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The Advisory Council for the Expo has come up with a reason to attend the show this year, as well as bring your key people. Here’s the link to the overview and session descriptions: http://www.sfdexpo.com/sfde/edu_seminars.po
Everyone I talk to these days (manufacturers, distributors and fabricators) say there is a huge need for solid business training, i.e. accounting, finance, sales & marketing, employee relations, business planning, etc. The conferences are set up to address those needs with an awesome twist: the classes are broken down into tracks geared to the developmental stage of a fabricator’s business.
In other words, if you have been around for a few years, your needs are quite different than a newbie just starting out. Likewise, the owner of a large, multi-divisional company doesn’t want to sit in another class talking about how to write a basic business plan.
Best of all, the presenters on the business side are college professors, who also have real world experience. You can read their bios here: http://www.sfdexpo.com/sfde/instructors_speakers.po The professors are David Fielding, Tom Kavanaugh and Anthony Picchioni.
The idea is you can attend six classes in a business track geared to your company’s needs, get a certificate of completion and still have plenty of time left over to visit the exhibits and do all the other networking stuff.
There is also a General Interest track that covers design trends, alternative materials, the Green Movement, setting up a fabrication shop and other pertinent topics. They are great for business owners as well as other key employees. Plus, there is a whole series of demonstration clinics on the show floor.
(Sorry for the long post, but this is pretty exciting stuff. Also, I should disclose that I have a personal interest in the educational tracks as I am a Cygnus contractor for the show.)
Russ
Thanks, Russ.
I know I mentioned this before, but one business seminar that would be worthwhile for any beginning or intermediate business person, would teach us a no-kidding, easy to figure way to calculate your overhead costs to add to direct labor so we have an honest per hour figure to use when quoting.
I don’t see this yet on the list (I may be mistaken).
Tom
Excellent point, Tom. I’m sure this will be included in the business tracks, but I will pass your comment along to the profs just to be sure the subject is well covered.
In talking with the presenters, each is very interested in tailoring their seminars to your needs. Please make any comments/suggestions that are important to you and we will get them to the speakers now so they can incorporate the ideas into their classes.
Thanks.
I only glanced over the list briefly, but I’m curious as to whether or not there will be any software seminars beyond the AutoCAD one?
It looks like Corian will be in Booth 609. Near the front entrance. Russ is correct this years show looks pretty exciting. Hopefully many of you will attendI heard DuPont was going to have a booth at the show this year, has anyone else heard that?
I heard they will be there also.
I wanted to let all of you know that if you are thinking about going to the show, I am going to be sending out an e-mail to everyone on our official list with a way to get a FREE registration. However, you must be on the list.
To get on the list, you can go to http://www.surfacefabrication.com and on the left-hand side in the middle of the page is a box to sign up for our Surfacing Insider eNewsletter. If you put your e-mail address in that box and click “submit” it will take you to a page that asks you for a bit of info and then has two check boxes, one for the newsletter and one for “e-blasts”. To get the free registration e-mail, you will need to click the “e-blasts” box. That basically allows us to e-mail you and you will also get a few e-mails from some of our sponsors with relevant information on different products for fabricators. While you are there, you may want to sign up for the Newsletter too — it is generally full of good information that fabricators can use and only comes out once a month.
Best,
Kevin
I will look into this and get back with you. Sorry, Gordon.
– Kevin
It worked for me….but I did not see free stuff
Kevin got with me off-line on this. You guys may have been registered for the free stuff and not know it. I was. Apparently, the site does more than it lets on to the user.
Anyway, he’s on it. It should be fixed in no time, I’m sure.
I received the flyer on the show a few days ago. Was anyone else surprised at the lack of support by the major mfg? Dupont seems to be the only major mfg with a booth. Is the show still relevant ? The seminars seem to be getting better while the show itself is falling apart? I would like others thoughts on this.
Hello Wags. Good question. Are we at an impasse? Maybe it should be called the Countertop show. Every year other surfaces enter the market as viable products. Concrete , green counter stuff, etc.. What’s nice about these products is they can al be fabricated by SS fabricators. I believe at this years show those might be the venders you see. Perhaps not the large Old Boys but new players you need to educate yourself about or lose out in some market share.80% of why I go to the show are the classes and to network . When I network its not just with potential customers or other fabricators . Its also nice to check out potential venders and decide if you really want to do business with them. You can tell allot about a company when you meet face to face.The show will live or die on fabricator participation. I for one hopoe we can keep this thing going I dont want to go back to the STONE AGE. (Tom thats my play on word’s what do you think?)Wags what time do you get up? Early post..
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