Screen Printing - April/May 2018 - 6

PRESSING ISSUES

WFX: WIDE-FORMAT EXCHANGE TO FEATURE
EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS, INDUSTRY INSIGHT
WFX: Wide-Format Exchange, a new conference scheduled
for May 21-23 in Minneapolis, aims to provide wide-format
leaders with insight into the future of print. Educational
sessions, networking events, and interactive discussions
throughout the three-day program will explore business
strategies and technologies in an evolving market.
The event will be held at the newly renovated, historic
Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, The Depot, in the center of
downtown Minneapolis. Special discounted room rates are
available until April 26.
Hosted by SGIA and ST Media Group (publisher of Screen
Printing, Big Picture, and Signs of the Times), WFX kicks off
with opening keynote speaker Ryan Estis, a former chief strategy officer for the McCann Worldgroup advertising agency
NAS, who will present "Managing Breakthrough Performance
in the New Economy."
The "WFX Buyers' Panel" will be an interactive session
featuring the signage and graphics decision makers for three
major brands: Wells Fargo, SuperValu, and REI. The session
will provide an opportunity for PSPs to glean insight into how
major brands approach their signage programs and how they
can better serve such lucrative clients.
Another session titled "How a Punk Rocker from LA Became

a One-Stop-Shop Rockstar in Vegas," features James Swanson,
the principal and founder of Screaming Images, a vendor for
MGM Resorts and Caesars Harrah's.
Inna Semenyuk will present "Leveraging the Power of
Technology and Social Media to Maximize Profit." Semenyuk is
founder and CEO of InnavationLabs, a marketing consultancy
based in San Francisco, and SnapchatDaily.com, the only
professional blog about using Snapchat for business. She has
worked with Facebook, Skype, eBay, SanDisk, NBC Universal,
Turner Broadcasting, Starbucks, OKI Printing Solutions, Visa
International, and others.
A session titled "Why Sustainability and Profitability Go Hand
in Hand" will be moderated by Marci Kinter of SGIA and SGP,
and includes panelists Jenny Dela Cruz, Snowball Print Marketing; Marco Ugarte, MillerCoors; and Scott Schulte, Modernistic.
In this interactive discussion, you'll get actionable ideas from
both the printer's and brand's perspective. 
In "Managing the Dynamics of Family-Held Businesses,"
speaker Greg Root, CEO of GMN, one of the largest specialty
printing companies in the world, will explore the unique set
of business challenges - and how to handle them - that arise
when your business includes family.
For the full schedule, visit wfxconference.com.

INAUGURAL THREADX HIGHLIGHTS DISRUPTION AND MARKETING SAVVY
More than 150 apparel decorators, sponsoring suppliers, and industry observers attended SGIA's first
ThreadX conference, held in February in Palm Springs,
California. Branding expert riCardo Crespo, a former
executive at Mattel and 20th Century Fox, kicked off the
event with a keynote on how companies can redefine
their brands and transform their workforces by focusing
on why - not who - they are. His theme was echoed
by numerous other presenters, including a session
on building a successful B2C apparel brand led by
Charleston, South Carolina agency Blue Ion. As Blue
Ion founding partner Robert Prioleau said, "The best
brands are defined by what they're made of, not what
they make."
The possibilities of e-commerce and the disruption it's
causing to traditional apparel decoration channels was
6

SCREENPRINTING

another recurrent theme. Frequent Screen Printing author
Mark Coudray discussed how broader economic forces
are driving the emergence of mammoth online apparel
decoration platforms. Custom Ink, one of the companies
that exemplifies this trend, was featured, with COO Rob
Kramer and VP of Business Development Andy LouisCharles offering an alternate view on the competition
between new and established vendors.
Other highlights included two sessions on sustainability led by Ryonet CEO Ryan Moor and Skya Nelson,
president of Fed By Threads, plus featured sessions from
celebrated young apparel entrepreneurs including Johnny
Earle of limited-edition apparel merchant Johnny Cupcakes, former "Shark Tank" contestant Mel Lay of
SandiLake Clothing, and Tim Williams of in-store printing
specialist YR Store.
http://www.SnapchatDaily.com http://www.wfxconference.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Screen Printing - April/May 2018
