Wayne Brady wows a packed house during a private performance<\/p>\n
TREVOSE, PA<\/strong> – May 20, 2011<\/strong> – The three-day ASI Show<\/em> in San Diego wound down Friday after hosting 2,100 distributors who spent time meeting with 375 exhibitors to learn about their most exciting product offerings.<\/p>\n The California show at the San Diego Convention Center from Wednesday, May 18, through Friday, May 20, drew distributors from about 1,060 firms, up 7% from last year. The number of exhibiting firms was up 75 from 2010, including many Counselor<\/em> Top 40 suppliers.<\/p>\n \u201cDistributors and suppliers continue to be enthusiastic about the industry\u2019s continuing sales rebound,\u201d said Timothy M. Andrews, president of The ASI Show<\/em> and president and chief executive officer of the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI). \u201cPeople are feeling optimistic and excited about the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n The show opened with a full day of education (sponsored by Fields Mfg., asi\/54100<\/em>), which included a new Social Media Marketing track, along with a full slate of educational seminars and workshops offering 65 points toward the ASI Certification Program.<\/p>\n For the first time, the black-tie Counselor <\/em>Awards – the industry\u2019s most prestigious and anticipated awards event – were held at the San Diego Air and Space Museum. Marty Lott, the founder and president of SanMar, was honored as Counselor<\/em>\u2019s 2011 Person of the Year. Billy Dolan and Vivian Lo of Camsing Global were jointly recognized as Counselor <\/em>International Person of the Year. Counselor<\/em> also announced the winners of its annual Product Design Awards, honoring the most innovative, functional and eye-catching products in the industry. Suppliers and distributors nominated products in 14 different design categories.<\/p>\n Winners of all awards also appear in the June issue of Counselo<\/em>r magazine.<\/p>\n Thursday night, television star and Emmy-winning comedian Wayne Brady performed for a packed house, spending much of the evening improvising with members of the audience.<\/p>\n In discussing the California show, suppliers and distributors said they appreciated the superior networking opportunities and \u201cGolden State\u201d sales potentials.<\/p>\n Keith Lofton from SnugZ USA (asi\/88060<\/em>), said \u201cASI San Diego has been good. We\u2019ve had the opportunity to really engage with customers. Distributors are looking for new ideas and new ways to market to their clients and being at the show is a terrific way for us to help them do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe Betras from ThermoServ (asi\/91080<\/em>), added, \u201cASI San Diego has been a good show. As we don\u2019t do a lot of business in California, being here gives us the opportunity to meet with distributors who have not seen our product line before. We\u2019ve made a number of new contacts who can potentially be really good customers.\u201d<\/p>\n Frank Ciraci from Proforma (asi\/300094<\/em>), said, \u201cThe ASI Shows<\/em> are great for us. We value our partnership with ASI and the shows themselves are always very good events. There are a lot of learning opportunities, including walking the show floor and taking advantage of the education.\u201d<\/p>\n Beverly Walter from Brown & Bigelow (asi\/148500<\/em>), said, \u201cWe are very excited to be here at ASI San Diego. It\u2019s great that we have access to the show floor and all the new products and services debuting for the second half of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n Wayne Brady wows a packed house during a private performance TREVOSE, PA – May 20, 2011 – The three-day ASI…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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\nCounselor<\/em> also honored the outstanding sales achievement of the Top 40 distributors and Top 40 suppliers in the industry.<\/p>\n