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INDUSTRY NEWS
New Grant Program Business Opportunity For Promotional Products
The recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) includes a new grant program that could present a business opportunity for the promotional products industry. Grant money awarded by the Department of Health and Human Services will be used by small businesses to create workplace wellness programs. Promotional products could be used to help attract employees to these new wellness programs. Businesses eligible for the grant money are defined as having fewer than 100 employees who work 25 hours or more per week, and who do not currently have a workplace wellness program.
As details of the grant program become available, PPAI will provide information to members.
Disclosure Rules For Gifts To Physicians, Hospitals Start In 2013
The new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) creates some new reporting responsibilities for pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers. Starting in 2013, they must report to the federal government any “transfers of value” ranging from cash to travel to promotional products that are given to physicians or teaching hospitals.
The term “promotional product” is never used in the law, and the law excludes a transfer of anything with value of less than $10, unless the aggregate amount in a year exceeds $100. Educational materials that directly benefit patients or are intended for patient use also are excluded.
Read more here.
Boundless Network Partners With Identity Austin
Austin, Texas, distributor Boundless Network (UPIC: Bound784) has reached a strategic partnership agreement with fellow Texas-based distributor Identity Austin (UPIC: Ident256).
Co-founders Debra Romoser and Sandy Kennemer started Identity Austin, a business certified as a Historically Underutilized Business (HUB), in 2004. Romoser says the unique challenges of meeting the needs of their enterprise accounts, such as Gatti's Pizza and Harden Healthcare, prompted them to search for a strategic partner.
Read more here.
IN MEMORIAM
Connie Millar, CAS, president and one of three founding principals of Tampa, Florida, distributor Abacus Enterprises of Tampa, Inc. (UPIC: ABACUS), died of breast cancer on March 31. Memorial services were held last Saturday at the Garden Of Memories in Tampa.
Millar supported the promotional products industry by serving on the Board of Directors and Trade Show Committee for the Promotional Products Association of Florida for many years in the 1990s.
Read more here.
ACCOLADES
Hanesbrands Earns EPA Energy Star Partner Of The Year Award
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, supplier Hanesbrands Inc., parent of Hanes Outerbanks (UPIC: hanesob), earned an Energy Star 2010 Partner of the Year award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Read more here.
Hawes Wins BestPrep Service Award
David J. Hawes, MAS, has received the BestPrep service award for 2009. He is a brand architect at Lewiston, Maine, distributor Geiger (UPIC: geiger) and serves on the ADvocate Committee for the Upper Midwest Association of Promotional Professionals (UMAPP). The award honors volunteer leadership.
Hawes spoke at numerous high school and college events. The award will be presented during the BestPrep annual luncheon on May 19. BestPrep is a statewide, nonprofit organization with a mission to prepare Minnesota students with business, career and financial literacy skills through experiences that inspire success in work and life.
MARCO Founder Included In Book
Margaret “Margo” Custer Ford, MAS, founder of Portland, Oregon, distributor MARCO-Ideas Unlimited (UPIC: MARCO) and a lifetime member of PPAI, is profiled in a new book titled Women of True Grit, by Tina Savas and Edie Hand. It is an anthology of first-person stories from women across the country and their struggles to triumph. Many of the women profiled were pioneers in their fields and have decided to speak about their experiences for the first time. Some are well known, others unknown until now. The book’s national launch was held in Washington, D.C., last week at the Women’s Memorial. For more information on the book, go to the website, www.womenoftruegrit.com.
TradeNet Sales Manager Named VIDG Supplier Of The Year
Nowell C. Wisch, MAS, regional sales manager for Gardner, Kansas, supplier TradeNet (UPIC: TRADENET), has been named the 2009 Supplier of the Year by The Valley Independent Distributors Group (VIDG) for the second time in a decade.
VIDG, an organization of 17 promotional products distributor companies, meets weekly to listen to supplier presentations and gain industry knowledge. Wisch has represented TradeNet in the western region and nationally for more than 17 years.
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PPAI NEWS
PPAI Partners With Product Safety Lab To Offer Discount To Members
To aid members in their product safety compliance efforts, PPAI has selected Specialized Technology Resources (STR) as an authorized business partner to provide discount pricing on product testing services to PPAI members.
“PPAI’s mission is to provide products and services that will ensure the success of our members,” says Steve Slagle, CAE, president and CEO of PPAI. “The addition of STR to our business partner team allows us to fill a product testing void in the industry. The majority of promotional products companies are small businesses—without the infrastructure to implement robust product testing programs. Our business partner agreement with a CPSC-certified testing lab has secured a pricing package for product testing services available to all PPAI members—regardless of factory location or testing volume.”
Read more here.
Global Futurist Rohit Talwar To Keynote At PPAI’s North American Leadership Conference
Rohit Talwar, author of Designing Your Future, will be the keynote speaker at PPAI’s North American Leadership Conference (NALC) to be held August 29-31 at the Four Seasons Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. Talwar’s topic will be “Winning in a Downturn—How to Survive and Thrive in Turbulent Times."
Read more here.
Technology Products Webinar Scheduled
A free webinar titled “Technology Products: Get Smart to Sell Smart,” presented by Logoincluded.com, is scheduled in two parts. Part One is April 20 at 10 am CDT; Part Two, April 27 at 10 am CDT. The webinar examines the day-to-day applications customers use and how to determine quality differences when purchasing products such as USB flash drives, MP3/MP4 players, digital picture frames and related technology. This series also explores how distributors need to understand the functionality and impact of these products, what makes them desirable to their customers and what to look for in the future.
Click here to register for Part One and here to register for Part Two.
Donate Your Lunch Money To PPEF
The Promotional Products Education Foundation (PPEF) is asking industry members to donate their lunch money on Earth Day, April 22.
Read more here.
PPAI’s Product And Program Category Survey Deadline Is Today
The Product and Program Category Survey is critical in order for PPAI to obtain product and program category information for its industry sales volume estimate for 2009. Click here to download the survey, print it out, complete and fax back to PPAI at 972-258-3004 by today. All completed surveys and entry forms returned by the deadline, by either mail or fax, will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win a $200 American Express gift card.
PPAI Annual Sales Volume Survey Deadline Extended To April 20
Distributors now have until April 20 to participate in PPAI’s Annual Sales Volume Survey. Complete the survey online at www.salesvolumesurvey.com.
Read more here.
PPAI University’s Fast Track Discounted This Month For Members
April’s PPAI Member Advantage is a cost break on PPAI University’s Fast Track, an online immersion program adapted from David Blaise’s, “How To Launch A Wildly Successful Career in Promotional Products Sales.”
Read more here.
Post Internship Opportunities On PPAI Facebook
Have a summer or fall internship opportunity available at your company? Post the internship details to the PPAI Facebook page or e-mail them to EricaE@ppai.org and PPAI will repost it to the American organizations, including the Business Marketing Association, American Advertising Federation and the Direct Marketers Association.
PEOPLE NEWS
Scott A. Nussinow, MAS, has been named executive vice president/marketing at Fairfield, New Jersey, supplier Points of Light (UPIC: 1PTSOLGT). Tony Sabo has been appointed vice president of sales.
CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS
4imprint Donates Products To 254 Charities
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, distributor 4imprint (UPIC: 4imprint) contributed to 254 charities last year, donating $127,000 in-kind products via its one-by-one philanthropic giving program. The company donated $500 worth of promotional products every business day in 2009 to U.S. and Canadian charities. The company also awarded another 754 nonprofits with sample-product donations and offered a minimum 10-percent discount to organizations that applied but did not receive a contribution.
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