When the promo leaders who attended PPAI’s sold out North American Leadership Conference returned to their respective HQs, they departed Salt Lake City with a packed final day. A full slate of networking and education closed out Tuesday’s schedule, including a session by economic futurist Andrew Busch.

“This was not only the largest NALC in a decade, but it also hosted more executives from industry-leading firms than any previous event,” says Dale Denham, MAS+, PPAI’s president and CEO. “We invested heavily in executive content to provide meaningful discussions and premier networking opportunities for industry leaders.

“Additionally, the exclusive unveiling of the PPAI 100 marked this event as the indispensable gathering for industry leaders.”

Tuesday’s opening session discussed today’s rocky economy and what that meant in terms of financial predictions and was followed by a series of conversations with PPAI 100 honorees discussing what led to their high marks in various criteria.

The event concluded with a panel about growth strategies ranging from private equity to family-owned businesses. Panelists included:

Howard Headden, founder of H2 Enterprises, was not only impressed by the content and venue but was taken aback by the guests that chose to attend.

“I’ve been coming for years, and I think from top to bottom this was by far the most robust list of executives in the industry at an event like this,” says Headden.

Turning Chaos Into Growth

Andrew Busch is an “economic futurist” and consultant who served as the U.S. government’s first chief marketing intelligence officer providing briefings to entities such as:

  • The U.S. House and Senate
  • The White House
  • Federal Reserve Board
  • U.S. Treasury staff

Prior to that role he was a consultant who spent 20 years as a currency trader. His NALC session was titled “Connecting Today’s Chaos to Tomorrow’s Growth: Domestic Economy Predictions.”

Attendees paid close attention as Busch broke down his presentation into four distinct sections.

  • The current economy – Busch touched on the state of topics such as inflation, interest rates and energy prices.
  • Public policy – This included a briefing on big spending bills and regulation issues that make a difference when it comes to growth opportunities, as well as the upcoming presidential election.
  • “Supercharged” trends – Busch says “believe it or not, there are still issues flowing from COVID-19 that massively affect the economy.” He also touched on climate change’s impact on economic trends and how those trends will create growth for some companies.
  • Growth Opportunities – The opportunity that Busch spent the most time on was AI. “That’s the big one,” Busch says. “It’s the elephant in the room that you better be talking about or you’re going to be left behind.”

NALC attendees walked away from Busch’s presentation with an eye for patterns and how people like him have successfully used those patterns to avoid being caught off-guard, even in years as unexpected and world changing as 2020 was.

PPAI 100

The heart of Tuesday’s agenda was a follow-up to Monday night’s reveal in which the top 30 distributors and suppliers in the 2024 PPAI 100. Throughout the final day of NALC were four separate sessions in which PPAI 100 honorees had exclusive one-on-one interviews with PPAI leadership discussing the paths that earned them high marks in PPAI scoring criteria such as Industry Faith, Revenue, Growth, Responsibility, Innovation and Online Presence.

  • As the industry’s premier company ranking evolves in its second year, its size has doubled, now including 100 distributors and 100 suppliers.
  • Earning a place on the annual PPAI 100 is the highest recognition PPAI bestows on its exemplary member companies.
  • The full PPAI 100 rankings are slated to be released to the industry later in May via PPAI Media and reported in the June issue of PPAI Magazine. The top 100 suppliers will be unveiled on May 14 and the top 100 distributors on May 21.
  • Benchmarking data on the leading companies will follow, with companies of all sizes able to learn from the business, technology and corporate social responsibility practices of the industry’s best.

Made Possible By The Help Of Our Sponsors

NALC’s success was made possible in part by the help of sponsors who provided additional benefits to maximize the event’s experience. Sponsors included:

ID Line also generously provided name badges for attendees.