ASI Show 2024: An Enriching Experience – also for PSI ON TOUR

“The ASI Show Chicago, the promotional product industry’s summer special show, takes place between the trade show hustle and bustle at the start of the year and the fourth quarter’s holiday high season.” That is how the organiser, the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), describes the trade show, which took place in the capital of Illinois on 24 and 25 July. The enlarged exhibition floor surface in the McCormick Place Convention Center provided space for 466 exhibitors (including 110 new ones) to welcome around 5,000 visitors. These visitors included the delegation that journeyed to Chicago in the context of PSI ON TOUR. PSI Director Petra Lassahn was joined on the trip by Katrin Stühmeyer-Halfar and Armin Halfar (with children), Carl-David Heinemann from CDH and Ignacio Mitjans from Makito. “So it was a great start for our new format,” Petra Lassahn is delighted to report. A deputation from the Turkish industry association and from the British industry service provider Sourcing City, which forms the PromoAlliance together with PSI and ASI, were also among the travelling party. Recently, these three partners resolved to intensify their partnership following various successful campaigns.

Even before the ASI Show, a warm welcome was extended to all attendees in the form of an invitation to a fantastic “Chicago Architecture Center River Cruise”. This involved a boat trip on the Chicago River past more than fifty buildings: a stunning backdrop that provided a foretaste of the two days to come. And these had some unaccustomed moments in store for the German visitors, such as the welcome in the trade show hall with music and confetti. “The mood among the exhibitors and visitors was simply amazing”, ran the unanimous summary of the days in Chicago. Another special occasion was meeting with 91-year-old Norman Cohn, ASI founder and counterpart of PSI founder Walter Jung. “It was a particular joy and honour for us to meet Norman Cohn. It’s remarkable how he’s still a part of things and engages with young people so he can report from his treasure-house of experience.”

The excellently attended Education Day on the eve of the trade show demonstrated how extensively a treasure-house of experience is in demand and how broad-based the industry’s interest is. The day featured sixteen talks, which traced a large arc from the power of customised promotional products and artificial intelligence, via content marketing strategies plus personality and self-marketing workshops, through to avoiding social media stress and the art of standing out from the crowd.

Picture: A very special moment at the ASI Show in Chicago: PSI Director Petra Lassahn, Katrin Stühmeyer-Halfar and Armin Halfar met 91-year-old ASI founder Norman Cohn.