Dana Point, CA - Sign Biz, Inc., founder of the largest non-franchise sign chain in the US, again produced a fresh, innovative and relevant program for business owners and their staff at their annual Sign Biz International Convention, dubbed "The Reunion," hosted in Orlando, FL March 28-30th. Now in its 18th year, the Sign Biz Convention took the "FAST FORWARD" theme to heart, and created a series of workshops that looked at current realities of the economy, and the opportunities for growth in the coming 12 months.
A series of sixteen "OwnerShare Workshops" was developed over a four month period prior to this convention, capitalizing on an instant "bulletin board" system. Input from all Sign Biz Network Members was transmitted instantly via a private message posting system. This system allowed Sign Biz Inc and the Advisory Board to focus on the needs of the Members when building a new agenda around workshops to address particular issues. "Not only did we raise the bar on the number of workshops delivered, we also spent months in preparation for the technology side of the event. Everything was loaded to flash drive wristbands so that attendees had more than 150 documents literally at their fingertips, rather than lugging home a lot of paper. We saved a few trees here!" explained Young.
The program kicked off with an important message for everyone-- from small business owners to large-business salespeople-- delivered by a speaker with 30+ years of gaining maximum value from his own customers. Saturday, March 29, 2008, featured David M. Fellman, president of David Fellman & Associates, a sales and marketing consulting firm based in Cary, N.C. David has had broad and successful personal experience in sales, sales management and marketing management in several segments of the graphic arts industry, including signage. David is a popular speaker who has delivered seminars and keynote addresses at industry trade shows and events across the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, including the 2002-2007 ISA Discovery Seminar Series.
The conference also provides attendees with new opportunities to explore the green movement and sign manufacturing issues associated with municipal initiatives to "go green" across three areas: 1. Financial Benefit 2. Service Level Improvement 3. Sustainability Gain. This was a key portion of the Macro Trends workshop delivered by Sign Biz President, Teresa M. Young, and the Chairman of the International Sign Association Board of Directors, Ken Von Wald. His own company, Denco Sales, is a respected industry supplier that offers sustainable materials.
The second day offered a top-rated hands-on component too, as owners and their staff broke out into smaller groups led by Lori Anderson, President and CEO of the International Sign Association, the largest trade association representing the on-premise sign industry. In this interactive workshop, each table focused on specific client challenges based on real-world projects submitted in advance by participants. The challenges didn't have to focus solely on going green, but the results incorporated green solutions into the design. The outcome was a presentation led by a "speaker" for each table, incorporating the speaking tips and tools taught by Anderson.
To date, Sign Biz's international conventions have produced more than 160 individual workshops, with nearly half captured in professional videos, CDs, and books. These workshops are developed with the help of a dedicated team of 20 Advisory Board members who themselves own and operate successful Sign Biz enterprises.
In addition, the Sign Biz corporation:
- Developed, implemented, and evaluated new attendance tracking, registration data and instructor activity reports.
- Recruited and trained a record number of workshop presenters, including training on AV and visual presentation systems.
- Developed Education Partner program to train new facilitators.
- Revised and implemented sponsor benefits and presentation policies.
- Sustained a volunteer moderator group.
- Developed and implemented a hotel registration system on-line.
- Implemented new post-event survey by intranet.
- Evaluated fee structure and designed a budget based on attendance research.