Why it’s important to attend beauty industry events

A nail professional is constantly seeking information about upcoming nail trends and innovations. It’s equally – if not more – important to keep your industry knowledge and business skills up-to-date to ensure longevity in your career.

Attending workshops and events is a fantastic learning and networking opportunity and also contributes to your continued professional development. The internet often affords conflicting views and misinformation, but attending fact based, impartial events run by true industry experts can help dispel any myths and usually provide you with new, invaluable knowledge.

There are unlimited business workshops and training available throughout the UK, covering topics such as starting or running a small business, marketing & PR, financial/accounting, social media and more. Some are available for free/low cost including day courses for beginners and can really help you understand the different aspects of running your own, profitable and successful business.

How can you find out about industry and business events?

• Keep an eye out on trade & industry social media channels and magazines as they’ll usually announce events – e.g Scratch Magazine, Salon Services and Nails magazine etc
• Look into seminars and workshops held at trade shows such as Olympia Beauty and Beauty UK. There are usually full educational programmes scheduled over the course of the show.
• Ask your educator(s), fellow nail technicians & don’t forget to share any useful events you have been to, so others can join you!
• Join local business groups – e.g. women in business, small business owners, beauty businesses etc. You can find groups online (Google/Facebook search) and they usually host events. It’s also a great way to network with local business owners
• Search Eventbrite for events in your area – this is an incredible resource for events and you can search for your desired topic e.g. beauty, Instagram, marketing etc
• Head to your local library to find out about the local business resources and courses available to you.

Can’t make a event? Get in touch with the organisers, to see whether a playback will be available. If not, ask any peers whether they will be willing to take & share notes and if you find it hard to attend F2F training, look for online workshops/courses.

The following are a few of my favourite events, open to all:

• Salon Services #NailTechTalk events – expert guests helping to truly educate the nail tech on issues affecting us and the industry – previous topics include product legalities, the allergy epidemic, how to price your services and nail art
• E.A.T.O.W events – having attending the launch recently, I’m really excited for E.A.T.O.W’s monthly events which will discuss important issues in the industry – including diversity. Not just for nail techs, this is a great event to meet like minded professionals who are part of the wider beauty industry
• Hunter Collective Business Breakfast – a monthly event, hosted at the Farringdon, London based creative co-work space which costs no more than a fancy coffee. Hosted by co-founder Lacey, marketing and branding expert Mirela, and a guest expert, every month a different topic is covered from SEO to learning how to goal setting.

Will you make attending industry and business events a priority? I’d love to know so please connect with me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Metta