Monday, June 13, 2011

HSMG Conference Miami


view from our hotel

Wow! May was a blur (clearly since its now almost the middle of June). I had a busy month with the annual soap conference, fun times in Miami, wedding plans and a big birthday. The main event was the 2011 Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild Conference in Miami - which then turned into a pre-pre wedding celebration. The soap conference was a blast (as always), I shared a room with the fabulous Jen Hardaway from Klean Spa (she has shops in Santa Monica and Burbank). I met great people, got the chance to talk soap to my hearts content and I learned a lot of great things from the speakers. To make sure that I dont write a 3 page blog post, I've condensed down a few things from the conference.

Swirl Class with Kat from Otion
Here are my top 5 take-aways:
  1. soap cannot be 100 % certified organic according to new FDA regulations
  2. preception creates reality (a key point from speaker Barbara Cocoran)
  3. customers are the single most important person in my biz (I already knew that)
  4. knowing when to say enough when swirling
  5. there is no perfect size company so I have to choose what works best for me