Suprise, suprise! A quickly organized, small group of passionate business leaders within the wrap industry congregated at MetroWrapz in Hollywood, Florida to participate in a beta event, coined “The Wrap Summit”. The International Sign Association (ISA) partnered with Justin Pate’s Wrap Institute, and strategic support from Arlon Graphics, Orafol/ KPMF, Xix3d, Avery Dennison, and HP, to bring several industry leaders to develop, and test the viability of such an event to consider for a spin-off event attached at the hip to ISA’s recent push to join alongside the flourishing wrap segment of the graphics industry.
To get a room full of experience is one thing, to bring in some of the wrap world’s biggest hitters, is a feat most can’t accomplish, but Craig Campbell and the ISA Wrap Task Force took it on, and delivered! This event was structured around four main events,
Speaking Sessions, where industry leaders spoke on topics like the Industry Disruptor: FORD’s New Dealership Wrap Offering, a panel session Working ON Your Business, Not IN Your Business, and finally a hotly discussed, Contracting & Subcontracting Best Practices session that surely needed more time.
Beyond the sessions were Round table Discussions where the event broke into 5-6 people tables, discussed and ultimately presented to the rest topics like Certifications, AI use in our industry, Workflow Solutions, and Emerging Trends just to name a few. These group discussions allowed for quick note-taking, and then a presentation to the other round tables on your team’s discussion.
Continuing in the event, IGNITE Sessions, were fun and allowed you to go into pre-established topic groups, give your feedback, listen in on others’ feedback, and then quickly move to another topic group of your choosing. These topic groups discussed Company Culture, Business Diversification, Work/Life Balance, Exit Strategies, and a personal favorite, Firing Customers.
Lastly were Networking Appointments, which allowed every participant to meet with every other participant once each day throughout the 2-day event. These were personal discussions about the successes and failures of your company, and your partner’s, and ultimately every appointment for me was a learning event, that allowed me to walk away with an experience of how other shops cured problems I endured.
The early exit polls shared rave reviews of the event,
“Cannot say enough good things about this event” from Sean Tomlin of Designer Wraps,
“It was a great experience” from Carlos of MetroGroup Miami,
“an honor to be a part of such a great event” Alex Lund of Bizmark Sign Co,
“Great event” from Charlie Trujillo of Lettering Express
“truly inspiring thing to see. Very, very proud of our industry!” from Tim Evans of WrapperMapper.
With reviews like this, we can only hope that ISA sees the gold it has with this event, and brings it to the masses! If you want more information on ISA, and its upcoming events like the, 2024 Sign Expo, visit https://signexpo.org for more information.
