Soap Guild 9th Annual Conference (2005)

The 2005 conference, held April 27 - 30 in Pittsburgh, PA was a great success!

Greatful thanks is given to the many sponsors and donors who made contributions and donations to the conference. These generous companies are listed to the right, please patronize their businesses where possible.

Soap Swap

This year the Soap Swap was more than just a soap swap. Besides awarding winners in several categories, we also had a display at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Pittsburgh, showcasing handcrafted soaps and a number of the swap participants generously donated all or part of the swap goodies to a local charity. See details and pictures

Classes

The classes this year were varied and extremely informative! And, in addition to regular 1 - 1 1/2 hour sessions, on Thursday there were two 3 hour Master Classes.

Irene Linauer, known by some as the "Creative Soap Queen", demonstrated how to make very realistic soap gems. Covered in her presentation were several mineral stones, including some very life-like turquoise, geodes and crystals. Irene also gave a separate demonstration of marbling in CP and MP soaps.

Linda Stevens presented a Master Class on Large Batch Soap Production, geared toward those soap makers who want to expand their CP soap production. Linda is always a great speaker and was informative AND entertaining - a great combination.

Anne Obarski, a professional speaker on merchandising and retailing, gave a dynamite presentation on how to really create a "buzz" in your business. Tying in the relationship between good presentation and putting on a show, she really did show how the soap business is show business.

Larry Plesant gave two classes. In one he spoke about the organic market, especially as related to Shea Butter, and in the other he shared his experiences teaching soap making in Ghana, West Africa.

Kevin Dunn, author and chemistry teacher, discussed his research into the "Dreaded Orange Spot" and what his experiments determined concerning the cause and prevention of DOS in your soap.

Suzanne Caplan, speaker and author, gave some important tips and hints for how to grow your business and how to decide if that's what you really want.

Jackie Thompson shared her research on blending of 13 key essential oils. As examples she brought 70 bars of soap in 35 different scent blends to share with the audience. Jackie also gave a class and demonstration on the making of liquid soap.

Michele Giordano, trends researcher for a major fragrance house, shared her insights into the fragrance market including how to identify the current trends and how to predict what might be coming in the future.

William Rambo, patent, trademark and copyright attorney, discussed what your intellectual properties might be, and how to protect them through the use of different types of trademarks, trade secrets, patents, and copyrights.

Award Dinner

On Saturday evening we had an Award Dinner. The Soap Swap winners were announced and there were a few surprises!

President's Volunteer of the Year Award

Implemented this year as a way to acknowledge the volunteer(s) who reach a stellar level in their personal contributions of time and energy, the President's Volunteer of the Year Award was awarded to two HSMG members for their volunteer activities in 2005.

Member Judy Green, of Pittsburgh, PA, worked on both the Member Services Committee and Conference Committee throughout the year. As a resident of Pittsburgh, she was a valuable resource in the preparation for the conference. She received packages shipped in advance, did reconnaisance at the hotel, gathered local area information and gifts for goodie bags and helped arrange the field trip to Jay Design Soaps.

Member Lynnel Camling, of Oregon, IL, served on the Marketing Committee and was the point-person for our Soaps For The Troops, a major Soap Guild project during the last year. Lynnell received and cared for over 2500 soaps from members, photographed them and packaged them up for distribution to military personnel serving overseas. Through her connections, soaps were given to the Chicago USO and Operation Military Pride. In addition, Lynnel served on the Nominating Committee.

Longevity Awards

This year's conference was the 8th Annual Conference. The first conference was held in 1997 and actual membership was initiated in 1998 (just 7 years ago!). As with any fledgling organization, there have been ups and downs along the way. However, there have been some stalwart members who have maintained their support (and membership) through thick and thin. Several of these individuals attended the conference and each was awarded a "Certificate of Appreciatiation" for their years of support (calculated from their original join date to the day of the Award Dinner).

Those attendees receiving awards were:

Ann Miller, 7 years

Elaine Koronich, 6 years

Marie Gale, 6 years

Linda Stevens, 5 years

Eleanor McMullen, 5 years

Barbara Briggs, 5 years

Thank You, Volunteers!

There were a number of people who contributed to making sure everything at the conference ran smoothly. These people deserve a special recognition for their willingness to pitch in:

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