PPAI has released its 2020 Annual Report, which outlines the Association’s organizational strategy for the year ending December 31, 2020—including how it responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the organization and industry—and provides performance updates on its goals and initiatives.

2020 began with a strong start for the Association. The PPAI Expo 2020 drew more than 20,000 people for education and networking , and the opportunity to connect at more than 3,000 booths on the trade-show floor. Yet, like many companies in the promotional products industry and beyond, the pandemic affected PPAI as well. The Association shifted to home offices, ultimately cut its staff by nearly 50 percent, and cancelled or reduced several programs.

However, PPAI, again like many companies and professionals in the promotional products industry, made numerous adjustments throughout 2020 to counter the challenges presented by the COVID outbreak. It provided regular, honest, timely and transparent updates on what it was seeing, hearing and doing; it launched new avenues to educate and help members grow, such as the PromoTalks podcast and The Playbook To Restart Businesses supplement to PPB; it waved fees to the Pyramid awards and to its certification program for several months; and it offered some of its most popular events virtually, including the Product Responsibility Summit, Tech Summit and SPARK, through its Direct-2-You program.

While PPAI anticipated a tough year ahead without an in-person Expo 2021, through careful stewardship, taking advantage of federal aid and various organizational steps, the Association ended 2020 in a stable financial position.

The full Annual Report is available online here.