Community is extremely important. When we are around other people and notice artists doing brilliant work, we can be inspired to do brilliant work ourselves. I personally really enjoy being around people and have been an organizer of events for people to get together and have a good time for as long as I remember. Growing up playing in bands, I was the one that would put the shows together, make flyers, and inevitably bring a group of people into a room to have fun together. A few years ago I was invited onto the SGIA garment decorator committee, I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but was happy to be a part of something.
In 2017 after being on the committee for a year, I started to get antsy, I wanted to do something different than the projects we had done in the past. In our annual meeting we decided as a group to put on an event that might be different than what we had done in the past. This is where we came together to create a conference that would bring to our industry peers together to learn about things that we might not be so good at. I drive by print shops all of the time. They are everywhere. What I notice though is a lack of focus, lack of marketing, and lack of proper branding. So when we started putting together the focus for ThreadX it made a lot of sense to me to talk about Branding, Marketing, etc.
So, we got the ideas for what we want to be taught at the conference, but who would be good to teach those topics? If I am going to an event to learn, I want to learn from someone that is an expert specifically in those topics. As a committee we were able to reach out to some friends that we have made over the years that were experts, as well as, some people that had familiar names and faces. What came out of this was an incredibly inspiring and informative event. We had leaders from our industry in the room along with beginners, and everyone was talking to each other and learning from each other.
I am excited that our committee has once again been presented with the opportunity to bring people together to be inspired in 2019. This year we have some absolute rockstars in the fields of marketing, branding and operations. We will also fill the room with people that want to learn, people that want to be inspired, and people that are willing to share what they have learned, so that we can make the industry stronger. The more we can learn, the more we can share, the better we will all be. “A rising tide lifts all boats..“