I had the pleasure of attending an open house and media dinner this past week in Chicago. By all accounts, it was a fantastic event which included spending time with some of the industry’s nicest folks, lots of laughs, a great Moroccan restaurant, a professional belly dancer (as well as some not-so-professional belly dancers, you know who you are) and even a tarot card reader.
I am quite the skeptic and when I sat down for my reading I thought to myself, “Hmm, I am sure this will be way off the mark.” In actuality she was pretty much on target, even if it was in the generic, “I can find meaning in this no matter what” way. For me and my family, the tarot reader saw a house and she was right in this vision. In a time when most wouldn’t touch the housing market with a ten foot pole, we are embracing it and looking for the silver lining that surely exists.
For Promo Marketing’s Top 50 Distributors, the same rules apply. Even in a soft economy, when double-digit losses are being reported in every industry imaginable, for congruency’s sake, most would predict losses for the promotional product industry as well. Fortunately, at least in the numbers reported for 2007, the industry’s Top 50 Distributors saw growth, and in some cases, remarkable gains.
In a time when the media tends to latch onto all that is negative, I, being a part of that media, am pleased to report growth in earnings is still possible.
