A successful Expo East 2018 comes to a close this afternoon in Atlantic City at the Atlantic City Convention Center. Over its three days, the show, which began on Monday, featured a full education schedule both on and off the show floor, an active trade show with almost 400 booths and several networking opportunities.

Monday’s education schedule brought together speakers from across the promotional products industry and the business world. Attendees could choose from 32 free professional development workshops, roundtable discussions and education sessions across seven tracks—Incentives & Recognition, Customer Service, Marketing & Advertising, New To The Industry, Sales, Strategies & Solutions and Technology. After a full day of education on Monday, sessions moved to the show floor on Tuesday, simplifying attendees’ plans to incorporate professional development into their time at Expo East.

“It was a great show day,” says Murray Seigel, marketing director for supplier Towel Specialties. “We had a lot of traffic from the time the show started to the end of the day. We still had people walking in at 4 pm, so that's always a good sign. People were very engaged, and it was great to have this kind of exposure.”

Distributors from across the region came through Expo East’s doors this year to meet with 325 exhibiting companies. They also got a closeup look at products in some of the show’s most popular categories—Top Sellers, Green Products, Made in the USA and Express Ship—at Expo East’s Product Pavilions.

“We walked the show last year and saw all of the activity and enthusiasm, and we’re excited to be here this year,” says Jon Jackson, field sales-East for Gemline. “Next year we’re looking at potentially adding more space. We had an awesome day yesterday; the traffic was incredible. The top customers in our market were here, and we also saw some new faces to help us build our pipeline.”

As the show drew to a close on Tuesday, many attendees moved across the street for the Specialty Advertising Association of Greater New York’s (SAAGNY) meet-and-greet event at Tun Tavern. The popular event brought the first full show day to a productive close with food, drink and plenty of facetime with friends and colleagues.

Expo East exhibits are open today until 3 pm. Get details here.