{"id":2741,"date":"2014-09-17T16:30:01","date_gmt":"2014-09-17T20:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/?p=2741"},"modified":"2014-09-17T16:30:01","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T20:30:01","slug":"into-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/2014\/09\/17\/into-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

A major theme of this year\u2019s U.S. Power Summit was helping prepare the promotional products industry for the future. The keynote speaker, Forbes <\/em>publisher Rich Karlgaard, advised business leaders committed to growth to hire more people who can deliver different solutions to the organization, while futurist John Smart encouraged companies to invest in e-commerce and mobile platforms.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And since suppliers and distributors must be prepared to meet the ever-growing demand for faster service and order processing, we also invited industry experts to discuss the \u201cneed for speed\u201d during a session highlighted by an actual drone demo. While flying drones (pictured, right) are really cool, our bigger point in bringing them to the power summit was to get industry people to start thinking about ways they can be utilized in in areas like warehouse inventory and Amazon-like delivery.<\/p>\n

This year, the 2014 ASI\u00ae<\/sup> Power Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, attracted about 200 of the most influential distributors, suppliers and decorators in the industry. From the early feedback I\u2019ve gotten, everyone enjoyed the superior content and business discussions, which were helped along during fun activities like golf and a visit to a nearby ranch for lassoing and skeet shooting. The fine scotch helped too, I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n

Click here for Facebook photos<\/a> of the action.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We packed a lot into three days. During my Q&A with alphabroder CEO Norman Hullinger, we even broke some news about his plans to double the size of the company in the next five years \u2013 and for sales to hit $1.6 billion. In 2013, the number-one supplier on the Counselor<\/em>\u00ae<\/sup> Top 40 list posted sales of $697 million.<\/p>\n

Future growth for alphabroder will come from acquisitions and organic growth, especially growth in ad specialty distributorships. But the really big news from alphabroder concerned expanding beyond apparel to a line of hard goods \u2013 an expansion that will likely come about through acquisitions as well as internally.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Throughout the power summit, ASI\u2019s editorial staffers provided full coverage of happenings along with video interviews from all major presentations. To read more:<\/p>\n