Conference Schedule

What makes a shirt more than just a shirt? What turns an idea into a brand people connect with, a product they want, and something they're willing to pay more for?

Join acclaimed artist Matt Cliff, whose creative work includes Pearl Jam, The Eagles, The Doors, The Killers, Post Malone, Leon Bridges, and Phish, as we celebrate 50 years of Impressions and explore The BIG IDEA: bringing artwork, apparel, decoration, production, marketing, and business together to create something that truly matters.

Get inspired, discover how every piece of a successful brand works together, then experience The BIG IDEA throughout the conference, with classes that teach it, live show floor activations that bring it to life, and ideas you can take back to your own shop.

Who Should Come

Everyone! Shop owners, artists, designers, screen printers, embroiderers, production teams, sales professionals, and entrepreneurs who want to create better products, build stronger brands, and grow more valuable businesses.

All Conference Pass and Session Pass holders are invited.

What Attendees Will Take Away

• The Power of a BIG IDEA: Discover how a meaningful concept becomes a connected brand experience rather than just another decorated product.
• Design That Connects: Learn from Matt's experience creating merchandise for world-class artists and why storytelling, audience understanding, and creative details matter.
• Making Every Piece Work Together: Understand how artwork, garments, decoration, production, marketing, and sales contribute to the value of the finished product.
• Creating Something Worth More: Explore why thoughtful design, craftsmanship, and brand experience help products stand out and command greater value.
• Learn It. See It. Take It Home: Discover how the classes and live show floor activations connect, giving you practical ideas and techniques to implement in your own shop.
• The Next 50 Years: Leave inspired to embrace new ideas, learn new skills, and help shape the future of the decorated apparel industry.

Better embroidery begins with the right foundation. Join Alexis Galloway to learn how garments, stabilizers, needles, thread, and hooping choices affect the finished result. Using the same brand projects, explore practical setup decisions that help reduce puckering, shifting, and inconsistent placement. Then visit the Melco booth to see those fundamentals applied at the machine.

Who Should Come

Beginning embroiderers, machine operators, production staff, and shop owners who want more reliable results. Also useful for anyone training a new embroidery team member.

No prior digitizing experience required.

What They Will Learn

Fabric Behavior: Understand how stretch, weight, texture, and garment construction affect support and setup.

Stabilizer Selection: Choose backing and topping based on the fabric and design rather than habit alone.

Needles and Thread: Recognize how needle and thread choices influence stitch quality and fabric compatibility.

Hooping and Placement: Support the garment without distortion and establish consistent design placement.

Production Preparation: Organize materials and setup steps to make repeat jobs easier to reproduce.

Common Setup Mistakes: Identify the causes of puckering, movement, and inconsistent results, then choose an appropriate correction.

Great artwork doesn't always mean print-ready artwork! Join Carly Gully of GraphXSource to learn how to clean up, optimize, and prepare designs for both screen printing and DTF transfers. Explore vector vs. raster files, transparent backgrounds, basic color separations, and the common mistakes that cause production headaches. Then see the same 50th Anniversary artwork come to life in the following hands-on production class and at the Ryonet Booth in ROQ Atrium #2701.

Who Should Come

Graphic designers, screen printers, DTF decorators, shop owners, production teams, and anyone responsible for preparing customer artwork.

Ideal for beginners learning prepress fundamentals and experienced decorators looking to improve artwork workflows and reduce production mistakes.

What They Will Learn

• Artwork Cleanup: Learn how to work with low-quality customer files, remove backgrounds, and fix common design problems.
• Vector vs. Raster: Understand file types, resolution, transparency, and when each format works best.
• Optimizing Artwork for Production: Prepare designs for different decoration methods while maintaining important details and print quality.
• Basic Color Separations: Learn the fundamentals of separating colors for screen printing and what to consider before making screens.
• Screen Printing vs. DTF Artwork: Discover how artwork requirements differ and why the same design may need different preparation for each method.
• Production-Ready Files: Understand file setup, sizing, colors, backgrounds, and the final checks that prevent costly mistakes.
• Better Prepress Workflows: Explore practical techniques and tools to make artwork preparation faster, more consistent, and easier for production teams.

Want to turn band shirts into a bigger business opportunity? Join Jon Ladd to learn how to find music clients, create merchandise offers that get attention, and turn conversations into sales. Explore how artwork, apparel, retail-ready packaging, and fulfillment can transform a simple shirt order into a complete merch line. Then see music merchandise designs come to life at ROQ Atrium Booth #2701.

Who Should Come

Screen printers, embroiderers, apparel decorators, shop owners, designers, and sales teams interested in music merchandise, finding new customers, and increasing order value.

What They Will Learn

• Finding Music Merch Customers: Identify bands, artists, venues, and other opportunities for merchandise sales.
• Building a Merch Line That Sells: Develop offers that combine apparel, headwear, accessories, and branded products.
• Artwork That Connects With Fans: Understand how design, audience, and product selection influence merchandise sales.
• Selling the Bigger Idea: Use complete merchandise concepts to start conversations, even when customers ultimately purchase standard shirt orders.
• CRM, AI & Outreach: Learn how to find prospects, personalize conversations, and follow up consistently.
• Retail-Ready Merch & Fulfillment: Explore custom tags, packaging, inserts, and fulfillment as opportunities to increase order value.
• Turning One Gig Into Repeat Business: Build lasting artist relationships that generate future orders, tours, and merchandise launches.

Artwork tells you what a design should look like. Digitizing determines how it will stitch. Join Erich Campbell for an approachable introduction to stitch types, sequencing, underlay, density, and compensation. Follow the education brand design as it becomes an embroidery file, then visit Tajima/Hirsch to see how those decisions affect the sewn result.

Who Should Come

Beginning digitizers, embroiderers who outsource digitizing, graphic designers, and shop owners who want to understand the files they run.

No prior digitizing experience required. Concepts apply across embroidery software platforms.

What They Will Learn

Stitch Types: Understand the roles of running, satin, and fill stitches in building a design.

Object Order and Pathing: See how sequencing and travel affect appearance, registration, and machine operation.

Underlay and Density: Learn how foundation stitches and stitch spacing support coverage without unnecessary bulk.

Push and Pull: Understand why stitched shapes change and how compensation helps achieve the intended result.

Artwork Adaptation: Recognize when lettering, fine details, or narrow spaces need to be simplified.

Sew-Out Evaluation: Compare the digital plan with the stitched result and identify useful revisions.

Ready to turn artwork into finished apparel? Join Ryan Moor, Heather Jones, and the Ryonet team for a hands-on introduction to screen printing and DTF heat transfers. Follow the same design through both production methods, learning how to prepare, stage, align, print, and maintain quality while avoiding costly mistakes. Then see both processes in action and get more hands-on experience at the Ryonet Booth in the ROQ Atrium #2701.

Who Should Come

Beginners, aspiring apparel decorators, new print shop owners, and anyone exploring screen printing or DTF transfers. Also ideal for existing businesses considering adding a new decoration method or training team members on production fundamentals.

No prior printing experience required.

What They Will Learn

• Screen Printing Fundamentals: Learn the basics of screens, inks, press setup, registration, printing, and curing.
• DTF Transfer Fundamentals: Explore how DTF transfers work, including transfer preparation, heat press settings, positioning, pressing, and peeling.
• Staging, Alignment & Workflow: Learn how to organize garments, position designs consistently, set up workstations, and create a repeatable production process.
• Quality Control & Troubleshooting: Discover how to avoid common mistakes, including crooked prints, poor adhesion, registration problems, inconsistent prints, and improper curing.
• Screen Printing vs. DTF: Compare the advantages, limitations, costs, and ideal applications of each method using the same artwork.
• Hands-On Production: Get experience operating both screen printing presses and heat presses to understand how each process works.

Your customers need more than shirts. Why not be the one to sell it to them? Discover how to expand into branded merchandise, from drinkware and bags to headwear, accessories, and creative promotional products, without investing in new equipment. Join Sage Thomas to learn how to find products, source suppliers, explore decoration options, and turn existing customers into bigger sales opportunities using SAGE.

Who Should Come

Screen printers, embroiderers, DTF decorators, print shop owners, sales teams, and entrepreneurs interested in adding branded merchandise to their offerings.

Ideal for beginners exploring promotional products and established decorators looking to diversify revenue and better serve existing customers.

What They Will Learn

• Beyond Traditional Promo: Discover creative branded merchandise opportunities beyond pens, notebooks, and basic giveaways.
• Finding the Right Products: Learn how to select merchandise that fits your customer's brand, audience, budget, and intended use.
• Creative Decoration Options: Explore different branding and decoration techniques available through merchandise suppliers.
• Sourcing Made Simple: Learn how to use SAGE to search products, compare options, connect with suppliers, and source finished merchandise.
• More Revenue Without More Equipment: Understand how to expand your offerings by partnering with suppliers rather than producing everything in-house.
• Become a One-Stop Shop: Learn how to combine apparel with complementary branded merchandise to increase order value and encourage repeat business.
• Getting Started: Walk away with practical tools and ideas to begin offering branded merchandise to your existing customers.

Create bold embroidery without filling every inch with stitches. Join Joe Kramar for an introduction to appliqué using the education brand apparel project. Learn how fabric pieces, placement stitches, tack-downs, and finishing borders work together, and explore the preparation behind clean, repeatable results. Continue learning at the Texmac–HappyJapan and Wilcom booths.

Who Should Come

Embroiderers new to appliqué, decorators expanding their product offerings, and digitizers who want to understand basic appliqué construction.

Basic embroidery knowledge is helpful. No prior appliqué experience required.

What They Will Learn

Appliqué Construction: Understand the sequence of placement, material positioning, tack-down, and finishing stitches.

Material Selection: Choose appliqué fabrics and support appropriate to the garment and desired finish.

Cutting and Preparation: Compare pre-cut pieces with trim-in-place approaches and understand their workflow implications.

Digitizing the Edges: Explore how placement lines, tack-downs, and borders work together.

Registration and Coverage: Reduce exposed edges, gaps, movement, and uneven finishing.

Production Planning: Organize pieces and machine stops to make the process easier to repeat.

Want cleaner edges, better foam coverage, and more consistent dimension? Join Justin Armenta to explore the digitizing and production decisions behind successful 3D puff embroidery. Follow the brand headwear design through preparation, stitching, and cleanup, with examples of common failures and how to fix them. See the project at the Barudan and Wilcom booths.

Who Should Come

Embroiderers and digitizers who want to add 3D puff or improve their current results, especially on hats.

Basic embroidery knowledge recommended. Digitizing concepts are useful whether you create files or outsource them.

What They Will Learn

Puff-Friendly Artwork: Identify shapes, lettering, and spacing suited to dimensional embroidery.

Digitizing for Foam: Explore stitch direction, density, column structure, and sequencing for raised elements.

Ends and Foam Containment: Understand how end treatments and edge construction affect foam coverage and removal.

Flat and Raised Elements: Plan transitions between conventional embroidery and puff within the same design.

Headwear Production: Connect the design with foam selection, cap construction, support, and machine setup.

Cleanup and Troubleshooting: Recognize exposed foam, weak edges, and uneven dimension, then trace them to likely causes.

Make embroidery more expressive through deliberate stitch choices. Join Erich Campbell to explore how texture, direction, layering, and sequencing can give the brand design a distinctive finish. Learn to balance creative effects with readable details and practical production, then visit Tajima/Hirsch to examine the stitched results.

Who Should Come

Digitizers with a working knowledge of embroidery software, experienced embroiderers, and decorators developing more distinctive products.

Basic digitizing knowledge recommended. Techniques focus on transferable principles rather than a single software platform.

What They Will Learn

Texture and Stitch Direction: Use stitch angles and patterns to influence light, contrast, and surface appearance.

Layering and Depth: Build visual dimension while managing overlap and stitch buildup.

Creative Stitch Choices: Select treatments that support the artwork and the intended garment.

Detail and Readability: Balance decorative effects with clear lettering, recognizable shapes, and clean edges.

Efficient Sequencing: Plan stitch order and travel so creative choices remain practical to produce.

Testing and Refinement: Evaluate sewn samples, diagnose weak results, and make purposeful revisions.

Water-based ink can produce some of the softest, most impressive prints in the industry, but it's not always the right choice. Join Daniel Bush and John Magee for a practical look at when to use water-based inks, when to choose something else, and how to get consistent results. Explore artwork, garments, ink selection, mixing, screen setup, and curing before heading to ROQ Atrium Booth #2701 immediately after class for a limited live shirt-printing experience using the artwork and techniques covered in the session.

Who Should Come

Screen printers, shop owners, production managers, and decorators interested in learning or improving water-based printing. Ideal for beginners exploring water-based inks and experienced printers looking to improve consistency, troubleshoot problems, or expand their decoration capabilities.

What They Will Learn

• When to Use Water-Based Ink: Understand which designs, garments, order types, and customer expectations make water-based printing the right choice.
• When Water-Based Doesn't Work: Recognize limitations involving fabric compatibility, opacity, production conditions, curing, and cost, and when another ink system may be better.
• Artwork & Print Theory: Learn how separations, mesh, stencil, underbases, and print sequence affect water-based results.
• Choosing the Right Ink System: Compare traditional water-based, discharge, high-solids acrylic, and hybrid approaches.
• Ink Mixing & Preparation: Understand pigments, additives, viscosity, and mixing practices that improve color consistency and production reliability.
• Press Setup & Production: Explore screen setup, ink management, workflow, and techniques for avoiding drying in the screen and other common problems.
• Curing & Quality Control: Learn how to achieve proper curing, maintain a soft hand, and troubleshoot common print failures.

Want to print for your favorite college, sports team, or athlete? Join Steven Farag of Campus Ink to learn how sports licensing, approved vendor relationships, and NIL deals work, what they cost, and how to turn them into profitable opportunities. Using our athletic apparel collection, explore real licensing scenarios and see the designs and decoration techniques come to life throughout the Impressions show floor.

Who Should Come

Print shop owners, apparel decorators, entrepreneurs, and sales teams interested in producing merchandise for schools, sports teams, colleges, and individual athletes. Ideal for beginners exploring sports licensing or established shops looking to expand.

What They Will Learn

• Sports Licensing Fundamentals: Understand trademarks, collegiate licensing agencies, and brand approvals.
• Getting Your First License: Learn how to approach schools, navigate CLC and Affinity, and prepare a successful application.
• Licensed vs. Approved Vendor: Discover when you need a retail license versus authorization to produce directly for a team or institution.
• Costs, Royalties & Profitability: Understand minimum guarantees, royalties, reporting, and how to evaluate the financial opportunity.
• NIL & Athlete Partnerships: Explore opportunities to create merchandise and promotional partnerships with student athletes.
• From Design to Licensed Product: See how athletic apparel designs, garment choices, decoration methods, and sales channels work together.
• Finding Your First Opportunity: Identify practical ways to start with local schools, athletic departments, and college programs.