This year’s National Postal Forum (NPF) was the 50th year of the event. Starting in 1968, the NPF has been the largest gathering of experts in the direct mail and postal industries. This year was no exception, and the numbers showcase both the strength of the event, the industry and, of course, GrayHair.
For numbers, let’s start with the attendance: for the second year in a row, the event topped over 4,000 attendees, exhibitors, and USPS officials. Attendees this year focused their conversations on the USPS and its drive on Informed Delivery and Informed Visibility.
10 Million People have already signed up for Informed Delivery, which provides scans of incoming mail delivered to their email. As positioned by Postmaster General Megan Brennan, “Informed Delivery broadens the definition of the mail moment by bridging the digital and physical. It allows consumers to connect to their physical mail anytime, anywhere.”
One of the other topics that dominated the event – and is a direction that GrayHair’s team of experts is passionate about – was Informed Visibility. The service, which is the next phase of mail tracking’s evolution, handles 1.1 billion mailpiece scans per day as of February 2018. In one of the event’s workshops, GrayHair’s VP of Postal Affairs, Angelo Anagnostopoulos, spoke alongside Bob Rosser, Director Postal Affairs, Products and Services at IWCO Direct, on how the program is changing how mail owners understand their deliveries.
In a tradition that started in 2011 and continued this year, GrayHair partnered with a local animal shelter, San Antonio Pets Alive, to transform the GrayHair booth into an adoption event. This year’s show brought in 10 adoptions – with 35 total adoptions since we started the practice. GrayHair might be the leading provider of mail tracking and address hygiene for enterprise mailers, but, for those three days, we got to support an amazing cause through a great organization. Thank you to those who adopted and donated. We were also able to raise $500 dollars over the three days and, if you if you did not get the chance to make a donation, please visit the San Antonio Pets Alive site and help them continue to save the lives of these amazing animals.
Head to our Facebook page to see photos from the event.
If you did not get the chance to watch a demo of our data visualizations, then you missed a captivating look into the stories that your data is telling you. With options such as managing in-home dates and branch reporting, you are able to utilize a highly intuitive and interactive platform where you can manage the complicated decisions you make every day. To get a sample of what that demo looks like, view our recent video.
The GrayHair team thanks you for helping us have an amazing show.
Looking for more info on the National Postal Forum (NPF) 2018? We have just the place for you to go to get more updates. In his blog, SpeakingDIRECT, Kurt Ruppel, Director Postal Policy and Marketing Communications, IWCO, provides a comprehensive summary of the events of NPF 2018. Kurt’s blog post, The 2018 National Postal Forum Proved Mail is the “Ultimate Closer,” is worth reading!
