News

PromoStandards is announcing its decision to host its first Tech Summit in Tampa, FL from February 19 to February 21, 2023. The event, originally scheduled for October 2022, was postponed due to Hurricane Ian. It’ll still take place at the Tampa Marriott Water Street hotel and the agenda remains largely unchanged.

The Dine-Around will be held on the first day of the summit. A virtual Hack-A-Thon Awards Ceremony will take place to celebrate those who won and participated in the 2022 virtual Hack-A-Thon, and an exclusive launch of PromoStandards Order Management Service will be held in an upcoming monthly education event.

The Tech Summit, which features two days of education tracts focusing on industry-relevant technology and PromoStandards integrations, provides ample opportunity to network with industry peers. This event anticipates 125 attendees from over 60 companies.

Speakers include:

●      Eric Alessi, President and CEO at Essent Corporation

●      Aaron Anderson, Sr Director of Software Engineering at alphabroder

●      Michael Conway, Managing Director of Digital Transformation at Aspirant

●      Catherine Graham, CEO at commonsku

●      David Jackson, VP of Information Technology at Spector & Co.

●      Andrew Larsen, Ph.D., Director of Data Science at Fox Corporation

●      Mike Pfeiffer, VP of Technology at American Solutions for Business

●      Jon Norris, COO at Starline Inc.

●      Amy Rabideu, VP of Product at Facilisgroup

●      Eric Shonebarger, President at Hit Promotional Products Inc.

●      Steven Stanley, Senior Vice President of Technology at ePromos Promotional Products

People are still able to register and become sponsors. Register or view the full agenda at https://promostandards.org/Technology-Summit-Hackathon/.

To become a sponsor or submit questions, please email Amy Rabideau, MMEC Committee Chair, at admin@promostandards.org.

PromoStandards is announcing its decision to postpone their first annual Technology Summit in Tampa, FL, due to Hurricane Ian. The Tampa Marriott Water Street hotel has been evacuated and cannot guarantee it will accept guests in time for the event. For the sake of PromoStandards members, vendors, and the Tampa Bay community, the event previously scheduled for October 2 to October 5, 2022, will take place in early 2023.

Once the aftermath of the storm has passed, PromoStandards will continue coordinating with the hotel and vendors in planning this Tampa event.

A virtual Hack-A-Thon Awards Ceremony to celebrate the winners and participants of the 7 teams that participated in the 2022 virtual Hack-A-Thon will be scheduled, as well as an exclusive launch of PromoStandards Order Management Service in an upcoming monthly education event.

All registrations for the Tech Summit will be honored for the rescheduled event, and any refunds needed will be issued upon request. Attendees with questions are encouraged to reach out to Amy Rabideau, MMEC Committee Chair, at admin@promostandards.org.

 PromoStandards hosted its first Hack-a-Thon, sponsored by Essent, virtually from September 19 to September 26, 2022. During this annual event, cross-functional teams use PromoStandards protocols to access trading partner data and services to develop solutions for real-world promotional product industry challenges.

“PromoStandards and Essent, along with the PromoStandards community, have a shared vision to remove friction from the supply chain through tight trading partner systems integration,” said Eric Alessi, President & CEO of Essent Corporation and Chair of PromoStandards. “The Hack-A-Thon is another productive and fun opportunity for the community to collaborate on making the industry stronger, and we're thrilled to make it happen.”

More than 50 participants, representing 33 companies from multiple countries, formed 7 teams. They met throughout the week, collaborated, and presented their solution to a panel of guest judges. These judges included David Nicholson, Vice Chairman of PCNA, Vera Muzzillo, CEO of Proforma, Kate Alavez of PromoShop Inc, and Wade Williams of OrderMyGear.

“It's very exciting and refreshing to see as an industry we are coming together to solve problems,” said guest judge Vera Muzzillo. “Kudos to PromoStandards, team leaders, and participants.”

Guest judge Kate Alavez added, “It has been incredible having all these cross-functional teams bring innovation to the forefront of industry discussions.”

Each team was judged on problem statement clarity, presentation creativity, and technical feasibility and had 10 minutes to pitch. Live presentations were recorded and will be shared at the virtual Hack-A-Thon Awards Ceremony. Winning teams will share $5,000 in cash prizes and receive additional swag.

For more information about the Hack-A-Thon and Technology Summit, please visit https://promostandards.org/Technology-Summit-Hackathon.

PromoStandards Membership growth has increased over 200% in the past two years, with companies of all sizes working together to improve efficiency.  We recognize that bringing together our network of industry technologists and leaders has immense benefits and is an opportunity only PromoStandards can offer. We want to ensure all members can maximize their benefit by utilizing our free and open standards.  

PromoStandards is excited to announce our 2022 plan for renewed community and engagement across the industry. Launching this year, we have two key initiatives. First, PromoStandard U, Education sessions that will be hosted live on the third Tuesday of every month at 2 PM EST.  In addition, we are excited to announce our 1st Annual PromoStandards Technology Summit + Hack-a-thon event. This event will take place this fall in beautiful Tampa, Florida!

PromoStandards U Schedule through June:

02/15 – 2 pm Service  - Provider Offerings (Public)

Click here To Register for Feb Education Webinar 

03/15 – 2 pm March: Order Status 2.0.0 – Beta Preview (Members Only)

04/19 – 2 pm April:  Getting Started With PromoStandards (Public)

05/17 – 2 pm May: Configured Purchase Orders – Best Practices (Members Only)

06/21 – 2 pm June: Configuring Orders with Product Data 2.0.0 (Members Only)

Save the Date:

Early Fall - TAMPA! In-Person Event  

Help us plan the event of the year!!!  Are you interested — fill out our quick survey and be entered to win a free seat at the event?   CLICK HERE  

If you have any questions, please feel free to email the board of directors at admin@promostandards.org. We are very excited about evolving education and collaboration, and we hope this will spark a new wave of momentum for the PromoStandards community. 

 To learn more about joining PromoStandards, visitwww.promostandards.org.

Event registration can be found by following this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/262187228057 

Survey can be found by following this link:

PromoStandards has an exciting 2022 planned. We will be offering more educational sessions throughout the year, which will be available to everyone. In addition, Jon Norris is heading up an educational session concentrating on PromoStandards Members' services. If you would like your service offerings included in this educational session, please respond to this email and let us know your services from service providers to software providers and everything in-between by Friday, January 21st.

Save the Date!

WHEN: Monday, January 10, 2022

WHERE: TBD

Help us review the successes and challenges of the past year and plan for next year all while networking with your fellow members.

 8:00 am - Board Meeting (Board Members Only)

11:00 am - Member Meeting (Members Only)

 1:00 pm - General Education Session (Open to Public)

 2:00 pm - Meet and Greet with PromoStandards Members

Best Regards,

Board President, Member Association

With so many changes in the promotional products industry in 2020, PromoStandards has taken the time to reflect on what their members have really needed to help make their business successful. The idea of “efficiency” continued to reveal itself during the exercise – efficiency in processes, in marketing, in overall operations – all of which inspired PromoStandards to launch a new, streamlined website and membership portal, viewable at www.promostandards.org.

Over the last several months, the PromoStandards Board of Directors have been working to simplify their web presence to a more intuitive, member-friendly platform. The new website and membership portal will allow PromoStandards to be better connected as an organization, provide higher quality membership content and allow members to have greater control over their membership profile, dues and much more.  The new website allows members to easily find the resources needed to deliver immediate value with minimal IT resources. More information on this will be sent to current members in the near future to help navigate the new membership portal.

To help celebrate the launch of the new website, PromoStandards is thrilled to offer an exclusive discount on new membership through the remainder of 2021.  By joining at an “Associate” membership level, you will automatically have access to the “Adopting” membership.  If you pay into the “Adopting” membership, you’ll be automatically granted one-year access to the “Advisory” membership level.  The offer expires at the end of the year, and provides a great, cost-effective way to join PromoStandards.

The PromoStandards Board would like to thank Jon Norris from Starline, Ashley McCune from Facillisgroup, David Shultz from commonsku and Amy Rabideau from ExtendTech for their efforts with the transition to the new website. Without them, this substantial task would not have been possible.

For any additional information, please reach out to the PromoStandards Board of Directors at admin@promostandards.org.

About PromoStandards

PromoStandards is a volunteer-run, non-profit organization committed to improving supply chain and transactional efficiencies in the promotional products industry.  Founded by a dedicated group of distributors, suppliers and service provider visionaries, the organization launched its initial standards in 2014, bringing an immediate impact to the industry.

The Advisory membership level of PromoStandards is the highest level of membership and PromoStandards welcomes the following Advisory members.

• Snugz USA

• ePromos Promotional Products, LLC

• Proforma

• Kotis Design

• Alphabroder

• CommonSku

• DistributorCentral LLC

• Snugz USA

Each of these companies has demonstrated their commitment to PromoStandards by joining at this level.  They join the original founding organizations and board members.

Advisory members have the most input into the standards.  Thank you for your commitment.