What the hell is PPAI?

PPAI is a shorthand way of people saying the Promotional Products Association International Expo. The PPAI Expo is always in early January in Las Vegas and the exhibit hall opens tomorrow January 10th and runs through Thursday January 12th.

It is acres and acres of plastic crap. It is crazy stuff like baseball bats, BBQ grills, mousepads, pencils made from organic wood, cookies, marshmallows or just about anything that you might ever want to (or maybe not want to) brand with your company name. It is very creative vendors that have amazing software for order taking, vendors that produce organic garments, vendors with USA made tote bags and hats, vendors that have the latest styles of shirts, etc. Our garments and decorating industries have a huge presence here, SanMar probably has the biggest booth in this enormous show for example.

Who should not attend? If you don’t contract print and don’t want to contract print then you should not exhibit as a “supplier.” If you are more interested in just selling decorating to your local market then you probably also should not attend. If you want to embroider and screenprinting on a contract basis either regionally or nationally then this is the place for you. The customers (“distributors”) all eventually come to this show, if not every year then every couple of years and they come from all over the country.

Do you sell promotional items to your customers or are you thinking of doing it? If so, attend as you will find everything you might ever want to sell to those customers, find everyone that will help you sell to those customers, and you will meet your peers who are also attending. They have some classes you can take as well, lots and lots of classes.

Do you want to see the latest garments? It isn’t a bad place to come for that, but the same vendors will almost all be in Long Beach at the ISS show in two weeks plus many other vendors that won’t.

Do you want to see equipment and supplies for decorating. There are a few companies but you are much better off going to Long Beach ISS for that.

Some of our vendors are here and if you are attending, check them out. I’ll do a little tour of their booths tomorrow.

Tom and I do sell contract printing nationally. If you are here stop by our Monkeyfish Printing booth at 4778 and say hi to Tom, Pam, Ashley and I.  It is all the way in the very back, right in the very center of this gigantic Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

Our booth: