: Greg Muzzillo, founder, Proforma
For businesses everywhere, dynamic sales growth and growing profitability is the goal. Drawing from insights that have seen several distributors in the promotional products industry reach Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest growing companies in America, Muzzillo breakout will share five “secrets” that have helped distributors find record breaking success.

“I hope people who attend my session have massive success in 2023,” Muzzillo says. “Over the years, I have learned that the key to massive success is not massive work. The key to massive success is doing more of a few key things, doing less of a few key things and thinking differently. In my session I will cover these key things most people do not know and help people learn how significantly different thinking drives significantly different results.”

Breakout Session: Promo Sales Master Class
Finding new ways to increase your revenue is always the objective and goal. Some of the best in the promotional products industry are joining this panel discussion to share their insights. This session is geared toward everyone in the promo industry, no matter how long they’ve been in it and how large their company is.

Click here for the full lineup of breakout sessions and keynotes at The PPAI Expo Conference.