South Elgin, IL (June 22, 2022) — AOPD has just concluded its Annual Meeting, “Engage 2022,” at The Hyatt Hill Country in San Antonio, TX. The AOPD Annual Meeting provides the opportunity for AOPD Business Partners and Dealers to discuss sales and marketing strategies. In addition, there are education and networking sessions spread throughout the agenda. Mark Leazer, AOPD Executive Director stated, “We were excited to introduce some new wrinkles to our format. I have received positive reviews to our new Group Marketing Workshops. The One to One’s, as usual, provided a private forum for Dealers and Business Partners to collaborate on growing sales.”
Mark Leazer continued, “It was wonderful being together again in person for Engage 2022. It was great to see everyone. In my view the engagement we saw between fellow Dealers and between Dealers and Business Partners was maybe the best ever. I attribute some of that to just being together again in this format in person. Much of it, though, was the great need to share and to learn best practices to finally move on from the pandemic and to tackle the new hurdles that challenge our progress. Our keynote speaker, Meridith Elliott Powell, challenged attendees at the outset to not focus on all the obstacles but to “look for the smooth waters and paddle toward them”. Great advice in business and in life.”
AOPD’s President, Beth Freeman commented, “After a successful Engage 2022, AOPD is well prepared to continue on its growth track for the remainder of the year. The opportunity to meet with Dealers and Business Partners is always time well spent, collaborating on how we can improve processes and win more business together.”
At the Awards Dinner on Tuesday night AOPD presented six new awards to recognize the Dealer’s success in 2021. The winners were:
- Perry’s Office Plus – Highest percentage growth by a Contracting Dealer
- FSIoffice – Highest dollar growth by a Contracting Dealer
- Coastal Office Products – Highest percentage growth for the NCPA Contract
- A-Z Office Resource – Highest dollar growth for the NCPA Contract
- Office Basics – Highest percentage growth for the Premier Contract
- Warehouse Direct – Highest dollar growth for the Premier Contract
AOPD presented the President’s Award for Dealers to Rob Johnson, of A&W Office Supply and Patricia Lin from Procter and Gamble Professional as the Business Partner recipient. Both awardees are well deserving of this prestigious award and have been long time supporters of AOPD and the IDC.
Also recognized this year was Shelley Tousignant for 15 years and Angela Sumner Price for 20 years of dedication, outstanding commitment and employment at AOPD.
The 2022 AOPD Board of Directors elected at the meeting by the Dealer members are:
President – Beth Freeman, FSIoffice
Vice President – Dutch Jones, The Supply Room Companies
Treasurer – Wayne Stillwagon, Miller’s Supplies at Work
Secretary – Justin Carpenter, Stationers, Inc.
Director – Jon Rossman, Chuckals, Inc.
Director – Lincoln Dix, Storey Kenworthy
Director – Tommy Sansom, Officewise
Leazer concluded, “I would like to thank our sponsors for this year’s meeting. First, thanks to our Platinum Sponsor, HP. Our Gold Sponsor, Essendant. And our Silver Sponsors, ECI and Fellowes. Thanks for helping us put on a great event.”