AIA Corporation (asi/109480) was back together again.

The Top 40 promotional products distributorship hosted its first in-person National Sales Meeting since 2019 in the company’s hometown of Appleton, WI. The event, which was held virtually the last two years due to COVID-19 concerns, featured keynotes, education sessions, social gatherings and AIA’s annual awards ceremony.

AIA’s Annual Awards Dinner and Reception was held at Legends Club at Lambeau Field.

Featured keynote speakers at “Unite 2022: Community Strong” included Tim Andrews, president and CEO of ASI, and Jonathan Isaacson, a member of Counselor’s Power 50 list of promo’s most influential people and CEO of Top 40 supplier Gemline (asi/56070).

“We were thrilled to welcome the AIA Community ‘home’ to Appleton,” said Nancy Schmidt, CEO of AIA and a Power 50 member. “Unite 2022 gave AIA owners the opportunity to focus on growing their businesses by learning from experts, partnering with top industry suppliers and collaborating with peers.”

During an awards reception held at the Legend Club at the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field, 35 AIA owners received awards that recognized outstanding achievement. There were recognitions for revenue generated, sales growth, the AIA Hall of Fame Award and the AIA Lifetime Achievement Award.

AIA also spotlighted outstanding sales growth by its MVP Suppliers. Recognized suppliers were Gordan Sinclair, (asi/57800), Top 40 firm SanMar (asi/84863), ERB Safety & Fame Fabrics (asi/51204), Top 40 company Hirsch Gift (asi/61005), Streamline Fulfillment, and Top 40 supplier Cap America (asi/43792). AIA also honored Gemline’s Billy Martin with the Supplier Rep of the Year award.

At Unite 2022’s opening session, Andrews and Will Knecht, chairman and chief brand ambassador at supplier Wendell August Forge (asi/37457), discussed the importance of embracing transformation that results in providing more value to customers. Schmidt and Rich Berg, AIA’s senior vice president of owner success, hosted the session.

In his talk, Isaacson continued on the theme of transformation and its current and future impact on the promo industry. He also provided insight into the state of promo’s supply chain and inflation.  

Keynote speaker Karie Kaufman, business and executive coach with Action Business Coaching, Inc., discussed how to build a great business. AIA community members also benefited from one-on-one meetings with more than 30 of the distributorship’s MVP suppliers.

Unite 2022 “was the best reminder that with AIA we are in business for ourselves but never by ourselves,” said Lisa Fronek, owner of St. John, IN-headquartered Generate Sales & Marketing Solutions, LLC (asi/444517).

Based on 2021 North American promo product revenue of $124.7 million, AIA Corporation ranked 17^th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry. AIA’s business model consists of partnering with distributors in the promotional products industry and providing them with professional services.