May 3 - 5, 2007, St. Louis, MO

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Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

On Thursday morning, everyone woke to a continental breakfast, registration and the very helpful Conference Orientation conducted by HSMG President, Marie Gale. She walked everyone through the schedule, Annual Meeting, Soapers Showcase, Raffles/Door Prizes and what they could expect over the next three days.

Keynote Speaker

At the end of the orientation we received an announcement that our keynote speaker, Donna Maria Coles Johnson, was unable to attend and was being replaced by a woman that the Conference Chair met in the bar. This, of course, was met by sighs and looks of exasperation and outcries of: "The keynote speaker isn’t here???"

Then in walks the "crazy lady" - Donna Maria, wearing an apron, goggles, rubber gloves, ear muffs and, for some reason, a nose plug. Hair in curlers, she decides to do a demonstration on soapmaking and is soon aided by her "friend", "Soaprah" (Kayla Fioravanti of Essential Wholesale). Needless to say, it was hysterically funny and a very humorous way to start out the conference.

Donna Maria followed her skit with her keynote address what was described later by attendees as "Entertaining and Inspiring!", and "Her passion and knowledge were so apparent!".

It was official, the conference was off and running and we thank Donna Maria for starting it off on such a fun and inspiring note!!

Speakers

Debbie May of Wholesale Supplies Plus did a presentation on business and marketing and was also a huge hit with attendees. Her presentation was described as "Clear and informative" and Debbie was described as "Down to earth and real". It was clear by her presentation how much thought and preparation went into it, we were fortunate to have her!

Jena Thompson of Daisy Blue Naturals did a presentation on direct sales and how to support your business. Jena is an extremely cheerful person and was described by attendees as "passionate and knowledgeable." Her presentation brought to light a topic that we often think about but aren’t sure how to implement.

Lunch was a networking meal, each person was given the name of a famous scientist at registration. They were directed to sit at the appropriate table that represented their scientist. This was our attempt to get people to meet someone new and have conversations with other people at the conference. The attendees received this very well and we were told that they were thrilled to meet new people and talk "soap". Each person was given a gift bag with an HSMG clip-on calculator and a coupon book with tons of generous offers and deals from soap making suppliers.

Dominic Palazzolo of MakeYourOwnMolds.com was on hand to do a presentation/demonstration of making your own soap molds. As a trained chef Dominic has experience making molds for food and has transferred his knowledge to soap making. With a video camera on his presentation, even people in the back of the room had a front row seat to what he was doing. He handed out mini-kits to let people try their hand at making their own mini-molds. Dominic was very humorous and entertaining and he gave some great new ideas on different ways to mold soap.

On Thursday evening, dessert and coffee were served and the attendees enjoyed some time to socialize. Some ventured out to the restaurants and shops adjacent to the hotel

Continued ....