Our industry is continuously evolving, making the need for ongoing training and education vital to staying competitive. Find solutions to your most pressing challenges and discover new ways to grow your business, with more than 30 education sessions led by industry thought leaders.
Session
Both Photoshop & Flexi can use a feature called Blending Modes. You may have worked with Blending Modes in the past, and it was probably more of an experimental process. This presentation aims to show you exactly how each Blend Mode works to avoid having to experiment as much. By the time you finish watching this presentation you should understand how Blending Modes work and which to use to get your desired effect. We will use both Photoshop & FlexiSIGN to demonstrate how to use these amazing options to create designs for wide format printing.
Session
The whole world has experienced shifts and changes in recent years. However the pandemic was simply an accelerant to changes design and manufacturing has been experiencing through the arrival of Industry 4.0. This presentation will provide a look at the collective impact of AI, Automation and Additive Manufacturing on the sign industry.
Session
Sign Companies spend great effort in obtaining surveys (information) to allow installation of new and improved signage. There are specific needs of Engineers to be able to do their work efficiently. This seminar will cover what is needed from Sign Surveys to do their work.
Session
Templates are a great way to save time in the design of applications but can also minimize errors in print production as well. In this seminar we will show you how to use templates for design and then show the way to setup templates in any RIP & Print software to save time and limit print errors. We will use various design and Rip software to show you how the principles of using templates can be applied in any workflow.
Session
Overview of 3D printers with a demonstration of how to make channel letters on Ascent 3D Printer designed especially for the sign industry.
Pre-Conference
It’s one thing to know how to wrap, it’s another to know how to run a business. The wrap industry can be extremely exciting and rewarding. Equally, it can be very frustrating as it has unique business challenges that most industries do not face. This can lead to long hours, tension in the workplace, frustrated clients and financial goals not being met. The Business Boot Camp for Wrap Professionals has been designed to address these issues head on by offering comprehensive solutions combined with detailed analysis of the key aspects in a wrap shop from ownership to sales to marketing to upselling and more. The Business Boot Camp is entirely geared to create clear communication channels and facilitate growth both short and long term by streamlining workflow and increasing profits.
Bootcamp
The Signage Bootcamp workshop brings together corporations, companies and individuals to learn, discuss and share knowledge and ideas to benefit their businesses. The course is suitable for business owners, estimators, project managers, sales, marketing and graphic designers. The workshop is designed to support those of all levels in their careers. Since 2017 we have welcomed new starters to the industry as well as experienced signage professionals at all stages of their careers.
The full day workshop includes demonstrations, materials and techniques put together in a unique format to provide a comprehensive overview.
The Benefits:
– Enhanced information encourages a more enthused workforce
– Identify and explore new upselling and sales opportunities
– Improve identification skills (eg the right materials for the project)
– Reduce costly and avoidable mistakes
Products Covered:
– Flat cut materials
– Sign trays and stencil cut signage
– Built up and illuminated letters
– Totems and CE Certification
– New products to the industry.
Session
Kanban systems can be extremely effective in helping sign companies boost productivity and deliver better quality at a faster pace. Its main aim is to smoot out the different processes that are performed in an organization and to successfully implement a consistent workflow free from bottlenecks and hiccups while greatly improving customer satisfaction.
In this session you’ll learn seven basic Kanban strategies designed to help ease your supply chain frustrations.
Session
We’ll explain how important color is to brand owners, how to create that color in the design environment, how to communicate expectation to production, and finally to confirm conformance of exceptions with the brand owner.
Pre-Conference
For sign shops, outdoor digital signage projects can represent a lucrative profit opportunity. However this technology can change very quickly. This is leading many sign professionals to find out that communities and planning officials can prove a roadblock to their installation through the drafting and implementation of unreasonable codes and regulations based off personal aesthetics and interpretations. This half-day workshop will feature a mix of sign industry officials, digital signage specialists, and sign shop owners as they discuss their advice and their stories related to the planning and permitting for digital signage installs, as well as how to work with communities to come up with sensible code-and-regulatory solutions. Attendees will also be strongly encouraged to interact with our guests to network and workshop together their concerns in this field.
Bootcamp
This half-day program is an element of the full Signage Bootcamp workshop and includes demonstrations, materials and techniques, which focus on illuminated signs.
The Benefits:
– Enhanced information encourages a more enthused workforce
– Identify and explore new upselling and sales opportunities
– Improve identification skills (eg the right materials for the project)
– Reduce costly and avoidable mistakes
Products Covered:
– Sign trays and stencil cut signage
– Flex face signage
– Built up and illuminated letters
– Mounting letters to glass
– Problem Solving
Session
Innovation with signage doesn’t have to be complicated nor expensive. Less automation and robots, more about using the tools and techniques available and small changes which bring big value. We’ll explore everything from innovation in leadership and business to simple ways to make static signage dynamic and future-forward. Innovation is less about needing technical know-how and more about willingness to explore new and disruptive ideas.
WLI
The momentum is building, and we mean yours! Connect with other women and allies for this incredible session that will provide you with an arsenal of knowledge you can use to develop and grow your career. Harness the energy you want to see in your career by practicing using your voice in real-world scenarios, and leave with effective tools that will enhance your leadership skills, elevate your communication abilities, and push you toward your goals.
Session
It is possible to develop and grow powerful organizations in challenging times—it takes courage, determination, and actionable techniques that work. Develop your company culture in the right direction and you can not only succeed, but truly make a difference in the lives of your employees and your customers.
Creating High Performance Teams is a powerful professional development experience, introducing tools and techniques for creating outstanding business results. Bruce Hodes, author and CMI’s Head Coach, will guide participants through interactive educational exercises and dialogue based on his book Front Line Heroes: Battling the Business Tsunami While Developing Performance Oriented Cultures. Participants will learn practical and critical techniques that they can put to use immediately to tap into their company’s true potential.
Participants will learn:
• How to make mission, values and BHAGS relevant to daily organizational life
• How to transform groups into high-performance teams
• 7 essential rules for effective strategic planning
• How to eliminate mediocrity from employee performance – for good
Take home value:
Running a business in this bumpy economic time can be tricky. With a myriad of new tools and techniques, participants will learn practical and critical techniques that they can put to use immediately to tap into their company’s true potential.
Session
In this panel discussion about buying and/or selling a business in the print industry, a panel of Investment Banker, Private Equity and an industry leading company senior executive (final panel TBD) will discuss the factors that are driving the consolidation of the industry, the nuts and bolts of the deal process, and the qualitative and quantitative factors that affect business valuation. The dramatic shifts occurring in the sign and display industry with changes in demand, technologies, and services set the backdrop for a lively discussion which will include facts about the current M&A market for companies in the graphic signage related industries.
Session
Running a successful manufacturing business requires many inputs to align and work in sync with each other. We categorize these inputs into four areas: People, Parts, Plant, and Process. Managing through COVID, and the resulting supply chain chaos, turned many of these areas on their head. Learn the importance of each of the four P’s, how they relate to each other and how to pivot in multiple areas while still maintaining manufacturing throughput, product quality and reliability.
Session
Whether you are leading a business, leading a department or leading a team the single most important behavior that separates highly effective leaders from average ones is coaching.
Leaders who coach will develop more capable, more competent and more autonomous people. This results in increased productivity, better teamwork, more engagement and higher retention.
In this presentation you will learn the specific activities required to coach your people. Including how to:
• Effectively communicate with your people
• Build a better team
• Inspire and motivate your team to win
• Delegate to develop
• Give feedback the right way
The most effective leaders are good coaches. Learn the fastest and easiest way to adopt the behaviors that will allow you to become a better coach.
Session
It starts with effective leadership skills. In today’s challenging economy and diverse sign producer workforce, implementing superior, competitive leadership skills is critical to your success. Visionary, global and long- range thinking play major roles in your beating the competition. Where most organizations have the same equipment, same strategies, same sales channels and competitive products and services, you have to be extraordinarily different and superior in your ability to organize new business paths, find new customers, communicate, encourage, influence, and energize your workforce. You also must be able to create and maintain loyal customer relationships through superior service. And finally, you must have the extraordinary ability to develop a self-motivating work environment. This presentation shows you a proven formula that works. Topics include the critical characteristics that drive a successful competitive leader, effective ways to compete with your products and services and how to create new ones, ways to establish the right customer image, ways to improve customer retention, how to define your business, how to face the challenges that lie ahead and ways to stay focused on that all-important vision.
Session
To be a great Project Manager takes more than a charming personality. It takes attention to details, good communication skills and a well-defined process. A good process starts with identifying risk factors, developing a plan to tackle and reduce the risks and based on this plan, develop a detailed project schedule. The schedule needs to be summarized by a schedule document to help manage, monitor and control the project.
After the planning phase is finalized, the next biggest challenge for the success of any project is communication. The PM needs to use tracking tools to document the ongoing communication throughout the project. Once the project is complete, Post Project Debriefing needs to be done so lessons learned can be disseminated throughout the company and help other PM’s avoid making the same mistakes.
The presentation will include down to earth principles coupled with examples and discussion.
Session
This session delves into sign construction and technology; focusing on various materials and methodologies in the design and fabrication of commercial signage. Attendees will receive a 50% discount for the SRF Sign Glossary, a comprehensive resource for anyone seeking to broaden their sign industry knowledge.
Session
Navigating the various rules and regulations and the documents needed for a sign permit application can be an arduous task. And what works in one city may not work in another. This session will explain the time-saving tips dealing with elements of a sign ordinance like: types of signs allowed, sign placement, set back requirements and property line information, size allotments, materials and construction requirements, installation, anchoring and inground installation requirements, and lighting and digital display requirements.
GoPermit’s Jennifer Ronneberger and ISA’s James Carpentier & Kenny Peskin will explain conditional use permits and variances and requirements in historical districts. They will also walk through the documents that may be needed when applying for a permit, such as: sign drawings; site survey and site plan with property lines and markers; county maps; Google aerial photo and other photos of the property; and elevation and structural drawings.
Session
TBD
Session
Living up to expectations and developing relationships with installers to ensure a successful project ending. Hear stories and recommendations for improving your relationship with installers from Mike Harbinger of Harbinger Signs, Adam Brown of Sign Effectz & Judy Walton of Simon.
Forum
The permitting process for getting your customer’s signs approved can often be viewed as arbitrary and time consuming as nearly every part of the process from design to installation to replacement requires permit approval. Gain an understanding of how to prepare for successful permitting;analyze specific scenarios and case studies to learn winning strategies to apply to your permitting situations, and leave with tips and tricks to help you streamline the process and overcome challenges.
This course has been approved for CEU credits by the International Code Council (ICC). Receive .10 CEU credits for attending. You will receive a certificate of completion 10-15 days after the session.
Session
Signage is a hard sell with a long turnaround from concept to completion. Sales are constantly struggling to deliver a solid product with competitive pricing – and yet we’re constantly asked to “sharpen the pencil” – discount – and ‘tighten’ things up. It’s not hard to fill the funnel, but closing an opportunity for a win is increasingly difficult. I’ll share the value build strategy which will not only help you win more opportunities – but end the sticker shock, the ‘low bidding,’ and help you move forward with happier customers (and a better bottom line).
Session
With so much having changed in the marketplace, it’s probably time to rethink every element of sales performance and sales management. Dave Fellman is a thought-leader in both management strategy and compensation strategy. In this fast-moving session, he will show you how to build a sales team that is well-equipped for both the present and the future. You’ll learn how to improve the performance of your current salespeople, and how to make better hires in the future.
Learning Objectives:
• How to assess your current salespeople against the optimum Sign Sales DNA
• How to train necessary skills, and motivate better attitudes
• How to set and manage by measurable objectives and by equally measurable subjectives
• That “money talks,” and how to make your sales compensation say what you want it to say, rewarding and reinforcing the behavior and performance you’re looking for and discouraging bad habits and attitudes.
Bootcamp
Define what superior customer service culture looks like and how to show up as a professional excelling in this space. We’ll share stories of hospitality and customer focused behaviors across various industries. We will skill build around active listening and communication to increase the ripple effect that drives people back to an organization.
Session
Hiring and training the next generation of sign fabricators is among the most important tasks for the survival of the industry. The Sign and Graphics Institute has collaborated with the Fashion Institute of Technology to develop methdologies for sign industry workforce development. This lecture will encompass these innovations, including vocational partnerships, internships, training programs and special projects. Included will be case studies and videos that illustrate these methdologies and a sample approach for fabricators and academic institutions.
Session
Inspired, driven and talented employees – it’s every company’s most important asset. Your top-performing sign producer employees will help your company survive the toughest economy. That’s why, now more than ever, it’s critical to ensure that you are taking the steps to hire the right people and retain these key employees for the short and long term. You cannot tell people to be motivated, but you can create a work environment that fosters self-motivation. This informative talk shows you how to do just that. Examine the thought processes and emotions of key performers who stay versus those who move on to what they see as “greener pastures”. Get advice on hiring strategies and motivational techniques to build the loyalty necessary to ensure key employees stay and thrive.
Session
Secrets of success, what does not work anymore, and how we need to think and act going forward. Consider what we have learned through these past few challenging years and what we all have in common while also understanding what differentiates us to function uniquely and successfully running our own businesses.
Handouts will be available for all those in attendance – come pick up nuggets of information to directly apply to your toolkit!
The individual education package includes a free trade show pass and access to all available recordings.
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