Matthew Cohn
4800 Street Road
Trevose, PA 19053
215-953-3664
Fax 215-953-3939
E-mail: mcohn@sms-team.com
Matthew Cohn has launched five businesses in fields as diverse as tradeshows, publishing, e-commerce, medical information. His major focus today is the continued growth and success of the tradeshow he launched for the promotional products industry in 1998. The first ASI Show! was held in Las Vegas in 1998, and it was the largest summer show in the history of the industry. This show ranked on the "Tradeshow 200" in its first year, and along with the Chicago show launched in 1999, has been included on the Tradeshow 200," the largest tradeshows in the U.S.. With a 65 percent total increase in attendance from 1998 to 1999, Tradeshow Week named The ASI Show! Las Vegas, the fastest-growing trade show in the country. There are now four ASI Show! locations with the addition of Orlando (in 2001) and Dallas (2003).The Orlando show started as an 80,000 nsf event in its first year, and over the next 2 years grew to over 150,000 nsf. The inaugural Dallas Show launched at 100,000 nsf and exceeded attendance projections by 10%. The ASI Show! was honored in the Wharton Business School's "Philadelphia 100" fastest growing privately held companies in 2002 and 2003. The ASI Show has also been named as one of the Tradeshow Week Fastest 50 - one of the fastest growing tradeshows in North America and most recently to the INC 500 as the 153rd fastest growing private compaies in America over the last 5 years.
Cohn has also served as President, Education Chair, and Treasurer of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization (YEO). YEO is a group whose membership consists of business entrepreneurs under the age of 40. He was by Trade Show week as one of the 100 most influential people in the tradeshow industry and by the Philadelphia Business Journal in their "40 Under 40" awards recognizing outstanding leaders under the age of 40. He was named one of the "Top 100 People Watch" by Business Philadelphia magazine as well. Matthew also serves on the Board of numerous organizations including the Corporate Alliance for Drug Education (CADE), a non-profit organization which works with 50,000 children each year throughout Philadelphia, helping them to say NO to substance abuse and violence in their communities.
For the last three years, Cohn has served on the Client Advisory Board for the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau and is currently on the Board of SISO, the Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO).
Cohn has been a featured speaker at many national conferences including: SISO, International Association of Exhibition Management (IAEM), Internet World, the Annual Catalog Conference, Seybold Seminars, the Folio: Shows, the National Directory Conference, Sigcat, American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), Direct Marketing Association (DMA), On-Demand Printing & Publishing, Medtrade and others. In addition, Cohn and the companies he manages have been featured in numerous articles in magazines including: Trade Show Executive, Business Marketing, DM News, The DMA Insider, Marketing Tools, Catalog Age, Business Philadelphia, Folio:, Inc. Technology, Association Publishing, Printing News East, Printing Impressions, Publishing & Production Executive, Expo Magazine and TradeShow Week among others. Among these are full-length feature articles written by Cohn. Cohn has also served on the Program Advisory Committee for the DMA Annual Catalog Conference and the DMA B-to-B weekend.
Cohn is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, concentrating on Entrepreneurial Management and Marketing. Simultaneously, he earned a degree from the University of Pennsylvania's College of Arts and Sciences, with a major in Economics.
He lives in a suburb of Philadelphia with his wife Lea and their two young daughters, Sydney (4) and Mackenzie (2). The whole family attends most ASI Shows, and the two girls help as greeters and distribute the show daily.