This merchandise and marketing conference was attended by over 35 leading suppliers and 50 clients from across the UK.

The attendees were treated to lively and informative presentations on the use of branding by 4 leading industry speakers including Gordon Glenister, Director General of the British Promotional Merchandise Association, Lawrence Angelow, MD of the Advantage Group, Richard Taylor, MD of Simpsons Creative, and Lucy McKechnie of Voice Communications.

The day was a huge success with both clients and suppliers saying the day was well organised, informative and professional:

“I was really impressed by the undoubted hard work and organisation that must have gone into turning the day into a really professional event. Your team should be immensely proud”

Lawrence Angelow
The Advantage Group

“Thanks for inviting me to your client day. I found it very useful, inspiring and great to see so many of your suppliers and customers with the vast selection of great products on show. Your speakers were all excellent and very interesting too”.

Adrian Simpson
Redwings Horse Sanctuary

“Thank you for inviting me to the show, it was a pleasure to be part of such a great, well organised event. If only other distributors were like you in sharing their suppliers knowledge & products”

Leanne Wilson-Keates
Clipper Gifts

“It was lovely to see you yesterday and taking a part in the conference, venue, exhibition and the talks were really good!”

Ania Dancy
University of Bristol Students’ Union

“The Impamark team work tirelessly with me to source the products and brand them. I would like to say a huge thank you for my award today and also to thank them for making my ideas happen. They are such a motivated team to work with. I’ve had a great day learning and fuelling my creative side at their conference and can’t wait to get going with some new ideas”

Gemma Burdon
G Collins & Sons Funeral Directors

Environmental stance

Impamark also took this opportunity to officially launch their new Happy Turtle logo, which reflects the company’s move to a more environmentally friendly stance.

Nicky Crisp Impamark’s MD explained:

“There has recently been a lot of focus on plastic pollution.

I was very fortunate at Christmas to swim with the turtles on holiday and I feel very passionate about the current issues facing the world today with regards to plastic waste.

Impamark is strengthening its own internal systems to reduce waste, and will actively be focusing on more eco friendly products to assist our clients in promoting their own stand against pollution in the environment.

For example we are no longer offering printed plastic carrier bags as an option for promotional merchandise”.

Impamark’s new strapline is “Our solution is less pollution” and this is being used on their own merchandise which is either reusable, recycled, organic and eco friendly.

Nicky said “We want to promote the use of merchandise manufactured in a sustainable manner which can be reused and recycled rather than simply being thrown away. We all need to take ownership of the issue of plastic pollution and protect our planet for future generations”.

As corporate members of The Essex Wildlife Trust, Impamark felt this was an appropriate charity to support on the day and held a raffle raising £133.00.

In addition they had a ‘Willy Wonka’ style Golden Ticket for £100 off £500 of merchandise and this was won by the University of East Anglia.

Finally, Impamark held their very first incentive awards for both clients and suppliers and winners were as follows:

	Education in Partnership Award Bristol University		Eco Campaign Award Downhall Hotel & Spa
	The Celebration Award G Collins & Sons Funeral Directors		Customer Engagement Award University College London
	Supplier of the Year Award Preseli		The Extra Mile Supplier Award The Laltex Group
	Most innovative Use of Brand Grove Logistics		Newcomers Award Sapper Shop, RE Corps Enterprises