PPAI has released its 2017 Annual Report, which describes the Association’s organizational strategy and provides performance updates on its goals and initiatives for the year ending December 31, 2017.

2017 was a strong year for the Association and the promotional products industry. PPAI’s 2017 Distributor Sales Volume Study found that distributor sales reached $23.3 billion, representing record-breaking growth of just over nine percent. And in 2017, PPAI launched several programs to grow and protect the industry. These include the Promo Connect knowledge community platform, a new and responsive website, the Association-wide strategic foresight initiative, the inaugural SPARK conference for young professionals, and member-driven changes to The PPAI Expo that took the event from great to extraordinary.

Highlights of the 2017 report include a 3.8 percent increase in membership to 14,905 member companies while maintaining an 89 percent retention rate; welcoming almost 19,700 total participants, including nearly 12,274 distributors, to The PPAI Expo 2017; the production of 44 live webinars on a new online learning platform launched last year that offered 380 courses, webinars and event recordings; the eighth-annual PPAI Legislative Education and Action Day (L.E.A.D.) that took nearly 80 industry professionals to Capitol Hill for more than 250 meetings with lawmakers in Washington, D.C.; and the growth and expansion of PPAI live events, volunteer engagement and industry awareness initiatives.

The report is available online here.