Flyover Con, which took place April 17-18, 2026 at P&M Apparel in Polk City, Iowa, saw two days of full engagement from the attendees. The event launched in 2024 and focuses on practical, real-world education delivered by professionals actively running shops. It emphasizes collaboration, implementable takeaways, and open conversation over sales-driven presentations.

“From the moment the first people started arriving, seeing that everyone was engaged was a stand-out moment,” says Ryan Toney, co-owner of P&M. “You know that at a lot of these things people just go to go, but the people we had were immediately talking to each other, sponsors [including presenting sponsor SanMar], speakers, my staff, and that continued for both days.”

The event drew representatives from 16 different states and sold out at 75 registrations. “It felt big enough to reach wide, but small enough that people were able to have meaningful conversations,” Toney explains. “As always, we evaluate the sessions based off of what we see in the industry and try to get sessions that aren’t the same typical ‘every show covers this’ stuff.”

He adds that so far, the feedback has been positive. Emily Hassing, Sparkling Images, is one attendee that drew value from this year’s Flyover Con. She felt that the information provided by sponsors was informative rather than too “sales-y.”

For Toney, seeing the networking, engagement, and positive feedback reinforces the value of the event overall. “For us hosting it, seeing people show up and being excited to be there and then the feedback we’ve received has told us that we’re doing something right with this event,” he says. It’s enough to know they’ll likely keep putting on the event going forward, though it may look a little different.

“We had some Midwest shops say they would love to host it in their shops, so maybe we take this bad boy on the road and see what happens,” Toney says.