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ASI’s Lineup For Canadian Power Panel Includes Mark Freed, Chris Sinclair and John Houlding

Steve Pons, Mark Graham and Janine Taylor also among who’s who of high-profile promo panelists

TREVOSE, PA – March 19, 2019 – The ASI Show® today announced a prestigious lineup of industry experts will headline the Canadian Power Panel during its inaugural Roadshow Plus event, a one-day tabletop show and intimate networking event on June 18 at the Montecassino Vaughan Event Centre in Woodbridge, ON.

Details on panelists:

  • Mark Freed, president and CEO of ASI Top 40 Genumark (asi/204588), the largest Canadian-owned promotional products distributor, named to Canada’s Best Managed Companies list and as PPPC Distributor of the Year. Freed is a recipient of ASI’s Bess Cohen Humanitarian of the Year Award, the PPPC Humanitarian of the Year Award and was named to ASI’s prestigious Power 50 list. 
  • Mark Graham, founder of Rightsleeve (asi/308922), one of the industry’s leading creative promotional products agencies, and co-founder of commonsku, a business software application designed specifically for the promo industry. Graham, named an ASI Distributor Entrepreneur of the Year, is known for his creative approach to branding and understanding of how technology impacts the customer experience.
  • John Houlding, an Olympic rower and president of Cotton Candy (asi/169186), known for overseeing the successful expansion of one of the premier providers of corporate branded merchandise in North America into the U.S. marketplace.
  • Steve Pons, national director of sales at Staples Promotional Products Canada (asi/120601), which grew sales 750% after he joined the company in 1999, winning and managing accounts like RBC, MasterCard, Accenture and TD Bank, and assisting in numerous mergers and acquisitions, including APG’s sale to Staples in 2015.
  • Chris Sinclair, VP of Brand Blvd (asi/145124), one of the fastest growing Canadian companies in the industry, named an ASI Best Place to Work, honored six consecutive years as PPPC Distributor of the Year and, alongside company president Shaun Lichtenberger, named an ASI Distributor Entrepreneur of the Year.
  • Janine Taylor, founder and CEO of The Next Trend Designs (asi/283375), twice named toProfit/Chatelaine magazine’s list of Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs and landing in the top 10 of ASI’s annual Best Places to Work list two years in a row.

“We’re honored to host a superstar group of successful and dynamic distributor leaders who will share their success stories, industry insights and experience at our just-launched Roadshow Plus event,” said Rita Ugianskis-Fishman, senior vice president and general manager of ASI Show. “It’s like getting a ticket to an intimate talk with ASI’s top 10 Power 50.”

Seating is limited, and registration is available by clicking here.

The Roadshow Plus event also features a keynote by Cher Jones, a corporate social media trainer and personal branding specialist, four hours of tabletop exhibit time, lunch and a cocktail networking reception. The industry panel discussion will take place over lunch.

Panel topics will include industry trends and challenges, changing compensation models, creating an ideal corporate culture, keys to recruiting top sales reps and how to thrive in an e-commerce world, among many others.

The panel will be moderated by Neil Piitz, a 33-year veteran of the promotional products industry and owner of Differenciate Consulting, along with ASI Canada Ambassador Michelle Merrifield.

“Never before has a group of such high-caliber Canadian promo experts agreed to share their best practices,” said Piitz. “This is a ‘must’ event for anyone who wants to grow their business.”

ASI Show recently joined forces with Promo Expo to better serve the Canadian marketplace by collaborating on the best possible events for suppliers, multi-line reps and distributors throughout the promotional products industry. ASI Show and Promo Expo consolidated their events in Canada, jointly market each other’s events and are committed to serving the Canadian marketplace together.

ASI Show is a trade show organizer for the promotional products industry in the U.S. and Canada; Promo Expo provides events for the industry across Canada under the umbrella of Promotional Marketing Events (PME).
 
The all-new ASI® Roadshow Plus is a hands-on networking event, ideal for product sourcing and building relationships with supplier partners.

For more info on Canadian events, contact Rita Ugianskis-Fishman at [email protected]. For more on ASI Canada, contact ASI Canada Ambassador Michelle Merrifield at [email protected].

About ASI Show
The ASI Show Family of Events – ASI Show, fASIlitate, fASI500 and the ASI Roadshow in the U.S. and Canada – fosters business-building relationships among ASI member distributors and suppliers, and includes options to meet the needs of the entire membership base. ASI Shows, the flagship series, are large-scale convention center trade shows held in Orlando, Fort Worth and Chicago. fASIlitate is a hosted buyer event that brings together the industry’s elite – top suppliers and million-dollar distributors – for three days of scheduled one-on-one meetings in select hotels across the country. FASI500 is a new hosted buyer event which brings together suppliers and distributors who sell over a half of a million dollars in the promotional products industry. The ASI Roadshow visits top cities across North America and gives distributors an opportunity to escort their top clients. Visit www.asishow.com for more information about our full event portfolio.