ne thing I’ve learned over the years is that if people don’t understand what you do, they will fill in the blanks for themselves.

Unfortunately, when it comes to plastics, those blanks are often filled with assumptions. That is one of the reasons advocacy matters so much.

Recently, I joined fellow IAPD members in Washington, D.C., for our annual Performance Plastics Congressional Fly-In. We met with lawmakers and staff from both sides of the aisle to discuss our industry, our products and the important role performance plastics play in the economy.

efore I started at IAPD, my predecessor, Deborah Hamlin, CAE, gave me a piece of advice that I did not fully understand at the time.

“Susan, these IAPD presidents, you have their hearts in your hands. Be careful with them.”

Twenty years later, I understand exactly what she meant.

One of the questions I get asked often is, “Who was the best IAPD president?” Sometimes the question is phrased a little differently. “Did you have a favorite?” Or perhaps, “Was there one you didn’t like?”

My answer is always the same.

nsinger’s TECATEC PA12 CF50 T200 is being used in aerospace applications, including drone and unmanned vehicle chassis components.

TECATEC PA12 CF50 T200 offers high strength and fracture toughness, low moisture absorption and abrasion resistance. The material has a service temperature range of minus 76 to 230 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 60 to 110 degrees Celsius. It is available in semipreg, prepreg and organosheet forms. For more information visit www.ensingerplastics.com.

The material was selected for a decorative event installation surrounded by floral displays and reflective design elements. After the ceremony, the acrylic mirror panels were repurposed for decor, signage and staging, demonstrating the material’s versatility for event, display and visual merchandising applications.

Rose Gold acrylic mirror offers a lightweight, reflective surface for projects that require a decorative finish, easier handling and design flexibility compared with traditional glass mirror. www.acplasticsinc.com.

enerative AI has moved from novelty to everyday business tool in just a few short years. When ChatGPT first gained mainstream attention in 2023, Harvard Business School professor Karim Lakhani offered a warning that still holds true: “AI is not going to replace you. You’re going to be replaced by someone who uses AI.” Back then, I was using AI to write funny lyrics about our family dog to the tune of “Jingle Bells.” In technology, three years is a lifetime of innovation, refinement and adoption. As a marketing leader, where writing and graphic design are part of my daily work, generative AI has been part of my toolkit since those early days, and I have experienced more than my fair share of frustrations and successes.

AI is a tool. It needs a human to get it started, and like any tool, the more you use it, the easier it gets and the better your results become. Think of the first time you used a hammer. For me, it was kindergarten (can you believe my kindergarten had a bin of hammers where we could pound real nails into real boards? Kindergarten!?!) It took me a try or two to not hit my thumb, but with practice, I was hitting nails with ease. Having used AI for a whole host of activities, I’ve learned many lessons along the way. Better yet, I’ve also learned how to make it look like you’re not even using AI (and all those brilliant ideas are yours and yours alone).

usiness development is the lifeblood of any company. New customers not only provide new sources of revenue but also can inspire new product development and innovation. A key goal of any business should be to identify and capture these customers before competitors do, and to do so cost-effectively.

To do this, businesses have long relied on information technology to identify and reach new customers. Throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, businesses employed tools that enabled salespeople to send similar messages to hundreds or thousands of individuals with a single mouse click. So-called cold email outreach at first proved effective. Considerable interest from individuals not easily reached by other means prompted more businesses to employ this technique. Perhaps not surprisingly, this model ultimately became the victim of its own success. Email communications became so voluminous and impersonal that recipients simply ignored messages from unknown senders, reducing the viability of this model.

he use of artificial intelligence is rapidly rising, and for those in the performance plastics industry, it is no longer a question of whether to use AI, but how and for what purpose. When implemented strategically, AI can be an excellent tool to help streamline processes, reduce busywork and make teams more efficient. This article covers different types of AI, use cases to consider when building an AI strategy for your business, tips for prompt writing and other best practices.

You are likely used to hearing about, and perhaps even using, generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Claude. These are common tools used both inside and outside the workplace, but AI platforms and functions go beyond generative AI. Below are several AI types categorized by business purpose to consider when creating an adoption strategy.

rtificial intelligence is rapidly changing the way manufacturers, distributors and logistics providers operate. Every week, there seems to be a new platform promising more automation, faster decisions, lower costs and fewer people involved in the process.

Some of these advancements are real and incredibly valuable.

But there is also a growing risk that companies begin implementing AI without fully thinking through what made their businesses successful in the first place: people, relationships, accountability, operational experience and customer trust.