{"id":3174,"date":"2016-08-01T10:40:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T14:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/?p=3174"},"modified":"2016-08-01T10:40:22","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T14:40:22","slug":"evolve-to-succeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/2016\/08\/01\/evolve-to-succeed\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolve To Succeed"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nASI enjoyed a history-making 2016 Counselor<\/em>\u00ae<\/sup> Awards<\/a> at the amazing Field Museum during our recent show in Chicago. We broke attendance records by hosting over 500 members at the black-tie event \u2013 and in another first, posted a ton of the speeches via live feeds on ASI\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why I know livestreams will be huge: The family of Dave Saracino<\/a>, the VP of field sales for BIC Graphic (asi\/40480), who was honored with the 2016 Marvin Spike Lifetime Achievement Award, discovered video of his acceptance speech online that night, and by morning, it had already gotten 1,200 views and 12 shares. A few days later, it had earned over 2,000 livestream views.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re using this latest social media innovation more and more, including during our coverage of the Republican and Democrat national conventions.<\/p>\n

(Visit our Facebook page<\/a> to view archived videos of many of the speeches as well as our interviews with vendors at the convention. I also urge you to read Counselor<\/em>\u2019s stories on the winning leaders and companies \u2013 they offer some great advice on making it big in this always-changing industry. And click here for an album of photos from the Counselor <\/em>Awards<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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The night\u2019s biggest winners included Brand Addition U.S. CEO Chuck Fandos as Person of the Year<\/a> and BDA (asi\/137616) Senior Director of Sourcing LeeAnn Schumacher<\/a> as International Person of the Year.<\/p>\n

The awards, chosen by the editors of ASI\u2019s award\u00ad-winning Counselor<\/em> magazine, recognize outstanding individuals and companies in seven categories. The winners represent the best and brightest entrepreneurs, small\u00ad-business leaders and CEOs in the $22 billion promotional products industry.<\/p>\n

In addition, Counselor <\/em>announced the Top 40 Distributor<\/a> and Top 40 Supplier<\/a> rankings \u2013 the largest companies in the industry based upon 2015 revenue.<\/p>\n

Among suppliers, alphabroder was No. 1, setting a record in the industry with $1 billion in North American ad specialty sales. Yup, that\u2019s not a typo: $1 billion<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For distributors, Staples Promotional Products (asi\/120601) remains the largest firm in the industry, with 4imprint (asi\/197045) and Proforma (asi\/300094) rounding out the top three spots on the list.<\/p>\n

Our 2016 Person of the Year, Chuck Fandos, is founder of multimillion-dollar distributor firm Gateway CDI. In January, Brand Addition, the largest distributor firm in Europe, acquired Gateway CDI. The St. Louis-based distributor now operates under the Brand Addition name while maintaining its operations and management structure, including Fandos as U.S. CEO.<\/p>\n

Below is part of what I said when introducing Chuck:<\/p>\n

\u201cChuck Fandos shuns complacency and refuses to stand still while the world around him evolves\u2026As a result, his career continues to be nothing short of phenomenal. And when it came time to make the tough decision to sell the company he built from the ground up \u2013 along with his loyal wife and long-time business partner \u2013 he negotiated the smartest possible deal, giving him license to succeed internationally.<\/p>\n

I really stand by those words: We must evolve to succeed.<\/p>\n

The 2016 Counselor <\/em>Awards took place during ASI Show<\/em>\u00ae<\/sup> Chicago<\/a> July 12-14 at McCormick Place. Below are the rest of the year\u2019s winners. My hearty congrats to each and every one of them. Remember these names \u2013 and please read all about them in the special State of the Industry issue of ASI\u2019s Counselor<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n