Education Tracks
   
  Decoration Success
WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2017 •  EXHIBIT DAY 1
       
11:00 a.m.-
11:50 a.m.		   Avoid the Top 10 Embroidery Mistakes
1 BASI/MASI Credit
Whether you opened your shop yesterday or two years ago, producing embroidery definitely has a learning curve, so you can expect to make some mistakes along the way. However, you and your decoration team can learn how to avoid them. In this session, a veteran embroiderer will guide you through many of the pitfalls and obstacles encountered by new and mid-level embroiderers, helping you to produce the best results for your clients.
About Jimmy Lamb
       
Noon-
12:50 p.m.		   Digital Appliqué and Multimedia: Combine the Best of Both Worlds
1 BASI/MASI Credit
With appliqué, the fabric itself can make the difference between ho-hum and wow-pow! Using simple digital processes like sublimation, direct-to-garment printing and heat transfers, you can easily create themed fabric that complements the design and takes your products to a higher level. The same concepts apply to multimedia – digital printing combined with embroidery makes for low-cost, blockbuster designs that generate more profits with less effort. This informative session will show you how to create digital appliqué and multimedia designs that bring together the best of both worlds. You’ll leave knowing:
  • The steps for creating digital appliqué
  • The steps for creating workable multimedia designs
  • How to find and/or create artwork for digital appliqué and digital multimedia.
About Jimmy Lamb
       
1:30 p.m.-
2:20 p.m.		   Discover Today’s Headwear Styles and Decorating Trends
1 BASI/MASI Credit
As one of the top 10 most-purchased promotional products, caps are popular and collectible – and they serve as walking billboards for your clients! In this information-packed class, you’ll learn about the many types of headwear and embellishments available today, and how to achieve them. You’ll leave knowing:       
  • All about the different types of caps, including structured, unstructured, camp, military, five- and six-panel, and more     
  • The “prime real estate” location on caps, and how to achieve placements beyond the front      
  • How to address digitizing concerns      
  • How to choose the right needle, thread and backing for best results      
  • How to avoid distortion and conquer the cap’s center seam.
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About Colleen Hartigan
       
2:30 p.m.-
3:20 p.m.		   Sublimation Workshop: Grow Your Bottom Line
1 BASI/MASI Credit
Are you looking for a way to expand your markets, bring in new customers and generate higher profits? Sublimation is a simple, highly effective process for producing stunning full-color, high-quality images on a wide variety of products. Apparel, plaques, promotional products, signage and more – the list is long. This in-depth workshop will teach you everything you need to know to make money with sublimation, from production to marketing to pricing.
About Jimmy Lamb
 
THURSDAY, JULY 13, 2017 • EXHIBIT DAY 2
       
11:00 a.m.-
11:50 a.m.		   Add Print and Heat Transfers to Your Embroidery Shop Today
1 BASI/MASI Credit
Do you want to produce printed apparel, but you’re not sure it’s a good fit for your business? Screen printing, inkjet printing, sublimation, direct-to-garment and transfers are all viable solutions for garment printing, and they’re easy to add to an existing embroidery shop. But it’s not a case of one-size-fits-all, as each method has its own unique applications and limitations. In this session, taught by an embroidery shop veteran with printing expertise, you’ll learn the differences between each imprinting method and how you can integrate them into your operation to expand your offerings and profits.
About Jimmy Lamb
       
Noon-
12:50 p.m.		   Pump Up Your Embroidery Profits With Safety and Special Effects
1 BASI/MASI Credit
Mastering the techniques for adding visibility to your embroidery will open the door to new business. Today’s decorators have access to reflective material that’s guaranteed for use in safety situations, plus other materials that add amazing special effects, sparkle, shine and visibility to your embroidery. In this session, you’ll learn the methods and materials that will make your decoration really shine. Some examples you’ll see include glow-in-the-dark embroidery thread, reflective appliqué fabric, an appliqué material that glows under direct light, and more.
About Colleen Hartigan
       
1:30 p.m.-
2:20 p.m.		   For Embroiderers and Digital Printers: Build a Profitable Pricing Sheet
1 BASI/MASI Credit
Though pricing has been tagged as one of the most difficult challenges faced by apparel-decoration business owners, it’s really not as hard as it might seem. The key is developing a mindset that sees the big picture, so you can fully understand what it truly costs to generate an order. Then, you can apply marketing strategies for working in appropriate margins that generate the profits you seek. This session will show embroidery and screen-printing shop owners how to gather and analyze business data in order to generate a baseline cost for printing, which becomes the foundation for a legitimate pricing system for the business. You’ll also learn:
  • What factors need to be addressed in setting up a logical pricing system
  • How production processes impact your profit margins
  • How to calculate the cost-savings of multi-piece production and translate it into volume price discounts.
About Jimmy Lamb