Tips and Tricks for T-shirt Entrepreneurs

CafePress Connect - Overview

Posted on October 21st, 2006 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: CP Connect.

I made this shirt during the conference. I’ve decided it’s my official shirt for the Conference and this Blog.

While the sentiment may seem a bit flippant, I see its existence as a direct example of how inspiring CP Connect was for me. In fact, I thought up the design when I realized I was spending a lot of time during my trip simply attending the conference (ok, I did have *some* fun nights out, wink wink) but I wasn’t doing any of the usual “tourist” stuff. Golden Gate Bridge? The old cliche, “Been there, done that” came to mind. My addition then was… “Been there. Done That. Made the T-shirt”. And then, because I was so hyped up about the Conference, having been immersed in brilliant minds all weekend, I actually created the design, uploaded it and made a section for it.

So how was the conference really? It was terrific. It was “better than I expected it would be”, as I only half jokingly told one of its key coordinators. I should explain that statement. I’ve been to a lot of conventions and conferences as attendee, as a vendor, as a guest panelist, as press and as a coordinator. I’ve seen them from all angles and I can tell you that a company’s first conference is usually not a smooth one.

CafePress Connect exceeded my expectations in most ways and merely met them in others. Where CafePress Connect only gained satisfactory marks from me were in the accomodations. The host hotel was more quaint and charming than practical and soundproof, though I did appreciate the discount rate offered to conference goers. Fort Mason’s main building was great but the secondary building was stuffy and a little claustrophobic. Additionally, I appreciated the walking distance location of the hotel to the venue but was also disappointed that it did not have parking.
Where CP Connect exceeded my expectations was in the people aspect of things, which, when it comes down to it, is the most important part of a conference. I was surprised to see so many CafePress employees not only attending but remaining accessible throughout the whole weekend. In so many other conferences key employees would only have limited “face time” with conference goers and there would inevitably be a “back room” where they would disappear to. At CP Connect the CEO (Fred) and VP (Maheesh), co-founders of CafePress, not only hung out all weekend but would even approach convention goers to strike up conversations. I saw members of CafPress legal there as well and we all know how difficult a topic that can be. Shopkeeper panelists were also approachable throughout the weekend. After my own panel for instance, I was checking my schedule just like everyone else.

A nice surprise was the keynote speaker, Michael Dearing, former eBay exec and current Stanford teacher. I enjoyed his speech and noticed he was surrounded after his talk. For some reason I hadn’t expected a keynote speaker at the conference at all though I can’t say why. He gave us tips on business but also invited us to a program he’d like to start at Stanford where business students could take on our businesses as projects. His school is d.school.

Other Surprises

I loved seeing examples of every product and color CafePress carries. It was great to be able to touch the fabrics, see the colors, etc. The organic cotton t-shirts are super soft and not as thin as I had thought (they looked tissue paper thin to me in the online pictures). My favorite clothing item is still the unisex hoodie. Great weight, quality item. The new products were the surprise. Navy blue tees, women’s long sleeves shirts in white, brown and black and khaki green t-shirts. These were passed around and my head swam with ideas. No date yet for when these products will be available to us but I had a feeling they were eager to get them live.
The other surprise was the announcement of a real CafePress API. They showed a great example of what this means by showing http://www.click-shirt.com which is an example of what you can do with the API but can also be used as a design tool for shopkeepers.

The Panels

I have a limited view on these because I was on two panels: The Top Shopkeeper Strategies one, and the Niche Marketing one. I think both went well and I had others tell me so, but I’ll not expect you to take my word for it either way. If there’s interest I’ll probably make my information available on this website as separate posts. As for the other panels, I enjoyed the ones I was able to attend and learned something from each one. Even the third party tool presentation, with the emphasis being on tools I had already seen online and even downloaded, was helpful because the creators were explaining it themselves and pointing out features I had glossed over when I read the notes online. For instance I didn’t realize you could use either Jen’s tool, Yourdatafeed.com or Adam’s tool Instant-cafe.com as a handy way to just search CafePress or search for your own items. And, of course, both Jen (jgoode) and Adam (buytees) did a great job. The top shopkeeper discussion panel (not to be confused with the strategies one) was largely a feedback panel but it was good to hear the ideas that everyone had and to see when a point was made and see it sink in to the CafePress staff. The Pimp my Shop sessions were great because there was a direct example and specific advice for the lucky shopkeepers chosen from the audience to have their shops pimped. At the same time advice given was usually applicable to others shops as well. In a move which showed their willingness to respond to demand, CafePress squeezed in another Pimp My Shop session into the 2 hour lunch period Sunday since the weather was a little overcast and folks did not linger as long as they otherwise might have over lunch.

Goodies

I’ll mention a side note here on the food. For the cheap price of the conference tickets I would have expected pre-packaged lunch bag food both days of the conference. Instead we had fresh sandwich fixings with many bread choices for us to make things ourselves. We also had dessert options and… available all through the day… chips, cookies, granola bars, drinks, fruit and danishes! Not to mention special treats and alcoholic drinks during the Saturday night Happy Hour party. For $75 (early registration price) convention goers sure got a lot! My favorite was the carrot cake available with Sunday’s lunch, though the green CafePress 7 year anniversary cake was good too.

Another goody was, of course, the goody bag. From my past experience bags usually consist of schedules, other paper goods, maybe a pen or two and then one “main gift”. In my opinon the CafePress bag was a good haul. We got the tote bag (a CafePress one naturally), a mini button, a Holiday Prep guide, a schedule/notebook, a stamps.com pen, and then, in my mind, two “main gifts”. One being a 256 MB flash drive from Zanby and the other being Seth Godin’s book on marketing and business.
The Attendees

I was really happy to see a range of folks attending the conference. I was able to swap stories with other veteran shopkeepers but also talked about my experiences with new folks. Two gals who attended my Niche Shop panel didn’t even have CafePress accounts yet! I took the opportunity to tell them to use my store id, “offline” as their referral. Hey, never miss an opportunity right? It was a nice feeling to give back to the community, to tell my tales to folks just starting out. I made sure to let folks know that I was once on record for saying that I didn’t think you could make a living on CafePress. I’m glad I was wrong.

Conclusion

Well, I think one of the best indicators of how successful the conference was to me is my lengthened Projects list. I was inspired by the presentations I had seen and the people I met. I learned a lot of tips, even from the little holiday booklet they included in the bag. I feel almost overwhelmed by possiblities between store ideas, store layout changes, promotions I can run, and of course the world opened up by the API. I say “almost overwhelmed” because I believe in this one piece of advice I’ve heard and also given… never stop learning. It may take a while for some things to sink in, but don’t miss the chance to soak it all in and sort it out later.

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