{"id":78,"date":"2009-07-24T15:59:24","date_gmt":"2009-07-24T19:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/2009\/07\/24\/my-kinda-town-chicago-is-2\/"},"modified":"2009-07-27T21:55:39","modified_gmt":"2009-07-28T01:55:39","slug":"my-kinda-town-chicago-is-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/2009\/07\/24\/my-kinda-town-chicago-is-2\/","title":{"rendered":"My Kinda Town, Chicago Is!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Everyone!<\/p>\n

I’m just\u00a0back from the ASI Chicago Show, which was awesome on a multitude of levels.\u00a0It was\u00a0fabulous seeing\u00a0old industry friends\u00a0(Windbrella’s Bob Hechler, JournalBooks’ Tim O’Boyle & Jamie Raynor and R.S. Owens’\u00a0Scott\u00a0Siegel, I’m looking at you… ; ) ) and meeting\u00a0some amazing new ones like\u00a0industry veteran Lisa Bennett.<\/p>\n

That Lisa and I have never met is perplexing.\u00a0Lisa, who lives in Chicago, is a multiline rep\u00a0who handles\u00a0companies like Counselor<\/em> Top 40 supplier Ash City,\u00a0my friend Leigh’s\u00a0company, Say Thank You with Coffee, and some others. She is sassy,\u00a0hilariously wry and we share many of\u00a0the\u00a0same friends. She also has the distinction of being the person to convince me to stop\u00a0being such an old-school\u00a0whiner and join the Twitter flock. (Though I still maintain, as I\u00a0routinely tell SnugZ’s Charley Johnson, it will be easier to raise the dead than to get me on Facebook … that so<\/em> isn’t happening.) Stay tuned for next week’s blog\u00a0which will\u00a0have my Twitter info.<\/p>\n

The show itself\u00a0was\u00a0well-attended and steadily crowded,\u00a0and\u00a0participation in ASI’s educational offerings was up nearly 10% from last year. I myself moderated two panels, which\u00a0turned out well —\u00a0mainly\u00a0because I am so lucky to be friends with such\u00a0talented people. On my panel for suppliers, which offered the chance to gain insights into\u00a0how to win a distributor’s business and loyalty,\u00a0I had Deluxe Corp.’s Sheila Johnshoy, Touchstone’s Tad\u00a0Webster, Brown & Bigelow’s Cindy Jorgenson and WorkflowOne’s Mike Riddle.\u00a0On my\u00a0“Secrets to\u00a0Wildly Successful Self-Promotions” panel,\u00a0I had industry speaker and veteran Cliff Quicksell, OnTime Promotions’ Sharon\u00a0Biernat and PromoShop’s Kris Robinson.\u00a0I’d like to thank all my panelists for being so gracious and giving with their time and expertise.<\/p>\n

Lastly, my favorite event\u00a0of the Chicago Show is always the Counselor<\/em> awards banquet, where we recognize the Person\u00a0of the Year,\u00a0as well as the Top 40 suppliers and distributors (for a list of winners, click here<\/a>). It was an exciting night\u00a0for me because my girl Bonni Shevin-Sandy, executive vice president of Counselor <\/em>Top 40\u00a0supplier Dard, won the very well-deserved International Person of the Year award.\u00a0I adore Bonni, and when it comes to doing business\u00a0in a global marketplace, my girl has skills!!!<\/p>\n

The funniest line of the evening came from Chuck\u00a0Fandos (“Chuckles,” as I call him), who took one look\u00a0at the group of\u00a0hooting and hollering\u00a0rowdy rummies\u00a0— PromoShop’s Kris Robinson and Memo & Sabrina Kahan,\u00a0Chuck’s business partner Conrad Franey, Sweda’s Jim\u00a0Hagan and Scott Pearson, BIC’s Dave Saracino, in addition to myself and ASI’s publisher Rich Fairfield —\u00a0at our very prominently placed\u00a0(dead center in the front of the\u00a0room) table and looked at me with\u00a0dread.\u00a0“What\u00a0the hell are you\u00a0doing putting us up so far in the front, Michele???\u00a0Look at\u00a0us\u00a0— we’re back-of-the-bus kind of people!!!” But hey, that’s my way\u00a0— I love surrounding myself with\u00a0excessive\u00a0rock stars and charismatic wackos. ; )<\/p>\n

Enjoy some photos below from the show and look for more next week!<\/p>\n

Cheers,<\/p>\n

M<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mark Messner, a former pro football player with the L.A. Rams and now with Canon Printing, and my girl Jilly Albers, sales chica extraordinairre with WorkflowOne. Jilly’s cocktail of choice is the “Skinny Pirate” (Captain Morgan and Diet Coke), which she has Mark hooked on as well. Between the two of them, they drank Kitty O’Shea’s — the bar at the Hilton Hotel where all the industry partiers gather before heading off to Shenanigan’s — dry of Captain Morgan’s. Seriously. The place actually ran out! Rock on, my little revelers. ; )<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jilly and I on Monday evening at Kitty O’Shea’s. There has not been one night Jilly and I have hung since we met that we haven’t had an EPIC time (even if we need a timeline and photographs to remember all details).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Here’s my pal Samantha Tucker, who oversees programming ASICentral.com and is one of the coolest tech nerds I know, at the Counselor<\/em> Top 40 banquet. If you received Tweets from ASI broadcasting the names of each award-winner in real time, that was Sam Twittering like crazy.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shall I count the ways that I adore Jim Hagan (left), the president of Counselor<\/em> Top 40 supplier Sweda? He’s funny, he’s whip-smart, he’s charming as hell and he can drink shots like a rock star. Love, love, love him! Here, Jim’s looking suave at the black tie Counselor<\/em> awards banquet, with my boss, the ever-patient and tolerant Rich Fairfield, ASI’s senior vice president and publisher. It’s mystifying that Rich doesn’t drink more to dull the pain of dealing with me. ; )<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Could there be a more glamorous couple? With Sabrina and Memo Kahan, the owner of Counselor<\/em> Top 40 distributor PromoShop, let it never be said that this industry is devoid of The Beautiful People.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kris Robinson, my pal and vice president of Counselor<\/em> Top 40 distributor PromoShop, is the God of Green (and he’s no slouch when it comes to self-promos; many of his win awards and garner double-digit ROI). Want someone to give you a tutorial on how to successfully integrate eco into your business? Kris is the go-to guy. Here’s to you, Mr. Robinson … ; )<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jake Krolick, ASI marketing manager and rock journalist\/videomaker on the side, is ASI’s version of illustrious, iconoclastic and famously wacko music writer Lester Bangs — reporter of all the best degenerate musicians of the ’70s.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Here’s Jakey with ASI’s marketing manager for suppliers, Colin Graf. When Jakey and Colin are out on the party circuit at a show, they always remind me of the Night at the Roxbury<\/em> guys.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
My girls, the gorgeous Sharon Biernat (left), a 20-year distributor sales veteran, and the luminous and svelte Natalie Townes, enjoying cocktails and conversation at Kitty O’Sheas.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
My editorial colleauges, Counselor<\/em> editor Andy Cohen (a.k.a., Captain Killjoy) and Managing Editor & star of The Joe Show<\/em>, Joe Haley (a.k.a., my reluctant “handler”) partying after the Counselor<\/em> awards banquet.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ASI’s advertising director Dan Dienna, ASICentral’s dominatrix Samantha Tucker and Marketing Manager Colin Graf, exemplifying the old adage, “A rose between two thorns.” ; )<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sharon Biernat and Ira Neaman, owner of Counselor<\/em> Top 40 supplier Vantage. I met Ira about 11 years ago, and since that time, I have always referred to him as the “Yoda of Wearables.” A phenomenal teacher on the topic of apparel, he is.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Industry favorite Jay Donlin, vice president of sales & marketing for Counselor<\/em> Top 40 distributor Newton Manufacturing, shown here with the super-sweet and fun Angie Gibbons, formerly with Visions Awards, now a distributor client.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The editors out in force. From left, Counselor <\/em>editor Andy Cohen; ASI Show education coordinator (and one of my favorites!) Dana Reaume; Editor-in-Chief & Vice President of Education, Melinda Ligos; Staff Writer Dave Vagnoni and Executive Director, Research Services\u00a0Larry Basinait.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
So how cool is this? Jim Hagan, president of Counselor <\/em>Top 40 supplier Sweda and Scott Pearson (“Giggles” to you and I…), its super-talented vice president of merchandising, were out and about on the town after the Counselor <\/em>banquet and ran into football superstar Peyton Manning. They asked him to sign their Counselor<\/em> Top 40 award, and hot Mr. Manning happily obliged.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Everyone! I’m just\u00a0back from the ASI Chicago Show, which was awesome on a multitude of levels.\u00a0It was\u00a0fabulous seeing\u00a0old industry friends\u00a0(Windbrella’s Bob Hechler, JournalBooks’ Tim O’Boyle & Jamie Raynor and R.S. Owens’\u00a0Scott\u00a0Siegel, I’m looking at you… ; ) ) and meeting\u00a0some amazing new ones like\u00a0industry veteran Lisa Bennett. That Lisa and I have never met […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asi-shows","category-editorial","category-fun","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}