Episode 202: Here’s How to Make the Most Out of the PPAI Expo | Ellen Tucker, PPAI

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Don't wait until Monday morning to decide which way you want to be pulled. Have a game plan and it's okay to adjust that day if you decide you want to do something else, but start off with a solid game plan and then move throughout the week as you get pulled.

The PPAI Expo is back and I, like many of you, am excited about the return of this amazing event. Our guest today is Ellen Tucker, Director of Business Development and Expositions with PPAI, the Promotional Products Association International. Ellen joins me for a brief chat to talk about what to expect from Expo this year. We discuss the health and safety protocols, what PPAI is doing to ensure a safe show, and we talk about the most important part, how to make the most out of Expo. Now, if you're like me, you attend Expo and it's this blitzkrieg of meetings and faces and dinners and thousands upon thousands of products and images and happenings. There's so much going on in that week that Ellen and I talk about how to be proactive about making the most of the show, how both suppliers and distributors can prepare for this colossal event. I've always maintained that no two PPAI Expos are the same, meaning it might be the same event, but you have changed. You come to Expo with different needs than perhaps in the past. And this year, the Expo itself has changed. We talk about new surprises that week, including the just-announced PromoPalooza party held at Allegiant Stadium. The PPAI Expo for 2022 is held January 10th through the 13th at Mandalay Bay Convention Center. You can register and learn more about it at expo.ppai.org or just type PPAI Expo in Google. Hi friends, I'm Bobby LeHew, CommerceQ's Chief Content Officer. The day before Expo is SKUCon, and these two events together, SKUCon and PPAI, are an incredible way to kick off your year. Now, as of this week, SKUCon sold out. But we're fortunate to be able to offer SCUCon live virtually for you and your team. So if, if you didn't get a ticket, we encourage you to join us from the comfort of your home, your hotel room, wherever you are, to be inspired by folks like Davis Smith, the founder of Cotopaxi, design legend Aaron Draplin, and many more. Virtual attendees will also get exclusive interviews that the live attendees won't experience and even 1-to-1 networking. So we hope you'll join us as we celebrate and kickstart your best year ever. You can register for the virtual conference at skucon.com. Today's episode is brought to you by Commonsku, the work from anywhere platform that powers your connected workflow, enabling you to process more orders and dramatically grow your sales. To learn more or to begin your free trial now, visit commonsku.com. Now here's my conversation with PPAI's Ellen Tucker. Well, Ellen, thank you for joining us today. Now, I know most in this audience know what Expo is, but let's speak it first to those who either don't know or maybe they're new to the business. How would you describe Expo to a new person in the industry and why should they go?

So, Bobby, I love this question because I think we so often get ingrained in our daily work and what we work on on a regular basis that we forget some people aren't aware of what something is.

Right.

And Expo is the longest running, the largest promotional products trade show. We always state in North America, but I would say in the world. It's where people come and I always like to think of it as a large sandbox where everyone can come and play together. So we have companies like Common Skew running some education there and y'all obviously have SkewCon the day before Expo starts. And then we have our large distributor groups that host the their own events at Expo. We have suppliers running sales meetings and their own networking events, and it's the place where the industry comes together to kick off the year.

Do you happen to know, Ellen, in context of other shows, how big the Expo is?

Yeah. So from other trade shows in a variety of industries, we are typically right within the top 50 trade shows in a size capacity.

How many suppliers and distributors or attendees do you anticipate attending this year?

So in 2022, we expect to have over 900 exhibitors in about 2,300 booths. And from an attendance standpoint and— well, let me back up for a second. On that side, that's about 72%, 73% of where we're normally at pre-pandemic. And then on an attendance side, it's a little bit harder to predict, but we've been tracking pretty consistently at a little over 60% from a weeks-out perspective, but that continues to grow. So if we continue upon that trajectory and with the way that things appear to be going right now, we feel we have a good chance at exceeding that 70% mark, but we're feeling very, very confident at being above 60%.

Yeah, I'm impressed at the numbers that you mentioned in terms of supplier exhibitors and folks are ready and excited to get back to doing business again at the Expo.

Well, and we're just excited to have everybody come back in person. And we're also excited to hear what people are planning both on the distributor and supplier side outside of the show floor. So there's the show floor where we get to do business and, you know, we have three pillars of the expo, which are community, knowledge, and business. And you get a lot of business done on the show floor and you get part of that community. But a lot of that community and networking happens off the show floor and outside of show hours. And that really requires not just the events PPI has planned, but the things that Promo Kitchen does and that Common Skew does and that the other groups that are at Expo do.

Yeah. What changes are you making to Expo that you are really excited about this year?

So I think the top one that I'm most excited and I think anticipating the most to hear feedback on is what we're doing differently with our professional development. So in the past, we've had professional development on that Sunday a full day on Monday, and then kind of some sprinkled throughout the week. And this year we're really focusing on a conference day. And when we think about that, that means more curated content, a really well-crafted day, and more targeted education. So we're going to have less overall sessions, but more— I'm going to say full. And that word curated is really what is driving the thought behind that. So most of that's going to be industry thought leaders, and we will have a keynote speaker. His name is Simon T. Bailey, and his session is Breakthrough Thinking for Breakthrough Sales. And I really encourage anyone that's thinking about going to go out and watch his preview video on our expo website. His energy and just the topic and his introduction into himself, it will really get you excited about being at that session.

Yeah, that's cool. When you say curated too, it sounds like you have been more circumspect this year, not that you haven't been in the past, but it's almost as if you put a lot more energy into defining, I guess, because you had a smaller pool to consider in terms of time, those topics, those speakers, and what folks can— so my guess is you're compressing probably this expansion of knowledge in the education track from a week down into those days, but you really as a team focused on making sure that that day was concentrated in terms of high delivery on content, high delivery in terms of speakers, and just things like that.

I think that's a really great way to explain it. And I think that in the past, one of the things we're doing as well this year with our Expo Live piece of Expo, which for people that aren't familiar with that, that's historically been a stage over by our PPAI booth. And this year we'll be in a recording booth in the lobby where you can view that right there or in a few different areas. But what we're going to do with that is we're going to have some opportunities for some shorter education that will be aired out. So not in a classroom-type setting, but more similar to 15-minute TED Talk style education. And I think what people will be able to do, whether they're consuming that on-site or afterwards on our website platform, or some of that will be incorporated into direct to you in February, I think some of that will take some of that education that may have been expanded and beefed up from a 15-minute session into a 30 or 45-minute session before and really get down to the bones and the of those topics.

Yeah. Explain to me again, Ellen, this will be simultaneously going on with education or after it, or where does that fit in?

So we'll have something happening on Monday at Expo Live, which we haven't quite announced yet, but it's going to be more an opportunity for our suppliers to get some of their content out there. And that will be less about consuming it on show day, but more about the opportunity to record it and us push it out and suppliers push it out. But on Tuesday through Thursday, we will be recording live from our Expo live recording booth throughout the day. And so that will be when somebody needs a break and they want to go sit and maybe consume a little bit of content. They'll be able to do that and view that live content from a couple different areas. And we'll also be posting some of that on our website in the webinar section, as well as having some of that available during Direct to You, which will happen in late February.

Gotcha. It's amazing how potent a 15-minute talk can be because TED Talks are 18 minutes long. And so I think that's such a wise choice to concentrate it that way. Where can we go to learn about the classes and the topics now?

So the best place to go for anything about Expo is to ppi.org/expo or expo.ppi.org. You can go either way. And then at the top in the bar, you can kind of go depending where you want to go. But for education, you should go under experience and then it has conference underneath there.

You mentioned knowledge. That was one pillar. Community is another pillar. What's the one or two don't-miss events happening throughout the week?

So there are a few different things that I would want to mention, and one is more of the niche event. So we have some micro communities within the industry. And so you have the Women's Leadership Group and you have our Young Professionals Group and you have Technology Leaders.. And we're going to have some networking events for those 3 groups, and they're going to take place on the show floor in the back of the hall, which is where we have our beer garden. And that's where those will occur. There's the women's leadership event is on that Tuesday afternoon, and the technology and young professionals will happen on Wednesday. So if you fit within one of those communities, I definitely advise you and encourage you to engage in those. Another one is we have always had a Wednesday night party, or I say always, since I've been at PPI, we've always had that Wednesday night party. And it's historically been called the Power of Two Party. And we're still hosting this party with Sage, but we're changing the name to Promopalooza: The Expo Party. And we're really excited about coming back in person this year. And it's been 2 years since we've all been together in Vegas. And we wanted to do something a little bit more exciting this year. So we just announced that we will be hosting that at Allegiant Stadium, which is just down the road from Mandalay Bay. Cool. For those that don't know what Allegiant Stadium is, it's, you know, if you turn on your TV on a Sunday and the Vegas team is out there, it's their home. It's also where the UNLV team plays right now. And it's just the brand new item in Vegas. And we're really excited to be there.

That's fun. I want to mention, back up a little bit to the communities that you talked about. Something that I've learned going to Expo is that if one of those communities appealed to you, I highly encourage you to proactively go. Don't wait for someone to drag you or invite you. I really encourage you to go because the thing I've learned is that this is such an incredibly warm and inviting industry, and I think those are fantastic micro-communities to get plugged into. And of course, the Wednesday night event, I mean, that's usually so packed and what a great blast that is. Do you have a personal favorite or is that hard to pick a personal favorite going on throughout the week?

I think that's like saying you have a favorite kid. Yeah, I truly believe all parents have a favorite kid, but on each day it changes. So depending on the day of the event may change what my favorite thing is. And I think depending on the year, I think what is my favorite thing about Expo is the energy and the experience and the memories. And yeah, I think that we all get to take different things from Expo, and I think that's what I love about it. I love that, Bobby, for you it's going to be a different experience than it will be for me, than it will be for the next person. But there's something for everybody and everybody's experience is going to be different. And I think that's why it's so hard to pick a personal favorite.

Yeah, I would agree. And every year's experience is different based on where you're at in your own journey. You may have transitioned from maybe being a solopreneur to now having 3 or 4 employees, or you may have— are looking at different challenges in your business than you were last year. So that's what I've learned through the years, is that every expo is different. I also have always abided by what I call the 10% rule, which is you can go to an event like Expo, and because of the concentration of education, because the knowledge that's, that's compressed from all these minds meeting together at one time, you have what I call the 10% factor. 10% of walking away from an event like that can save or make you thousands of dollars or gain you peace of mind you didn't have before. It's just an interesting thing to do to just get connected and be there and plugged in. And when I say to be there, I mean be there and take advantage in terms of a proactive aspect like that full day of education. Just making sure that, you know what, this is the one time of the year that we've concentrated all this knowledge in one place. I'm going to take advantage of every single opportunity I can. Let's address the elephant in the room— safety. Are there measures that have been taken to sort of ensure a safe experience at Expo? I'm sure there has, but what are your thoughts on that?

So our look at safety changes every year. And like you said, the elephant in the room, obviously the health and safety aspect of safety is on everybody's mind. So We are not health experts at PPI. That is not our career choice, um, nor where our training comes from. So we are relying on the health experts for their advice, for their rules, for the regulations. And we're taking health expert advice through what the requirements and recommendations are from the local state requirements, as well as what CDC recommends currently as of today. That means that masks will be required on the show floor. They'll be required the entire time you're in Vegas. That could change between now and Expo, but we will stay current and fluid to whatever those rules and recommendations are. Okay. In addition to that, because that's kind of the forward-facing piece, right? That's the piece that people are going to know how that directly impacts them, that they need to have a mask. We will have masks for everybody. We have a mask sponsor, but there's a lot of behind the scenes that's— it's important for people to know is happening as well. Yeah. And there's a few things that I would just mention, but if you want to read more, you can go out to the Expo website and go to the health fatality page. So Mandalay Bay and all of the hotels are GBAC certified, which is the gold standard in cleaning certifications. Okay. The way that I would explain that to a non-cleaning professional, which most of us are, is that from a ventilation standpoint, that means there's 12 passes per hour, and it's the same standard that we hold our hospitals to. So you're getting medical-grade cleaning from a ventilation standpoint. Okay. Again, I'd encourage you to go to the website and read more thoroughly about that. In addition to that, I would say that we are going to be upping and increasing the amount of high-touchpoint cleaning that happens. So you will visually see cleaning happening more frequently than you have in the past. You've probably not even noticed it in the past, and you will see that. In addition, we have hand sanitizer, individual ones for everybody on site. We have a sponsor for that. And then we also have hand sanitizer stations regularly throughout the show floor. So we want to make sure that everybody is comfortable where they are at. I'd also recommend that everybody not shy away from being where they are in comfortability level. So it's okay for you to tell one of your good industry friends, hey, I'm excited to see you, but I'm not excited to be touching other people right now, right? I'm not ready for that embrace, that physical contact. There's going to be people that are ready for that, and that— all of that is okay. And there's a spectrum, and we will have a way for you to be able to indicate that through a lapel pin. But I encourage you to live within your comfortable space and whatever that is. And I think everybody has learned how to engage with one another in person and virtually in those comfortability levels.

What I picked up from that is that masks are at the moment going to be available or required on the show floor just at the moment. And then we've got, of course, got greater ventilation protocols, higher cleaning, more intense cleaning going on. There's just lots of things you have done that aren't necessarily going to be visible. To all of us, but it's so good to hear. And I'm so glad you mentioned that about making sure that you're comfortable about telling others about just how you feel about connecting, you know, and physical touch and different things like that. I think that's really important. Has there been any changes to the way the structured layout is based on the COVID measures?

So there's a little bit of a change. So we have moved our registration out of the lobby area and moved it into what used to be a piece of the exhibit hall. This is so that there can be plenty of physical distancing within that space. When we were planning the floor plan and where registration would be, we didn't know where we would be in the curve, and at 9 weeks out, we're still not positive, but we have a better idea of where we'll be at that curve. So, we have that set up. In addition, we'll just be reminding everybody to respect everybody's physical distancing and what everybody's comfortable with. So from that perspective, we've made those changes, but the aisles are the same distance, and from that perspective, there's not been a change.

Okay. Let's go back to encouraging everyone to make the most out of Expo that they possibly can. Let's start with suppliers. How can suppliers make the most out of Expo based on— you've been doing this now for several years, you've been organizing this event, you have seen, and because of your unique role in which you're working business development as well as the Expo itself and the events that are happening, at PPAI, you have seen how folks have come in, gotten integrated into the association, and really dug in deep and made themselves a vital member of the community. With suppliers, what are a few tips that they can take away from you in terms of making the most out of Expo?

So I think for suppliers, it's one, making sure you're starting to talk about your presence there, whether that's through opportunities with PPAI or through your own social media or your own email list. Whatever it is, make sure that your customer base, your current customer base knows that you are going to be there, knows what your booth number is. And if you have something that's going to be driving them to your booth, make sure you promote that heavily. That's not very different, but I think it's more important this year than it ever has been in the past. Good point. I would also say that it's more important this year to be engaging in your booth. So we've all walked a trade show where we've passed by somebody who is either sitting on a chair in the corner of their booth or looking at their phone or not engaging with the people walking by. You know, make sure you're being engaging and make sure that you're embracing the opportunity to meet new people. And you said it earlier when we were talking about the micro-communities, we are a very friendly, very inclusive industry, and exhibitors help with that so much. So when you see somebody walking by that you haven't met before, introduce yourself, engage, have that conversation, but open up that conversation too to what the distributor's pain points are or what they're looking for and meet their needs and engage that part of sales into your sales pitch while you're there. Yeah.

How about distributors? How can they make the most out of Expo this year?

So, and again, like, I don't know that this is new this year, but preplanning is so important. Yeah, I agree. So You know, we have SageMobile, which is the official planning app of the show. You can go on there and you can create a walk list for the exhibitors that you want to make sure you don't miss. Yeah. Um, so you can do that. You can check them off when you're on site. You can look at the schedule either on SageMobile or on our website to know which education classes you're going to take. So we have some main stage sessions where it's that or nothing. But we also have some breakout sessions. We also have, um, I know Common Skew is going to have some education going on during those breakout session time slots, and Sage will have some education going on. And you know, there's a lot of ways that you're being pulled while you're at the event. Don't wait until Monday morning to decide which way you want to be pulled. Have a game plan, and it's okay to adjust that day if you decide you want to do something else, but start off with a solid game plan and then move throughout the week as you get pulled.

So I agree, we'll be doing Comiskey University there during the day. And because I think because of the concentration of great classes into that one day in particular, in terms of education, that all the more reason why you need to make sure you have a preplan before you go into it. And I would encourage distributors to just from my distributor background, we've done all kinds of things through the years to create engagement on the show floor from a distributor perspective, making sure our team didn't just show up and walk the booth and try to cover every booth there was. We wanted strategic vital partnerships created throughout this experience. So we do some fun things like a treasure hunt or some kind of contest where you go visit our top supplier partners and make sure we spend time with them, but also leaving ample enough time to meet new supplier partners and new opportunities and all those experiences. So I know this, that those who have gone, if you're new to going to Expo, it's such a large show that if you spend a little time doing a pre-planning, not just by yourself, but with your team and with your colleagues, you're going to get so much more out of it. And you can always adjust on the fly when you get there.

And I'd add, for anyone that's new to Expo, or somebody who's been there 10, 20 times, we open up the product pavilion early on Tuesday morning, and we actually open it up early every day. But if you're looking for some new products, or if you want to kind of make a game plan once you get there on different booths you may want to see because of products that they have, and that's really how you want to drive how you're going to work the show floor,, I would really advise that you go there. There's a lot of great products on display, a lot of great information, and it allows you to kind of make some of those decisions on site.

Ellen, thank you so much for coming on the show and talking with us about Expo this year. I think it's more important than ever. Obviously, we're all happy to get back together again, but I think it's going to be a different energy this year. And I mean that in such a positive way that throughout the pandemic, something that I noticed, you know, we just recently had our first event SCUCAMP, and something I noticed was that there was a lot more listening on both sides in terms of distributors and suppliers. And of course, there's supply chain issues and lots of challenges right now, but it seemed to me that we entered in a new phase of strategic partnerships as an industry. And I think it's just going to be a vital time as we get together at Expo again, and I hope everyone can make the most of it. But thank you, Ellen, for coming on and telling us about the changes and the differences and how we can approach this in such a proactive way.

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to see everybody in January.

All right. See you soon. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of SkuCast. Be sure to keep up with our latest content by subscribing to SkuCast on iTunes or to our blog at community.commsku.com. Until next time, friends, thanks so much Thanks for listening.