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

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Saturday, May 5th, 2007

On Saturday morning the attendees awoke eager to attend the Soap Making and Business Expert’s Panels. Questions were pre-submitted and sorted so that as much information as possible could be passed on by our experts. The first panel was the Soap Making Panel and consisted of: Linda Stevens, Jackie Thompson, Lori Nova, Joan Wysocki, Kevin Dunn, Trina Wallace and Rob Brown. The second panel was the Business Panel and consisted of: Donna Maria Coles Johnson, Debbie May, Marie Gale, Daryl Stafford, Jena Thompson, Susan Ryhanen.

After lunch on your own the vendors were getting ready to close up shop so attendees were busy making their final purchases. Most of the vendors participated in offering a product or service that went into a Vendor Grand Prize to be awarded at the Gala Dinner that evening. Patrons of the vendors were given special tickets to be eligible for this prize.

In the afternoon we had several more presentations to round out the conference topics.

Marie Gale spoke on "Labels and Logos", mostly focusing on the label content Marie's new book, "Soap & Cosmetic Labeling: The rules and regs explained in plain English" which was released at the conference and available for purchase for the first time.

Lori Nova did a demonstration on Hot Process Soapmaking.

After a short break our final speaker, Sr. Cathleen Timberlake did a wonderful presentation on her journey as a monk and a soapmaker for her company Monestary Scents.

The Conference always ends with The Gala Awards Dinner, this gives us a chance to honor longtime members, award winners and the winners of the Soaper’s Showcase. We also award a lucky winner a complimentary conference ticket for the next event. And, of course, the much anticipated announcement of the next conference venue is always fun.

The Grand Door Prize was generously donated by Essential Wholesale. It was a consultation and custom formulation worth over $500, the winner was Delores Harris. Thank you Dennis and Kayla for that wonderful grand prize!

Other notable prizes were donated by Freis Cavell Designs (Pam Thompson) who gave a full set of label templates worth over $500 and Sandy Maine of Sun Feather Natural Soap Company who donated a "Spend the day with Sandy Maine" package worth over $500.

Every year one lucky person wins a ticket to the next years conference. This year Heather Pelto of Finger Lakes Soap won a ticket to the 2008 Conference in Vermont. This was very fitting because Heather was also our Soapers Showcase Coordinator and did a great job. Congratulations, Heather, we’ll see you in Vermont!

The President’s Volunteer of the Year Awards were given to Joan Wysocki and Rosann Drielsma in acknowledgement of their outstanding contributions as HSMG volunteers during 2006. Joan was active on the Bylaws and Finance Committees, helped with the conference vendors and was also a speaker. Rosann stepped in and filled out the remainder of a vacated Board Seat, doing an excellent job keeping things running for 9 months.

Lastly, our big announcement came, pictures of green pastures and mountains began to appear on the power point screen as volunteers handed out the final gift. A box full of HSMG logo items (luggage tags, post-it notes, magnets and pure Vermont Maple Syrup) in addition to maps and brochures for our 2008 location: The Inn at Essex in Burlington, Vermont.

We hope that you can join us in Vermont. You don’t want to miss it, the food is prepared by The New England Culinary Institute and is fabulous. Click here for all the info on the upcoming conference!