On the weekend of Nov. 4-6, 2023, decorators from across the country gathered to participate in the Print Hustlers Conference. The event took place in Newport Beach, California, and featured several presentations, educational sessions, panels, and site visits that encouraged attendees to push their boundaries, explore more efficient business practices, and more.

Day One: User Summit

Day one featured a Printavo/InkSoft user summit, which was held onsite at Liquid Graphics. Matt Marcotte, Inktavo, and Craig Mertens, Inktavo, presented new features and user tips and tricks for the Printavo and InkSoft platforms (respectively).

Marcotte noted that there are a few challenges he sees consistently in shops, such as quoting, automation, and shipments. He outlined what tools within Printavo help address these challenges. Mertens then took the stage and discussed InkSoft features, with particular emphasis on the Clone Stores feature.

Both platforms have just launched several new features, with more to come going into 2024.

Day Two: Education

Day two was packed full of presentations from various speakers. Steven Farag, Campus Ink, started the day with his presentation “Everyday Integrations: Tools & Systems to Run Your Shop ‘Automagically.’” Farag discussed how and why decorators should use different tools, such as automations.io, to scale, stabilize, and make money within their businesses.

Other speakers that took the stage included Jeffrey Paul, Michelle Moxley, and Kesney Muhammed. Moxley’s presentation was of particular interest among attendees; she discussed the topic of AI. Moxley used AI agents to demonstrate the various ways AI can be used within a decorated apparel business, spanning from using tools like ChatGPT to write customer service scripts all the way to researching data. She emphasized the point that there are still many gray areas when it comes to legal and ethical conversations.

Keynote speaker Nigel Barker also joined the lineup near the end of the day. Barker discussed his experience as not only a TV celebrity on the show “America’s Next Top Model,” but also his various entrepreneurial endeavors. Barker tied each experience to a motivational takeaway point that apparel decorators can implement in their professional lives.

Keynote speaker Nigel Barker. | Credit: Cassie Green

Day Three: BELLA+CANVAS Tour

Day three wrapped up the Print Hustlers Conference with a visit to BELLA+CANVAS, where attendees had the chance to see several manufacturing processes. Attendees were guided through three different presentations as well as had the opportunity to walk certain areas of the production floor.

Next year’s event is scheduled for Nov. 2-4, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio.