ASI Show Dallas Education Speakers
 
  David Blaise, Top Secrets of Promotional Products Sales
   
Business-growth expert David Blaise has created some of the most recognized and successful training brands in the promotional products industry, including Top Secrets of Promotional Products Sales, Top Secrets of Customer Acquisition and SmartEQP.com. He is a cofounder of Blaise Drake and Company, which helps thousands of industry professionals each year to increase sales, improve profit margins and grow their businesses on a guaranteed basis. He is also an entrepreneur, author and business consultant who has been involved in the promotional products industry since 1988 as a sales representative, sales manager, marketing manager, business owner, sales trainer and coach.		  
 
  Brett Bowden, Printed Threads
   
Brett Bowden is the founder of Printed Threads in Fort Worth, Texas. Brett opened the company in in 2010, after being reacquainted with his love of screen printing. He sold his first printing company in 2004, and then spent many years traveling the U.S as a musician. In 2009 he earned a Bachelor's degree in music, but decided that it was necessary to choose a different career path…thus, his return to screen printing. Printed Threads has grown from being housed in a garage into a four-automatic operation, and in 2015 Inc. magazine featured the company at #826 on their 5000 fastest growing companies list. You can find Brett teaching classes for Ryonet or writing the occasional article for The Ink Kitchen.		  
 
  Jay Busselle, Printa Systems
   
Jay Busselle began his screen printing and graphics career reportedly sometime in the 80's in Mr. Perry's graphics class at East High School. Jay started printing “unofficial replica” T-shirts of his favorite surfing, skiing and skateboarding companies, as well as a few bands which will remain nameless. He landed his first industry job while in college as a cut-and-paste artist for a Yellow Pages publishing company. It didn't take long before he was working for a screen printer, and soon thereafter his family-owned promotional advertising agency. It's been over 25 years and Jay is still in the industry and still pretending to grow up! He has been ranked as high as #13 on the Stitches Power 75 list, and he’s a highly rated industry presenter and accomplished trainer. Jay is currently the Director of Sales and Marketing for Printa Systems.		  
 
  Matthew Cohn, ASI
   
Vice Chairman of the ASI Family of Companies (composed of The ASI Show!®, ASI Computer Systems®, and ASI®), Matthew Cohn has launched businesses in publishing, e-commerce, trade shows and medical information. Matthew has also served as President, Education Chair and Treasurer of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization and is on the board of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Young President's Organization (YPO). The Philadelphia Business Journal recognized him in their "40 Under 40" awards, and he was named among the "Top 100 People to Watch" by Business Philadelphia magazine, as well as one of the "100 Most Influential People" in the trade show industry by Tradeshow Week. He has been a featured speaker at national conferences such as American Society of Association Executives, Direct Marketing Association, Internet World, Annual Catalog Conference, Seybold Seminars, International Association of Exposition Managers and SISO.		  
 
  Bob De Garmo, The Shamrock Companies
   
Bob De Garmo is the president of The Shamrock Companies, a top-10 distributor of marketing and communications solutions. He ran his own business prior to joining Shamrock in 2016, and he has spent most of his 30-year career in frontline sales. He understands exactly what it takes to be a Top 5% Performer in the marketing and promotional products industry, and he’s passionate about helping his company, clients and colleagues perform at their highest levels.		  

 

 
  Michael D'Ottaviano, ASI
   
Michael D'Ottaviano, MASI, is an executive director of corporate accounts at ASI. He specializes in strategic solutions, helping ASI distributors members realize opportunity and grow their businesses by utilizing creative website design combined with innovative marketing campaigns. He also works with distributors to develop social media campaigns to increase web presence and grow their customer base. Michael is passionate about technology and implementing integrated solutions to help distributors streamline their business processes and grow their businesses.		  
 
  Liz Ferrence, ASI
   
Liz Ferrence, BASI, is an account executive on ASI’s marketing services team. She specializes in digital marketing and brand management, and helps distributors create clear, concise marketing plans that fit their budgets. Her diverse marketing background includes work in the television, restaurant and fitness industries.		  
 
  Frank Good, Stahls’
   
Frank Good is a business development rep for Stahls’, with over 15 years of experience in sales, marketing, decoration and graphic software. He has owned and operated his own business offering screen printing, embroidery, heat press materials and services, wide format printing and promotional products, and he currently works with clients ranging from large national distributors to Stahls’ On-Demand Authorized dealers (craft suppliers). He brings his experience and passion to the leading industry tradeshows to help other business owners succeed in their startup, part-time or existing businesses.		  
 
  Julie Hansen, Performance Sales and Training
   
Julie Hansen helps sales professionals deliver winning presentations and pitches that stand out from the competition, resonate with today’s busy decision-makers, and speed up the sales cycle. Before founding her company, she spent 20 years as a sales leader in a variety of competitive industries. She has also worked as a professional actor, performing in over 75 plays, commercials and television shows, including HBO’s Sex & the City. By combining her award-winning sales background with her passion and experience as an actor, she offers unique insights into how salespeople can communicate their ideas and display their products in an engaging and memorable way to close more business.		  
 
  Chris Harrison, KleerWest, LLC
   
Chris Harrison is the national sales manager for KleerWest, LLC. A 17-year veteran of the premium and incentive industry, he is also the president of the Incentive Manufacturers & Representatives Alliance, an organization that promotes the use of name-brand merchandise for corporate gifting and incentives. He has been an active IMRA member for over 15 years and has chaired and served on many committees and task forces, including Philanthropy, Membership, and the Marketing Conference.		  
 
  Colleen Hartigan, Madeira USA
   
Colleen Hartigan is a 33-year veteran of the embroidery industry. Recently retired as executive vice president of Madeira USA, she now works as a consultant for Madeira USA and Madeira Garnfabrik, sharing her extensive knowledge of the embroidery industry and the embroidery process. A seasoned speaker with a long history of educational training at trade shows and private seminars, Colleen shares her expertise in all facets of creating and selling embroidery. She focuses on product education and the use of the right products to improve customer satisfaction and sales.		  
 
  Peter Knappenberger, ASI
   
Peter Knappenberger, MASI, is an executive director of distributor services at ASI. Peter's expertise is in technology, sales and marketing, and has been helping ASI distributors to grow their sales since 2006. Before ASI, Peter spent 14 years with an import and export firm, where he was general manager. During his tenure, he grew the company sales from $7 million per year to over $24 million.		  
 
  Jimmy Lamb, Sawgrass Technologies
   
Award-winning author and international speaker Jimmy Lamb has over 20 years of apparel decoration business experience. Lamb has extensive knowledge in many facets of digital decorating and embellishing including business startup, applications, techniques, marketing, sales, mobile, digitizing, production and management. He has owned and operated a successful production facility, started a retail franchise operation and has provided production solutions to a variety of Fortune 500 corporations involved in customization, decoration and embellishment. He’s presently ranked as #26 on the list of the most powerful and influential people in the decorated products marketplace by Stitches magazine, published by ASI. Currently, he works with Sawgrass Technologies as the manager of communication and education.		  
 
  Ryan Law, ASI
   
Ryan Law, MASI, is the vice president of corporate accounts at ASI. He has over 17 years of sales experience, with the last 12 years spent in the promotional products industry with Alphabroder and ASI. Ryan has worked with every type of distributor, and he specializes in growing national accounts and identifying opportunities at every level within an organization. His expertise is in developing strategies aimed at exceeding sales goals, and he has a deep understanding of how technology and marketing can support the growth of any business.		  
 
  Rob Liano, Rob Liano Inc.
   
Rob Liano is an entrepreneur, sales strategist, thought leader and best-selling author. His methodology has transformed struggling businesses into multimillion-dollar producers. His endorsements include Fortune 500 companies Estee Lauder, UnitedHealthOne, Assurant, AT&T Mobility and Humana, and he has been cited by USA Today, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN and Worth.com.		  
 
  Marc H. Matthews, Pulse Experiential Travel
   
Marc H. Matthews is the president and CEO of Corporate Sport Incentives DBA Pulse Experiential Travel. He has over 38 years of experience in the incentive travel, special events and secondary ticket markets. Primarily a strategic B-to-B service fulfillment partner, Pulse Experiential Travel specializes in providing the Incentive industry with sales incentive and customer relationship development programs based around group and individual experiential, sports and vacation travel packages, as well as premium ticket and ticket packages to concerts, theatre and sports events worldwide.		  
 
  Craig Mertens, Digital Art Solutions
   
Craig Mertens is the cofounder, president and CEO of Digital Art Solutions, which provides products and services to companies in the promotional products, apparel decoration, sign making and awards industries. His approach to building a profitable business is based on a concept called ASSET: (A)rtwork + (S)oftware + (S)upport + (E)quipment + (T)raining = Success. With 30 years of industry experience, Craig has been teaching electronic art production and marketing for 23 years, and he invented the process of creating rhinestone heat transfers and rhinestone decals with a vinyl cutter. He is also the creator and lead instructor of the Digital Art Solutions free weekly online education program.		  
 
  Cindy Mielke, GC Incentives
   
Cindy Mielke is the director of marketing and sales operations for GC Incentives. She has spent more than 20 years perfecting the art of marketing within the incentive and gift card industry. Prior to joining GC in 2015, she led integrated sales and marketing teams to success in large national companies such as Staples and Omaha Steaks, including serving as vice president of marketing at Marketing Innovators. 		 
 
  Joan Miracle, ASI
   
Joan Miracle, BASI, is an executive director of corporate accounts at ASI. She’s been providing business counseling to entrepreneurs for over 22 years, with seven years in the ad specialty industry. Her background includes successfully running a $46M operation, including the startup of numerous businesses from real estate development and acquisition to open profitable operations. Her main focus and passion has been in sales and sales training, assisting new business owners with startup marketing, and helping established businesses grow through strategic marketing plans that emphasize online marketing and improving operational efficiency.		  
 
  Steve Oswald, ASI
   
Steve Oswald, BASI, is ASI’s marketing art director, and has been creating in Adobe Illustrator for over 20 years. During his 27 years with ASI, Steve has helped to direct and shape the advertising for many of ASI’s first-class brands. He has extensive experience creating vector artwork for decorating promotional products, including screen-printing, embroidery and direct-to-garment printing.		  
 
  Sean Roark, PromoPros/IncentPros, Inc.
   
Sean Roark, along with his wife Leslie, is the owner of Houston-based distributor PromoPros/IncentPros, Inc. (asi/300654). In 2005, responding to a client request, Sean wrote his first incentive program. Since then, he’s earned the Incentive Marketing Association’s (IMA) designation of CPIM (Certified Professional of Incentive Management) and oversees PromoPros’ incentive and engagement subsidiary, IncentPros. As a nationally recognized authority on Safety Incentive Programs, he speaks regularly to groups such as the National Safety Council and the American Society of Safety Engineers.

In 2015, Sean was honored by IMA as an Incentives Fellow, and he was the inaugural recipient of IMA’s Karen Renk Fellowship Award. Representing IMA, Sean has been a keynote speaker at international incentive symposiums in Brazil, China and Great Britain.

Sean was also installed as a Promotional Products Fellow as part of the inaugural class of Fellows honored by the Promotional Products Association International. At the annual IMA Executive Summit in July 2016, he retired from his position as president of IMA, but still serves as treasurer of the Incentive Federation and on the Education Committee of the Incentive Research Foundation; he is also active in local civic organizations in the Houston, Texas area.

  
 
  Marki Lemons Ryhal, Marki Lemons Unlimited
   
With over 25 years of marketing experience, Marki Lemons Ryhal is a fifth-generation entrepreneur, third-generation restaurateur and first-generation infopreneur. She has established herself as an award-winning social media speaker and course author. In a market where change is the only constant factor, Marki has used her dynamic, professional attitude and experience to become one of the top speakers in the U.S.		  
 
  Matt Smyth, ASI
   
Matt Smyth, BASI, is the Executive Director of Digital User Experience for ASI. He acts as lead on all digital products, identifying market opportunities and issues, creating a product roadmap, and solution design. With a concentration on SaaS businesses, he has hands-on experience with business requirements gathering, wireframing, user research and project management. Prior to joining ASI, he worked in a similar capacity for several start-ups.		  
 
  Roger Thomas, Partners for Incentives
   
Vice President Business Development for Partners for Incentives, Roger Thomas has extensive experience in the employee recognition, safety, and sales and marketing of recognition and award programs with many companies from large too small. He has improved employee engagement, significantly reduced turnover, improved customer satisfaction scores, improved moral, and increased employee productivity within many corporations.		  
 
  Amanda Johns Vaden, Southwestern Consulting
   
Amanda Johns Vaden is a founding partner at Southwestern Consulting, a multimillion-dollar sales consulting organization that has helped more than 7,000 sales teams in 35 countries. She personally produces over $1 million in revenue every year in an effort to lead by example for her company and her clients. Her personal clients include companies like Bridgestone, AT&T/ DIRECTV, Verizon Cellular Sales and Budget Blinds. She’s also an in-demand sales trainer, and the author of two popular online training courses in maximizing social media to grow your business.