The promotional products industry’s premier trade show, The PPAI Expo 2018, wrapped earlier this month with outstanding attendance. Held January 14-18 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, a total of 12,400 distributor attendees from 4,550 companies turned out for the show—the largest attendance since 2008.

The PPAI Expo featured more than 125 education and networking events and 1,222 exhibiting supplier companies in 3,112 booths, including 166 first-time exhibitors, presenting hundreds of thousands of promotional products while occupying more than one million square feet of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. With an estimated 20,250 overall participants from the U.S. and 30 countries, the total economic impact of visitor spending during The PPAI Expo 2018 is estimated at $40 million by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Expo showcased thousands of new and exciting products, providing industry stakeholders a clear vision and direction for the year and a look at what’s to come in product design, decoration, technology innovation and product knowledge. It also highlighted exciting developments for PPAI and its members.

At an Association update and keynote luncheon, Paul Bellantone, CAE, president and CEO of PPAI, was joined by American Marketing Association (AMA) President and CEO Russ Klein to highlight the details of the new alliance between the two organizations. Through its Affinity Partners program, PPAI is now able to offer members many AMA benefits including membership discounts for individuals and groups, AMA conference and training event credits and an additional discount on exhibit space at AMA conferences.

The PPAI Expo is known as the ‘big tent’ event for the industry; a gathering of like-minded peers, thought leaders and affiliates. This year, The PPAI Expo was host to the SAGE Conference, iPROMOTEu’s A Woman’s View, commonsku’s skucon along with PromoKitchen and PromoStandards workshops, and the setting for meetings for more than 20 national sales groups, the largest being AIMastermind, Jack Nadel, HALO Branded Solutions, iPROMOTEu, Geiger, Proforma, AIA Corporation and American Solutions for Business.

Click here for a video review of Expo 2018 highlights and successes. Next year’s show will return January 13-17, 2019 to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.