CafePress Connect Latest Pictures

Posted on October 26th, 2006 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: CP Connect.

Looks like this is nearly the last batch of pictures from the first CafePress conference.

This pic is from Hectic’s collection (click on the picture to see it larger and be taken to his flickr set). This was shown during the opening speech by Fred and Maheesh where they showed how CafePress’s website has evolved. I became a CafePress shopkeepr in 2001 and it didn’t look like this so this must have been from 1999 or 2000.

Kristen (Fox Vox) has her flickr set here.

CafePress’s Angela Low, Community Manager and *fabulous* person, has also uploaded some of her personal pictures and tagged them you can see those as well as the official CafePress photographer’s pictures and everyone else’s in this flickr tag set.

Off of the flickr system you can see pictures from Jean (Rotem Gear), over on her hosted page.

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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.

Fred Showing Chart of Shopkeeper Income

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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Conferences, Are They Worth It?

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

I was going to make this post about the CP Connect Conference in general but I got side tracked with an important point. If you have never attended a conference on a subject you are interested in… attend one! This is not just relevant to the CafePress Connect conference but for any conference. In this day and age of information on the internet you might say, “What’s the point of traveling to a conference when I can probably learn what is going to be said by looking stuff up online or maybe even just watching the reports that get posted later on?”

Well, I’ll tell you. Nothing beats in-person interaction. There is a vast difference in looking something up online and being able to absorb it in person… and to be able to ask questions during a session or individually of the speaker later. There is also the factor of being able to discuss the topic with your fellow audience members after the presentation. Discussion can lead to enlightenment.

When you’re looking up something on the net, you *might* be able to post a question or engage in a discussion, say on message board forums about it, but when something is just-happened-live fresh, discussion is easier and more spontaneous. And getting a specific question answered right then and there, is, of course, priceless.

Another big bonus of attending a conference is the social aspect of being amongst peers. Don’t underestimate the value of this. In some cases a conference may be the only time some people get to speak to someone face to face about a topic that consumes a lot of their time. I know that before I attended my first video game conference, aside from my boyfriend and his friend, I had not met anyone else who played games as much as I did. Perhaps we were all freaks, but darn it, we were all freaks together! Attending a conference makes you realize that not only are you not alone, but you share some of the same passions and problems with others… and you can share solutions.

One might counter what I’ve said by saying you can get camaraderie online, through chats or message boards or even email exchanges. I say yes, this is true… to a certain point. Man (and by this I mean all of humankind) is a social animal. Like it or not there is something that is triggered when we are together. Brainstorm sessions work for a reason. People can feed off of other people’s energy. Before you know it, you are breaking out with new designs, new ideas, and a new outlook on the path of your business.

If this all sounds a little too touchy-feely for you, I apologize. But I must use this sort of language to explain the magic that can happen at a conference and no where else. You are with peers, you are often with professionals who influence your business to whom you can give direct feedback (CafePress staff showed up in force for that, let me tell you). You are immersed in this for 2 days (or more), away from your ordinary routine and regular distractions. Is it any wonder then that *during* the CP Connect I knocked out a new t-shirt design? Is it any wonder that though I was on two panels myself as a 5+ year veteran of CafePress and a longer eCommerce Veteran… I still learned something from a panel meant for beginners?

Alright, enough with these hard to measure benefits of conferences. I will throw out more practical reasons to attend a conference. They are tax write offs. You can deduct the price of the ticket, you can deduct travel and lodging. You can deduct 50% of your food and entertainment expenses. You can make business deals during a conference. You can get free stuff. You can learn about tools with practical, money saving applications. You can list your involvement in a conference on your resume or as something to show your seriousness to a would-be money lender or investor. You can learn things ahead of your competition. You can scope out your competition.

Well, there you go, an incomplete, and likely slightly incoherent, long winded response to a question.

Is attending a conference worth it?

Yes.

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Agree, disagree? Agree with a few exceptions? Reply and speak your piece!

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Rodney’s Flickr Pics from the Conference

Posted on October 19th, 2006 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: CP Connect.

Rodney (a CafePress shopkeeper since 1999!) was kind enough to snap this shot of me with Fred and Maheesh.

You can see the rest of his fabulous photos here.

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Adam’s Pics from CP Connect & His Blog

Posted on October 19th, 2006 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: CP Connect.

Adam of Buy Tees has his flickr set up for the conference. Click on this picture to be taken there. For this panel Leslie did a presentation part about Top Shopkeepers in general and then each of us said a little about our own situations. After that we had a “Pimp My Shop” session in which members in the audience volunteered their site for us panelists to give tips to help their sales.

Adam’s blog, which includes his own coverage of the conference is located here: http://www.t-shirtchat.com/

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Visiting the CafePress Offices - Then and Now

Posted on October 18th, 2006 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: Showcased Posts, CP Connect.

I was among a group of shopkeepers who visited the CafePress offices the Monday after the conference. This was not actually my first time to do so, but my first at this location. Since opening in 1999, CafePress has been in a string of “offices” including Fred’s garage, a small office, a slightly bigger office and, now, an office space which essentially takes over the entire floor of a highrise building. This string, aside from the “garage office” doesn’t include production facilities.
I couldn’t help but think of the my last visit to CafePress back in 2002, in the “office string” this would be the “small office”. At that time I had met Maheesh’s fabled cocker spaniel, Nugget, who had inspected me curiously in the lobby as soon as I entered. Other dog employees were in the office as well. The people employees were all very friendly and they were all curious about me as a shopkeeper. I remember one person coming in and sitting on the floor of another person’s office cubicle, playing with a dog and chatting.

You get off the elevators and are smacked with green

Fast forward to Monday, 2006. Getting off the elevators you are hit with the “CafePress green” on the walls. You enter the actual CafePress area and though the walls are not green, the waiting room is accented with green pillows. A display of products is straight ahead and behind that is a glass wall where you can see folks in a meeting. As the group I am in examines the products on display I got excited to see a license plate frame from my shop and those in the meeting, pause a moment, noticing us and wave enthusiastically as if they hadn’t just seen us all weekend.

Lobby display of products includes one of mine!

Taking the tour I noticed changes from my last visit: bigger offices, folks relatively “dressed up” in the sense that I didn’t see anyone wearing shorts, no dogs. I noticed more similarities though. Folks were still super friendly. We unexpectedly cornered people in their offices yet they were willing to talk to us at length. In fact, we spent several hours in an office with a futon seat, guitar, many puzzles and a lava lamp. I kept thinking we were going to get the person in trouble. Along the walls at CafePress are posters with shopkeeper profiles along with samples of their products, I can tell that dispite moving into bigger and more traditional business looking digs, the folks there are still focused on who really makes them run… us. We were told this as well but seeing the displays and the use of products in individual’s office areas reinforced this fact to me.

Juxtaposing my two visits I have to say I’m really excited about CafePress’ growth and their future. They’ve been growing like crazy but have still kept their friendly and excited atmosphere. Seeing the staff they have drove home to me that CafePress is a powerful ally for a small business owner. You can open a store and instantly have folks who protect you from fraudulent orders and lawsuits and others who analyze the “Big Picture” view of CafePress but figure out ways to help the individual shopkeeper as well as the company as a whole. Topping all this of course are the highly approachable founders of the company, Fred and Maheesh. At CP Connect they never disappeared into a “back room” where convention goers could not talk to them, quite the opposite really, they approached us.

Who knows what the future will bring for CafePress and for us as T-shirt Entreprenuers? Personally I am quite happy to see business models like CafePress around and I think they and other businesses like them will continue to power the ideas and dreams of the individual.

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Heidi’s Flickr Pictures and Blog

Posted on October 18th, 2006 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: CP Connect.

Heidi of Busy Bodies was at CafePress Connect and I got to hang out with her a bit, she has a great design line which she had started before using CafePress but is going to take it to new levels no doubt.

This picture is from her collection, during Happy Hour saturday CafePress showed us live orders on the map. It mesmerized more than one shopkeeper in the area and we had appluase break out when folks recognized their design being bought. We also did a live demo where somone took a picture at the Happy Hour uploaded it to a shirt and ordered it just so we could see it come up. It worked!

Check out Heidi’s great blog, Creative Gumption. Her flickr pictures can be seen by clicking on the picture in this post or going here.

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Closing Speech

Posted on October 15th, 2006 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: CP Connect.

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API based designer

Posted on October 15th, 2006 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: CP Connect.

Clickshirt.com. Better pic to come. This is awesome.

EDIT: More about this on this CafePress forum post
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Can a tshirt

Posted on October 14th, 2006 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: CP Connect.

Change the world.

Signage we passed while walking the town. Can a t-shirt change the world? Well it can make a lot of former strangers come together as friends!

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