{"id":2532,"date":"2014-01-06T11:20:18","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T15:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/?p=2532"},"modified":"2014-01-06T11:20:18","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T15:20:18","slug":"new-year-big-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/2014\/01\/06\/new-year-big-show\/","title":{"rendered":"New Year, Big Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re kicking off the New Year with a great big three-day show in Orlando<\/a>, the first of the 2014 show season. In addition to thousands of the hottest products in the industry, we\u2019re showcasing creativity, entrepreneurship and good old-fashioned competitiveness during a very special keynote presentation on Tuesday by the stars of the ABC hit reality TV show, Shark Tank<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The show, taking place at the massive Orange County Convention Center, got off to a great start Sunday, with a full day of classes offering something for everyone \u2013 whether you\u2019re already a million-dollar superstar or an industry newbie. And classes continue both Monday and Tuesday, so it\u2019s not too late to attend one.\"\"<\/p>\n

This show features a ton of \u201cfirsts.\u201d Monday morning, ASI\u2019s products expert Joe Haley hosted a live Joe Show<\/a><\/em> on stage with suppliers showing of their coolest items. Monday night, we celebrate suppliers during the annual Counselor<\/em> Distributor Choice Awards. I love these awards because distributors across North America choose which companies we\u2019ll honor by voting for their most-valued ad specialty suppliers. Winners are selected based on real votes and data from ASI\u2019s Supplier Performance Ratings.<\/p>\n

Another first \u2013 the ASI CTO Summit, hosted by our Chief Technology Officer Armughan Rafat. We decided to bring together tech leaders from some of the largest distributors and suppliers in the industry to discuss ways a technology culture can influence an organization\u2019s bottom line. I\u2019m sure we’ll enjoy heady discussions of a front-burner topic of keen interest to us all.<\/p>\n

In another first, we\u2019re hosting a pitch slam called \u201cSwimming with the Sharks\u201d on Tuesday \u2013 with four top suppliers competing for $5,000 to help them launch a cool, new product. The judges are none other than self-made tycoons Barbara Corcoran and Kevin O’Leary, who know just what it takes to run with a million-dollar idea. This presentation should be a lot of fun \u2013 and it\u2019s free, so be sure to come and cheer on your favorite supplier.\"\"<\/p>\n

Before the presentation ASI Chairman of the Board Norman Cohn and Matthew Cohn, the founder of The ASI Show<\/em>, join me on stage to \u201cpin\u201d the latest recipients of certifications from ASI\u2019s education program. I\u2019m proud to say ASI recently hit a major milestone \u2013 awarding over 1,000 industry certifications through our free Online Learning Center<\/a> since November 2010 alone.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s gala celebration takes place at Disney\u2019s Animal Kingdom, complete with rides, a DJ, dance party and plenty of food and drink. It\u2019s the perfect opportunity to meet new people, have fun with old friends and relax a little in the midst of a very busy show.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also happy ASI Orlando has attracted 20 distributor sales meetings, including American Solutions for Business, which brought 300 of their top sales reps. It\u2019s always a pleasure to attend their events and to say hello to their CEO, Larry Zavadil, who\u2019s celebrating both a birthday and the arrival of a new grand-daughter. Congrats, Larry!<\/p>\n

If you see me at the show (I\u2019m the one walking the fastest, though it\u2019s hard to beat the guys on those segways zipping around), please say hello. As always, I\u2019m interested in what you think of the show, so feel free to post a comment or e-mail me here<\/a>. I\u2019m also on Twitter<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And be sure to check out our website for complete coverage of the show, including blogs and videos, at www.asicentral.com<\/a>. And if you haven’t already,\u00a0register for our upcoming shows<\/a> in Dallas, Long Beach, New York City and Chicago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re kicking off the New Year with a great big three-day show in Orlando, the first of the 2014 show season. In addition to thousands of the hottest products in the industry, we\u2019re showcasing creativity, entrepreneurship and good old-fashioned competitiveness during a very special keynote presentation on Tuesday by the stars of the ABC hit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asi-shows","category-community","category-news-about-asi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2532","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=2532"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2538,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2532\/revisions\/2538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}