8:00 am

Doors Open, Meet Your Peers

8:30 am

Welcome: Kickstarting New Products - Bill Esler

8:50 am

Opening Keynote: Designing Product Development -- Adam Rogers, Director of Design, Thos. Moser Contract Furniture, Freeport, ME

Rogers is director of design, and the person behind Thos. Moser’s award-winning contract furniture line, Element. This bench-made business and hospitality furniture line elegantly integrates support for electronic devices without compromising design lines. Rogers will focus on the overall product development process, and the thinking behind Thos. Moser’s new strategy of collaborating with outside designers as one path of product development coupled with the remaining path of development through internal design.

10:00 am

My Woodworking Start-up Case Study: Adapt & Thrive -- Jared Patchin, J. Alexander Fine Furniture, Boise, ID

Patchin created an Apple-inspired desk, which has proved an best seller. Patchin spun off his business using his larger family-owned wood products production company as an incubator. He’ll tell how being flexible and adapting to a changing marketplace led to the profitable and growing start-up of J. Alexander Fine Woodworking, and how we have used our web site to drive sales. This popular bloggist and video commentator at Woodworking Network is a must-hear.

11:00 am

Launching a Business: Marketing Is Key-- Chip Yawney, A Cut Above Inc. - Custom Cabinetry & Design, Jessup, MD

Yawney first launched his business by integrating outsourced components into production. A former electronics industry sales executive, Yawney says his use of consistent messaging in marketing has grown his business dramatically, beginning in the downturn.

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Lunch

1:15 pm

A Different Woodworking Path: Skipping Industry Norms - Corbin Clay, Azure Furniture, Denver

Clay named his company after his product line, as he helped reposition blue-tinged beetle kill pine as a desirable aesthetic for furniture and cabinetry. “I’ll also talk about taking a completely different approach to professional woodworking, moving from what seem to be industry norms, and choosing to take a different path,” says Clay. Working with a daunting material, Clay will explain how he has maximized existing, lower-cost equipment into an intelligent production system, and recount his strategic use of social media to market products, positioning himself along the way as an industry personality.

2:00 pm

Olde School: My Journey to Inventing - KornerKing Peter Mai, president, Olde School Cabinet

Mai will tell about his invention of the KornerKing Lazy Susan after building over 500 customs kitchens.. He and his wife developed multiple varieties of the birch plywood KornerKing. Mai will explain his Internet promotions built around search including search engine optimization for online promotion.

2:45 pm

Software: Why We Wrote Our Own Applications - Jonah Coleman, Fletcher Wood Products

Coleman will explain how his cabinet company company reinvented project management and manufacturing workflow, building its own Enterprise Manager software, getting information that had been locked in people’s heads. "To the surprise of many, we have shared our software freely,” says Coleman. He’ll share his story.

3:00 pm - 4:15 pm

Presenter Panel & Open Forum – Peer to Peer Networking – moderated by Bill Esler

You’ll also hear about cooperative woodshop centers, where next generation woodworking “Makers” and “Crafters” collaborate in shared production facilities, lowering costs. Moderator Bill Esler will also present a mind-expanding recap of inventive wood products developed by cabinet shops and woodworkers across the country – creations that have allowed them to grow their businesses.