National Clothesline

If you are having your 100th birthday party in Las Vegas, you must be doing something right. That would be the case for the International Fabricare Institute, which will mark its 100th year at Clean ’07 in Las Vegas.

For the association that traces its origins to the formation of the National Association of Dyers and Cleaners in 1907, the theme will be looking ahead to “A Second Century of Excellence.” That will be the title of IFI’s opening program at 8 a.m. on Monday, June 11. But the main event will be Monday evening when IFI hosts its birthday bash. Live music, food and drink will pump up the party that begins at 5:30 p.m. at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, IFI ’s headquarters hotel for Clean ’07.


	Clean Consultations Many of the industry’s leading consultants, among them columnists and contributors to National Clothesline, will be featured at the Cleaner ’s Supply booth at the Clean Show in Las Vegas. Consultants Corner will feature open Q&A sessions and a chance to pick the industry’s top brains on a variety of topics. The line-up and schedule is as follows: Don Desrosiers, Tailwind Systems, assembly and work flow systems. Monday through Wednesday, 1 to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 1 to 3 p.m. Harvey Gershenson, Sterling Dry Cleaning Consulting, business planning, cutting costs and increasing profits. Monday and Tuesday, 3 to 4 p.m.; Wednesday, 10 to 11 a.m. and noon to 1 p.m.; Thursday, 10 to 11 a.m. Dennis McCrory, Golomb Group, marketing and management. Monday 1 to 2 p.m.; Tuesday, noon to 2 p.m. James Peuster, The Route Pro, Building Profitable Routes. Monday 10 a.m. to noon. Sid Tuchman, Tuchman Training Systems, 12 ways to pump up your profits. Daily 2 to 3 p.m. Steve Boorstein, The Clothing Doctor, CSR training, inspection and quality control. Monday, noon to 1 p.m. and 4 to 5 p.m.; Tuesday, 9 to 10 a.m. Everett Childers, plant processes. Tuesday, 4 to 5 p.m.; Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m. to noon. Jane Zellers, CED, JCZ Training and Consulting, specializing in productivity and efficiencies. Wednesday, 9 to 10 a.m. Darcy Moen, Dry Cleaner’s Ad Shop, websites and customer relationship management. Tuesday, 10 a.m. to noon; Wednesday, 1 to 2 p.m. and 4 to 5 p.m. Diana Vollmer, Methods for Management, management development, profit and process improvement. Wednesday, 3 to 4 p.m. Ted Barry, John Barry and Associates, plant design. Thursday noon to 2 p.m.

During show’s exhibit hours, IFI staff will be accepting birthday congratulations at Booth 950 where they ’ll also be offering a sneak peek at the new “Encyclopedia of Dry Cleaning”, a CD that has more than 10,000 pages of reference material. They’ll also be providing information on the Award of Excellence, a program introduced by IFI at the last Clean Show that is designed to recognize and promote drycleaning businesses that provide top-notch quality and service.

As one of the Clean Show’s sponsoring associations, IFI will offer seminars in the mornings before the exhibit hall opens. On Monday, guerilla marketing guru and author Alfred Lautenslager will share his marketing methods that are designed to get customers and keep them coming back. His program, titled “Take No Prisoners with Guerilla Marketing,” begins at 8:30 a.m. and ends just in time for attendees to get in on the official opening of the exhibit hall at 10 a.m.

IFI’s Tuesday morning program will be devoted to an issue foremost in the minds of many cleaners — solvent options. Cutting-edge cleaning technologies will be examined by a panel of experts in this two-hour program. Cleaners who are considering a solvent switch, whether by choice or force due to landlords or regulations, will be able to learn about the alternatives.

Two well known industry experts will take the podium for the Wednesday workshops. Leading off will be Don Desrosiers, National Clothesline columnist and inventor of the Tailwind System. He will offer solutions to sagging shirt production.

Desrosiers will tell how to boost productivity, lower costs and eliminate errors in a presentation beginning at 8 a.m.

IFI garment analyst Chris Allsbrooks will follow Desrosiers on the podium with “Problems, Problems, Problems.”

A popular speaker at past Clean Shows and other industry gatherings, Allsbrooks will give advice on what to say and how to say it when a customer has a problem or a question. Desrosiers will join Allsbrooks in a final segment in which they will focus on problems with shirts.

IFI will switch gears on Thursday morning. Instead of telling cleaners what they need to know, cleaners will be able to demonstrate what they know by taking the Certified Professional Drycleaner, Certified Professional Wetcleaner or Certified Environmental Drycleaner examinations. The three-hour testing period begins at 7 a.m. at IFI ’s headquarters hotel.