General Info • Register • Schedule • Session Descriptions • Speaker Bios
Summary descriptions for each session are below. Please visit the schedule page for exact times and additional conference programs and information. You can use the quick links below to jump to each session.
Better, Smarter, Richer • Bloom Where You Are Planted • Brand Visioning Collage • Build Your Own Website • Customer Service Excellence • Embracing the Ugly Side of Your Business • Envisioning Your Craft Book • Intentional Growth • Local, Living Economies • Money Rocks! • Reframing Your Competition • Success Spotlight: Rogue Ales • Tasty Branding •
Toxins of the Trade
Better, Smarter, Richer: Seven Business Principles for Solo and Creative Entrepreneurs
This learning workshop focuses on the seven principles outlined in Better, Smarter, Richer. There is a path to financial success without growing a large enterprise, and the seven principles show the way. The workshop will present the principles using the stories of real clients, artisans, craftsmen and other solo-entrepreneurs to illustrate the principles, how they work and how workshop participants can adapt them immediately into their enterprises.
Bloom Where You Are Planted
Betsy Cross and Will Cervarich
You’ve started a business—so, what next? This workshop deals with understanding the snags, needs, and successes of owning an indie micro-biz. Betsy Cross and Will Cervarich will present their story of success, overcoming snags and meeting the needs of their business, betsy & iya, as well as the importance of staying active, navigating business intuitively and taking risks.
Brand Visioning Collage
The creation process behind an item and the artist’s mystique are compelling parts of an artist’s brand which will set them apart. Branding engages the customer through authentic and memorable “storytelling”—making the customer more likely to be intrigued, purchase, and spread the word about an artist’s work. The use of collaging in the workshop invites crafty and creative participants to use their natural visual and handmade skills to define their brand.
Build Your Own Website
Start a WordPress-based website in less than an hour. A lot of people believe that creating a website means hiring a web designer. Wrong. With many user-friendly platforms out there, it’s never been easier to get your website started in a day. Walk away from this session with the basics in hand and the next steps outlined for a professional-looking website that can be expanded as you grow (and handed off to a web designer if you want to get fancy).
This class will take place in a computer lab, but participants are encouraged to bring a laptop if they have one. Other website building blocks are required as well. More information to follow.
Customer Service Excellence
How Portland Can Compete in National and Global Markets
Is Portlandia’s scathing parody of customer service even a little bit true? How does that contribute to Portland’s national customer service reputation? How can we put Portland’s craft businesses on the map for the most excellent customer service? Are customers really always right? Are there, ahem, perhaps some customers that you don’t need? What are the seven elements of customer service that will make your customers want to tell their friends about your business?
Panelists will include Amanda Siska of online indie empire Bread and Badger, Cathy Pitters of Crafty Wonderland, the craft show extravaganza that became a full-time retail store, veteran art and craft show vendor Tim Combs of the Reclamation Project, and Trillium Artisans program coordinator Christine Claringbold of Eye Pop Art.
Embracing the Ugly Side of Your Business
Taking a good hard look at failure can be a very healthy part of succeeding in creative business. It’s scary, yes. It’s uncomfortable, yes. But it can also be liberating, constructive and valuable to the entire process of fleshing out an idea and translating it into a business plan. Learn how NOT avoiding the unsavory bits can make you happy and make your business thrive.
Envisioning Your Craft Book
From Idea to Proposal to Bookstore Shelves
Craft writing and publishing is an essential and dynamic aspect of our industry, and yet it can be a confusing and difficult field to break into or understand from the outside. From idea to proposal to bookstore shelves, get tips and advice for navigating the world of craft publishing—from pitching blogs online to creating a strong book proposal and working with an agent and publisher.
Intentional Growth
How small is big and how big is small?
Duane Sorenson and Rebecca Pearcy, moderated by Diane Gilleland
Duane Sorenson and Rebecca Pearcy discuss the difference in growth models of their respective businesses—Stumptown Coffee and Queen Bee Creations—illustrating that different businesses have different needs. Moderated by Diane Gilleland, the conversation explores why some business owners find success in expansion while others find success in restraint, and highlighting the importance of thinking strategically about creative endeavors.
Local Living Economies
Emily Kanter, BALLE
Local, independent businesses are among our most potent change agents, uniquely prepared to take on the challenges of the twenty-first century with an agility, sense of place, and relationship-based approach others lack. They are more than employers and profit-makers; they are neighbors, community builders and the starting point for social innovation, aligning commerce with the common good and bringing transparency, accountability, and a caring human face to the marketplace.
Money Rocks!*
You love your art, and you love to eat—so why not learn how to set yourself up for financial success? The purpose of this course is to learn ten key actions to building a solid financial foundation for your business. We will dispel the myth that creativity and money are mutually exclusive by engaging your creativity to help you understand and improve your relationship with money. Learn ten keys to making money work for you, not the other way around, because Money Rocks!*
*If you know what you’re doing.
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Reframing Your Competition
Learn to frame your competitors so that they become advantageous allies rather than something to fear. Participants will learn how to conduct a SWOT analysis by brainstorming strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and a competitive analysis of their top three competitors. Learn how to build strategies, grow strengths, differentiate yourself from your competition and stay fresh, new and up to date.
Success Spotlight: Rogue Ales
Jack Joyce and some friends from college began brewing Rogue Ales in 1988 in Ashland, Oregon, but later moved the business to Newport, Oregon, where Jack received support from the owner of Mo’s Restaurant. When the pub opened they had an instant fan following. Learn the story of Rogue Brewery from the idea to the booming beer business currently operating today. Jack Joyce, CEO, will focus on the steps and lessons learned to grow Rogue Ales.
Tasty Branding
How to Turn Your Creative Brand Into an Experience
In this workshop, attendees will turn a thousand unique ideas to a creative business brand that sells. Building a beautiful brand doesn’t lead to success if what’s behind the brand is not genuine or thought through. Brand is not about looking great—it’s about feeling great. Luckily, creative businesses have a fantastic tool on their side: connection. Creative business owners connect to their work, their materials, the influence their business has on their life and the impact their business has on their customers. A brand can convey all of this and in just seconds!
Toxins of the Trade
How to Reduce Toxic Exposure Risk from Craft Materials and Small Business Environments
A froggie costume made from old furniture foam—great idea, except that the foam is likely exposing the costume wearer to a toxic flame retardant. Toxic risks tend to rear their ugly heads when you use reclaimed materials and art supplies. With a few simple practices and toxin-spotting know-how, you can avoid the long-term health and environmental risks of working with plastic, paint, glue and other everyday materials. Learn how with Oregon Environmental Council, the healthy home experts.
General Info • Register • Schedule • Session Descriptions • Speaker Bios
