{"id":2112,"date":"2013-01-07T18:08:56","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T22:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/?p=2112"},"modified":"2013-01-07T18:08:56","modified_gmt":"2013-01-07T22:08:56","slug":"celebrating-the-industry-in-orlando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/2013\/01\/07\/celebrating-the-industry-in-orlando\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the Industry in Orlando"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve enjoyed one incredible event after another here at\u00a0ASI\u00a0Orlando, including a truly fabulous 80th<\/sup> birthday party for\u00a0ASI\u00ae<\/sup> Chairman Norman Cohn, a super-energized crowd at the 2013\u00a0Counselor<\/em>\u00ae<\/sup> Distributor Choice Awards and a standing-room-only keynote by expert economist and political commentator Steve Forbes.<\/p>\n

Turns out, Forbes \u2013 a very thoughtful guy who provided us with tons of solid business advice \u2013 is also very funny. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see so much energy,\u201d he said after being greeted by thunderous applause. \u201cI wish we had such energy in Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n

A conservative Republican who once ran for president, Forbes was optimistic about the future, despite \u201cheadwinds\u201d like an antiquated tax code and a weakened American dollar.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany amazing things are about to happen,\u201d the Forbes Media chairman told a crowd of about 900 people (so many we had to keep bringing in extra chairs). \u201cWe\u2019ll have major advances in health care, and\u00a0America\u00a0will become a manufacturing giant again thanks to our brainpower and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orlando\u00a0really has been one great celebration after another. Sunday night, we celebrated suppliers at the 2013Counselor<\/em> Distributor Choice Awards (sponsored by\u00a0AIA\u00a0Corporation, Crystal Sensations, Dunbrooke, and Moderne Glass Company). Taking home the top prize was Top 40 supplier The Magnet Group (asi\/68507<\/em>), which was named Supplier of the Year.<\/p>\n

In accepting the award, Magnet\u00a0CEO\u00a0Bill Korowitz graciously thanked his employees in a heartfelt speech. Over the years, I\u2019ve gotten to know Bill, personally and as a member of the\u00a0ASI\u00a0Advisory Board, and have come to really appreciate his calm, thoughtful and reasoned side. If I had to sum him up, I\u2019d say he\u2019s just the kind of guy you\u2019d like to have as your neighbor. In business, he\u2019s always willing to try new approaches and on those rare occasions when he\u2019s wrong, he\u2019s always willing to admit it.<\/p>\n

In addition, over many whoops and hollers from a very enthusiastic crowd, we announced supplier winners in 59 different product categories \u2013 including three new categories of blankets, coolers and hospitality items. In all, 42 suppliers won awards at the ceremony, which honor suppliers for their service and dedication to their distributor customers.<\/p>\n

For more info and a list of all the winners,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before the ceremony started,\u00a0ASI\u2019s chairman of the board, Norman Cohn, took a few moments to share his thoughts on another industry icon \u2013 former\u00a0ASI\u00a0president Marvin Spike, who recently passed away.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarvin was an extremely passionate supporter of the advertising specialty industry,\u201d\u00a0Norman\u00a0said. \u201cHe will have forever left his mark not only on\u00a0ASI, but on the entire industry. Marvin cared about each\u00a0ASI\u00a0member as if they were his own family. He was a loyal friend, leader and contributor to the entire industry. I am proud to have called Marvin a close friend. His life defined integrity and he will be missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unbelievably,\u00a0Norman\u00a0\u2013 a very familiar presence at all\u00a0ASI\u00a0Shows \u2013 just turned 80. On Saturday, we celebrated with a lovely party at the Walt Disney World Resort. While it\u2019s hard to keep anything a secret in this industry, somehow we managed to keep the ultimate destination a secret for weeks.<\/p>\n

After a champagne toast, the invited guests (who still didn\u2019t have a clue where we were headed) were loaded onto three buses and whisked away to a private backstage-access area at the park. After riding in giant clamshells through an amazing 3-D attraction based on the \u201cFinding Nemo\u201d movie, we were treated to four different buffets of\u00a0Norman\u2019s favorite foods (including \u201950s diner food and his very favorite, pigs in a blanket), 12-foot-tall calypso dancers, dueling pianos and even an enormous dolphin viewing tank, complete with an actual deep-sea diver.<\/p>\n

As the birthday cake was wheeled out,\u00a0ASI\u00a0Vice Chairman Matthew Cohn called the celebration \u201can intimate evening of things my dad loves. He loves this industry and he loves his family.\u201d As I said in my toast, many of us wouldn\u2019t even be in this industry without Norman Cohn \u2013 who really is the sun in our\u00a0ASI\u00a0universe.<\/p>\n

In my favorite moment of the night,\u00a0Norman\u00a0thanked all his guests, making special mention of his \u201ctrophy wife of 48 years,\u201d calling Suzanne Cohn \u201cthe reason I\u2019m so lucky in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In true Norman fashion, he was wise, funny \u2013 and very, very grateful. \u201cI\u2019ve been active in this industry for 60-plus years and I\u2019ve seen a lot of change and growth,\u201d he told us. \u201cBut one thing never changes \u2013 my family loves this industry and this business \u2026 Hug your family, God bless\u00a0America\u00a0and thank you all for being here.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a rousing rendition of \u201cHappy Birthday,\u201d we got all decked out in light-up hats, lanyards, glasses and rings for a final treat: dessert, coffee and front-row seats to a mesmerizing fireworks, laser and water show.<\/p>\n

All in all, it was a really special occasion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve enjoyed one incredible event after another here at\u00a0ASI\u00a0Orlando, including a truly fabulous 80th birthday party for\u00a0ASI\u00ae Chairman Norman Cohn, a super-energized crowd at the 2013\u00a0Counselor\u00ae Distributor Choice Awards and a standing-room-only keynote by expert economist and political commentator Steve Forbes. Turns out, Forbes \u2013 a very thoughtful guy who provided us with tons of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1,7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asi-shows","category-community","category-members","category-news-about-asi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2112"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2124,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112\/revisions\/2124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}