I was honored to have the opportunity to participate in our industry’s fly-in lobbying week on Capitol Hill last week. PPAI L.E.A.D program takes professionals from the promotional product space and connects them with lawmakers. I had the privilege of meeting with Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina state legislators and their teams. It was equal parts exciting and nerve-wracking! We were tasked with expressing the importance of promotional products and the bills that affect our industry in just fifteen minutes. Anyone on my team will tell you that I can’t express the importance of anything in 15 minutes. Obviously with recent tariff news, there was plenty to discuss and hot button issues related to promo are plentiful! We spent two full days basically speed dating our senators teams. There were several key points that were attention grabbers – my favorite being there’s no other tangible marketing and that you receive a thank you for when you give it away. The new NFC Scribe pen (which is BTW the coolest item) was programmed to pull up Promo by the Numbers to show the revenue and jobs that promotional products brings by state. In most instances, explaining the power of promotional products was something that legislators teams hadn’t given thought to before. Truly watching marketing in action as these young lawyers recognized the value of the products used in their bosses campaigns that spread awareness of their campaigns. Advocating for the value of the entrepreneurs that work in our industry was extremely meaningful. As a history buff, it’s re-energizing to be in Washington D.C. and having the chance to advocate on behalf of our industry with like-minded promo loving professionals was an experience like no other!