PPAI’s Product Responsibility Summit 2023 is coming to Alexandria, Virginia, October 8-10. Registration for hotel rooms will be open until August 25.

To register for the event, click here.

The Event

Each year, promo companies send representatives to the Product Responsibility Summit to ensure that they are aware of any new compliance regulations and how the industry can stay ahead of guidelines.

  • Summit helps promo be an industry leading the way in compliance and sustainability rather than trying to catch up with government regulations.

“Summit is the only compliance event tailored to the promo industry,” says Maurice Norris, MAS, PPAI’s public affairs manager.

PPAI consults with industry volunteers, the Product Responsibility Advisory Group (PRAG) to determine the most pressing education and discussion that needs to be addressed at  Summit.

“There’s constant deliberation among the planning group on how to provide education that is useful the moment Summit attendees get back to their offices after the conference,” Norris says.

Topics discussed at this year’s Summit include:

  • Surviving an FDA inspection.
  • Implementing a recall.
  • FTC green guidelines.
  • Carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates.
  • Much more.

In the promo world, safety and sustainability come well before competition. If there’s anything distributors and suppliers should be comfortable sharing with each other, it’s compliance lessons, and Summit is an example of that willingness.

“The Product Responsibility Summit is an extraordinarily valuable event because of the industry experts that willingly share their expertise and experience for the benefit of all – many of whom are direct competitors,” says Rick Brenner, MAS+, president of Product Safety Advisors and co-chair of the event along with Brian Campbell of 4Imprint, which just achieved the No. 1 distributor spot on the PPAI 100 with high marks in “Responsibility.”

Brenner has been a co-chair of the event since the inaugural event in 2011, when he co-chaired it along with Gene Geiger.

“Through the leadership of Anne Stone and Maurice Norris, we have been able to secure nationally recognized expert speakers in every area of product safety, compliance and social responsibility,” says Brenner.

With decades of experience, Brenner will be participating in panels on recall readiness and foreseeable use/misuse of products.

“Products can easily be compliant but not safe,” Brenner says. “Foreseeable use/misuse is a nuanced look at products from the perspective of how a product is intended to be used, how it could potentially be used in a way not intended by its manufacturer but predictable based on human behavior. Congress has held that companies are liable for injuries resulting from foreseeable misuse.”

Sustainability Day

For the second straight year, the event will hold a day dedicated entirely to sustainability education.

“The inaugural Sustainability Day rightfully had a lot of introductory programming,” says Norris, who will moderate a panel on the intersection of sustainability and safety. “This year, Summit will be able to drill down further and introduce new concepts. For example, the practical implications of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the applicability of reporting obligations to promo businesses and how safety and sustainability initiatives interact.”

  • Sustainability Day will also feature a presentation by Julia Craighill, chief sustainability officer at Green Business Bureau.
  • Craighill’s presentation will be a primer to the United Nation’s call to action for a comprehensive approach to sustainable development.

Following Sustainability Day will be an optional materials recycling facility tour on Wednesday, October 11.

  • The tour will be a real-life demonstration of various concepts that are covered during Sustainability Day.
  • It will be included in the Summit registration and will be available to the first 50 people who sign up.

Registration

Summit will be held at the Westin Alexandria Old Town in Alexandria, Virginia.

  • The cut-off date to book a hotel room is Friday, August 25. After this date, PPAI cannot guarantee available rooms.
  • Click here to make a hotel reservation.

Visit PPAI’s education page to register for Summit.

  • The first speaker will begin at 1 p.m. on Sunday, October 8.
  • The conference will wrap up at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 10.
  • The optional materials recycling facility tour will take place Wednesday, October 11.