Commonsku hosted its 5th annual skucon conference on Sunday for “innovators, explorers and dreamers,” as its 2018 event mantra stated, doubling the size of attendance over last year and featuring a record number of speakers.

Hosted at The Venue in downtown Las Vegas, skucon featured startup expert April Dunford, author of the forthcoming book Obviously Awesome – How to Stand out in Noisy Crowded Markets. Dunford, the former vice president of marketing for global companies such as IBM and Nortel, shared how context can be a critical factor in getting your company noticed. “From lifestyle branding to building an agency model, we were proud to host over 20 topics related to building a better business,” said commonsku CEO Catherine Graham, who was on Counselor’s most recent Power 50 list. “We’re thankful for everyone, our sponsors, our team, and especially the community of customers and friends who joined us for an exciting day of learning and inspiration.”

Skucon also featured some of the most admired brands in the promo market, including speakers such as Scott Alterman with The Icebox (asi/229395), Jake Director and Riley Goodman with Strideline (asi/89926), Brandon Mackay with SnugzUSA (asi/88060), Kathy Cheng with Redwood Classics Apparel (asi/81627) and over a dozen others.

Chris Ferriter, vice president of business development at SoBe Promos (asi/245603) – Counselor’s Fastest Growing Distributor of the Year in 2017 – spoke highly of his experience attending the event. “The platform for likeminded individuals to get together and share best practices, challenges, and hopes and dreams is phenomenal,” Ferriter says. “I look forward to connecting with many of the people I met on Sunday and working together to build better business relationships going forward.”