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Woodworkers Symposium and Trade Show
May 21-22, 2010
St. Johnsbury Academy
St. Johnsbury, Vermont
Class Registration is Still Open - click on the banner on the left to get a registration form
The Vermont Woodnet Organization hosts the most important conference and trade show for the woodworking industry in Vermont. You can’t afford to miss this show. The Woodworkers Symposium & Trade Show is a vital part of the networking, sales and marketing strategy of successful and up and coming woodworkers.
Classes
Panel Discussion - Taking Your Business Outside the Region
Using Facebook as a Marketing Tool for Your Woodworking Business
Guerrilla Marketing that Really Works, and Cost Little or Nothing!
Branding Vermont Wood Products
Pricing your work for woodworkers / artisans
Writing A Strategic Plan for your Business
Cashflow Management
Computer Internet Basics
Marketing using the Internet
Basic Wood Anatomy and the Pros and Cons of Solar Kiln
Google's SketchUp
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Panel Discussion - Taking Your Business Outside the Region (Free with pre-registration!)
Presenters: Classis Designs, Matt Burak, founder and master woodworker and Dave Redmond, general manager and CEO
Description: A panel of local artisan/business people bring the story of their business growth to you with time for Q&A.
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Using Facebook as a Marketing Tool for Your Woodworking Business
Presenter: Charlene Andersen,
Kamigo Marketing LLC
Description: In this one-hour presentation you will learn what Facebook is and how to
make it work for your business. You will learn why and how to create a profile, update
it, use various tools, and how to leverage this powerful, free, social networking tool to
grow your business.
The session will consist of:
At the completion of the session you will have the basic knowledge to begin utilizing this
powerful marketing tool for your business.
Intended Audience: Woodworking business owners not yet using Facebook or those
who have been on these social networking tools for only few months.
Class Date & Time: Saturday, May 21, 2010, Time:
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Guerrilla Marketing that Really Works, and Cost Little or Nothing!
Presenter: Amy Mattinat, owner of Auto Craftsmen in Montpelier, VT
Description: Guerilla Marketing that Really Works, and Costs Little of Nothing! The Business that markets best... wins. No matter how good you are at what you do - if people don't know about your product or service, they won't buy from you. This Class will give you concrete tools, ideas and plans that you can immediately put into action for little or no money that creates sales and cash flow.
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Branding Vermont Wood Products (webinar)
Presenter: Glenn Ravdin, 2Ns
Description: This session looks at the basics of branding and its role as one of three pillars of the marketing strategy and planning process. Branding drives much of your marketing effort, from the message you send (like advertising and PR), the audience you want to receive it (customers and potential customers), and the media you’ll use to link the two (such as the Internet, a magazine ad or a studio tour). The webinar we will cover researching and understanding your brand, how your brand positions and differentiates you, using your brand to inform your marketing, and measuring your progress.
The other planning pillars are the resources you have – time, money and people – and the works you produce and distribute. Since these are unique to each producer, we will spend the bulk of our time focusing on branding your product.
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Pricing your work for woodworkers / artisans
Presenter: Mary Beth Quinn, Balanced Growth
Description: This course will cover the basics of how to set a price based on simple accounting. Pricing a product requires an understanding of what it takes to make the product you want to sell, plus overhead plus some profit in order to come up with a price. How the market place and your competition affects this price also needs to be taken into consideration.
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Presenter: Mary Beth Quinn, Balanced Growth
Description: Cash flow management is the process of monitoring, analyzing, and adjusting your business' cash flows.
For small businesses, the most important aspect of cash flow management is avoiding extended cash shortages, caused by having too great a gap between cash inflows and outflows. You won't be able to stay in business if you can't pay your bills for any extended length of time!
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Presenter: Sigurd Andersen
Description: This class is a basic introduction for individuals who know little or nothing about using a computer. This class will help you acquire the skills to access the internet and show you how to use a computer for email or searching the web. You should gain the basic skills to help you find information using a computer.
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Presenter: Gregg Banse
Description: Questions that will be answered during this session include: How do you market using the internet? What are the ways available? What is the marketplace, what does this cost, what can you expect to sell this way?
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Basic Wood Anatomy and the Pros and Cons of Solar Kiln Drying
Presenter: Dr. Dale R. Bergdahl
Description: This course will provide a technical review of basic wood anatomy including moisture relationships relative to the kiln drying process. The pros and cons of solar kiln drying will also be discussed and compared to other wood drying techniques.
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Presenter: Ralph Tursini
Description: A demonstration (and trial) of the free and powerful three dimensional modeling software “Google SkechUp”. This tool provides a relatively intuitive way of developing design concepts and methods to work out problems in three dimensions before bringing your design to life.
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Writing a Strategic Plan for your Business
Presenter: Mary Beth Quinn, Balanced Growth
Description:
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Presenter Biographies
Charlene Andersen, Kamigo Marketing, LLC (pronounced cam-eh-go) specializes in
assisting small businesses in the Northeast that offer products or services in the green or
Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) industry.
Kamigo Marketing LLC www.kamigomarketing.com
54 Garland Road
Nottingham, NH 03290
603-942-7160
charlene@kamigomaketing.com
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Amy Mattinat is the owner of Auto Craftsmen, an independent auto sales and service facility located in Montpelier.
Amy is passionate about automotive excellence. She feels that great customer service, educating her customers and creative marketing are the keys to her success.
Amy has written two books: "How To Buy A Great Used Car" and "Whatever Happened to Outstanding Customer Service?" She also writes a monthly magazine column "Under The Hood" for Vermont Women Magazine, a monthly automotive newsletter, has a blog (www.amysgarage.com), gives weekly automotive tips on radio stations and teaches 'Women Car Care Clinics' on a regular basis.
She belongs to the Car Care Council Women's Board, WAAI: Women Automotive Association International and Rotary International. She is on the automotive expert advisory panel for www.AskPatty.com, is on the board of CVEDC (Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation) and is the Central Vermont 'Toys for Tots' Coordinator.
amy@autocraftsmen.com
www.autocraftsmen.com
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Glenn Ravdin is the principal in 2Ns (pronounced two-enz), a marketing consulting firm specializing in branding, market research, and strategic marketing planning. For 22 years he was with Paul Kaza Associates, the marketing communications agency in South Burlington that Ravdin joined in 1983 and resigned from in January, 2005. He was with PKA more than two decades, serving for the last 14 as Senior Vice President – Marketing. Ravdin has a wealth of experience in tourism, food products (primarily dairy and maple), manufacturing, state government, education, media, health care, wood products, professional services marketing, non-profit, retail, and wholesale.
Glenn Ravdin
2NS Inc.
22 Davis Hill Road
South Hero, VT 05486
802 372-6438
www.2ns.biz
gravdin@2ns.biz
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Dr. Dale R. Bergdahl, UVM Professor Emeritus of Forest Pathology. Professor Bergdahl spent 30 years teaching forestry courses and doing tree pathology research at the University of Vermont prior to retirement in 2006. Following retirement he has maintained several research projects on the health of butternut throughout NE and NY. He remains active professionally, is a Vt WoodNet board member, a wood turner, and especially enjoys finding and working with “Character Woods”.
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Ralph Tursini teaches woodturning workshops at the Shelburne Art Center, through public demonstrations, and private classes from his studio in Cambridge, Vermont. He began as an apprentice and employee for furniture makers Bruce Beeken and Jeff Parsons who, as Beeken/Parsons, design and build hardwood furniture. Their forest-based approach to furniture design and thorough technical grasp of the processes involved inspired me to pursue my work with an equally thorough understanding of its basis. I learned woodturning through production work at Woodbury's of Vermont, a 60+ year old company in Burlington that still manufactures and sells hand-turned hardwood bowls. There I had the unique experience of learning from a turner who has been at it for most of his life and has probably turned more than 100,000 bowls! Further individual study and workshops with professional wood turners Luke Mann and Dick Montague helped deepen his aesthetic of the turned form and broaden his technical abilities as a wood turner. Ralph markets his work through word of mouth and local farmer's markets. He has recently expanded his business to sell available pieces from his website.
Tursin Woodturning, LLC
184 John Putnam Drive
Cambridge, VT
802-644-5131
VermontWoodturning.com
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Gregg Banse is the president of 7th Pixel, a website design, development, marketing and online strategy business in Montpelier, Vermont. Gregg works closely with small to mid-level clients in Vermont. As much a teacher as he is a professional services provider, Gregg’s passion is to empower his clients to make educated decisions about their goals and use of the Web. Gregg is experienced in all aspects of website development services from design concept to after publication marketing and social media strategies. His easy going manner and ability to distill highly technical information into easily understood concepts has made him a sought after presenter and workshop leader. With over 14 years in the online industry Gregg is a wealth of knowledge and can speak from experience on content management systems, hosting, search engine optimization, search marketing, blogging, online advertising, link building, social media, and many other subjects.
Gregg Banse
7th Pixel
64 Terrace St.
Montpelier, VT 05602 USA
gbanse@7thpixel.com
http://www.7thpixel.com
http://twitter.com/greggbanse
http://www.linkedin.com/in/greggbanse
skype: gregg.banse
p: 802-223-6101
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Sigurd Andersen has been working with computers for over 40 years. In addition to working as programmer, technology support person, database developer and web designer, he has taught numerous computer-related seminars and classes in many different environments. He and his wife moved to St. Johnsbury, Vermont full-time in 1998.
Sigurd Andersen
572 Libby Road
St. Johnsbury, VT 05819
802-748-2877
sigurd@solbakkn.com
http://www.solbakkn.com/
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Vermont small business veteran, Mary Beth Quinn, is the owner of Balanced Growth; a coaching and mentoring business dedicated to helping Vermont small businesses maximize professional and personal opportunities.
A 40 year resident of the Stowe and Burlington areas and a small business owner with over 30 years of experience in Vermont, Mary Beth combines personalized coaching with a systematic accountability process to help Vermont business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs create business plans, learn successful marketing skills, and develop future strategies to increase productivity, improve leadership skills and employee management.
Most recently the owner of Stowe Country Homes; Quinn was responsible for growing the 20 year old vacation rental agency from two employees and 35 rentals in 1999, to over 14 employees and 200 home listings by 2003. Property management, concierge, and real estate sales divisions were added by 2005. Prior experience includes owning the Olympiad Pro Shop in Burlington and Fine Lines at the Champlain Mill in Winooski. She started her first business, Snowear, Inc., at the age of 21. It became a successful knitwear design and manufacturing business that sold accessories throughout the US in the ‘70’s and 80’s.
Quinn has enjoyed being a PSIA Level 3 Certified Ski Coach with the Stowe Winter Sports School for over 20 years.
For more information Mary Beth Quinn can be reached at 802-793-1652 and mbq@balancedgrowthvt.com. .