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Niels Norby, NetSoft Studio, LLC President, APA - Where Personalization Pros Connect
(September/October 2023) The personalization industry is always changing, and you’ve had to make sure your business evolves with it to guarantee success and longevity.
APA’s leadership—which comprises industry professionals—is tasked with ensuring our association evolves, too. Ideally, we keep APA on pace with the member companies known for innovation! Sometimes, we just need to bring the right ideas to the table. Other times, we need to make tough decisions to boldly move forward. We have to explore and take risks so the association’s membership can reap the rewards.
(July/August 2023) The International Personalization Expo is always exciting. It’s the biggest and best trade show in our industry, and we’re looking forward to the 2024 Expo, Feb. 6-9, at Paris Las Vegas.
We’re not the only ones. Las Vegas hosts 24,000 conventions with 6.5 million attendees annually, which would probably overwhelm any other city. Like any convention location, we’ve occasionally shared hallways with other convention attendees—which is sometimes eyebrow-raising when our meeting-space neighbors are there for an entertainment fan fest rather than a professional conference.
(May/June 2023) Your APA leaders—the Board of Directors and our committees—are all active members of the industry. We’re people who have gained so much from APA membership that we decided to give back by volunteering.
We’re not significantly different than you, nor are our businesses. We face the same challenges and represent a healthy mix of retailer and supplier companies. (Or, in my case, I’ve been a retailer and a supplier.) This enables us to look out for members’ best interests.
(March/April 2023) As is our organization’s tradition, outgoing APA President John Stangle, CRM, passed the gavel to me in February at the International Personalization & Awards Expo in Las Vegas.
The ceremonial handoff, from a retailer to a supplier, highlights APA’s unique partnership between the two groups. The association must continually ensure that the interests of both types of members are balanced, and that’s a job I’m uniquely qualified for.
John Stangle, CRM, Creative Awards & Screen Printing President, APA - Where Personalization Pros Connect
(January/February 2023) Well, this past year has sure flown by. I want to thank everyone for the journey of being associated with this great organization.
On the surface, the APA is an organization that connects you to a wider group that is committed to talking about engraving or awards or gifts or the many other commonalities we share. But the APA is also a family—a community if you will. I have been fortunate enough to meet some of the nicest and most dedicated volunteers who all share one common trait: the love for our industry.
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