2026 conference schedule — Sun Shading Expo North America

This is open to all registration types for Sun Shading Expo North America and Advanced Textiles Expo.

Tuesday, November 3

11:00 AM – 11:25 AM · 3 key performance indicators that must be in place before you can consider expansion

Vince Nigara | Exciting Windows

This presentation highlights what must be in place before expanding to additional locations. Your business can implode just as fast as it explodes — here is what to know before you consider expanding.

Learning outcomes:

Three KPIs to know before expanding your business
How to know you have maxed out your existing location
The exact percentage that rent should not exceed in the growth process

12:00 PM – 12:55 PM · What the client is actually buying

A designer and a workroom owner on luxury, expectation, and the partnership behind the result

Julie Murphy | Designer Draperies of Boston · Kate O’Hara | The Lake House Group

Luxury clients are not all the same. Their budgets differ, their expectations differ, and what earns their trust, referrals and loyalty differs in ways most service providers never fully map out.

Kate O’Hara spent nearly two decades leading O’Hara Interiors before becoming a business advisor and co-owner of the Design Influencers Conference. She has watched designers win and lose extraordinary clients not because the design failed, but because the service model did not match what that client was actually buying. Julie Murphy has led Designer Draperies of Boston since 2014 and built one of the country’s most trusted workrooms for design professionals at the top of the market — she has seen the same dynamic from the other side of the partnership.

For workroom owners, installers, retailers and manufacturers, the designer is often your most important client relationship. This is not a session about design theory; it is a practical conversation between two experienced business owners about what the best clients are really buying, and how every part of the chain has to rise to meet it.

Learning outcomes:

Understand how luxury client expectations shift across tiers of the market, and what that means for the workrooms, installers and vendors designers rely on
Recognize the specific moments in a project where a misaligned service experience creates friction, erodes trust, or costs a referral
Learn how top designers evaluate and choose workroom and vendor partners, and what separates the relationships they protect from the ones they replace
Apply practical language and service thinking that communicates your value to designers working at the higher end of the market
Leave with a clearer picture of how your business can grow by understanding not just what your designer clients need, but what their clients expect

1:00 PM – 1:25 PM · Do you have what it takes? The making of a top-notch installer

Roger Magalhães | Trading Up Consulting

Anyone can screw a bracket into a wall. That doesn’t make them a window treatment installer. After 20+ years in the field and 800+ five-star reviews, Roger Magalhães has learned that becoming a top-notch installer takes far more than a drill and a tape measure — it takes the right mix of skill, mindset and character.

Roger breaks down what actually separates a great installer from someone who just shows up: the math and geometry behind a custom fit, the improvising mindset for when nothing lines up, the finesse of keeping both dealer and client happy, and the everyday habits that earn repeat business.

Learning outcomes:

Recognize the skills and traits that make a truly great installer — and spot the gaps in your own game
Handle on-the-job curveballs — wrong brackets, crooked windows, bad fabrication — with a problem-solving mindset
Build the habits that drive referrals and five-star reviews: punctuality, communication, respect for the home

1:30 PM – 1:55 PM · Plug the profit leaks: where process gaps are costing you money

Jessica Harling | Behind the Design

You’re making sales, but the profit isn’t adding up. Jessica Harling uncovers the hidden ways your business leaks money through inefficient processes, miscommunication and poor job tracking — from pricing mishaps to wasted wait times between order and install, and even pay plans that quietly kill margins. If your business is busier than ever but cash flow feels tight, this session is your roadmap to reclaiming lost revenue.

Learning outcomes:

Identify process gaps in operations, communication and job tracking that lead to profit loss, including unclear handoffs, untracked time and delayed scheduling
Ask clients the right questions to determine which option genuinely suits them
Understand the pros and cons of the more advanced power options becoming available

2:00 PM – 2:25 PM · AI won’t fix broken workflows

John Lowry | PIC Business Systems

A grounded AI-readiness session showing why automation only works when the underlying workflows, data and processes are clean. The focus is not AI hype, but what manufacturers must fix before AI can create any efficiency at all.

Learning outcomes:

What must be in place before automation can help: clean product data, standardized order processes, accurate production information, real-time visibility and reliable reporting

2:30 PM – 2:55 PM · The invisible trade

Raising the profile of workrooms, window treatments, and the people who build this industry

Julie Murphy | Designer Draperies of Boston

Window treatments are one of the last things most designers learn, and often the last thing their clients think about. Design schools rarely cover them. Workrooms are seldom explained to the people who depend on them most. And the skilled tradespeople who fabricate and install the work that defines a finished room are quietly aging out, with fewer trained professionals behind them.

This is not a session about fear; it is about responsibility and opportunity. Julie walks through how she has approached community education, how she thinks about bringing new people into the business, and how businesses can position themselves as an essential part of the design process rather than just a service provider.

Learning outcomes:

Understand why window treatments and workrooms are underrepresented in design education, and what that means for future demand and workforce supply
Learn practical approaches for creating awareness in your local market about what a workroom does and why it matters
Gain a framework for new-hire sourcing and onboarding in a trade where skills are difficult to find and harder to retain
Explore succession and team-building strategies that protect the knowledge, standards and culture a workroom has built
Leave with a clearer sense of your role as an advocate for industry education and professional standards

3:00 PM – 3:25 PM · Negotiation is not confrontation — it’s dialogue

LuAnn Nigara | LuAnn Nigara Inc.

In this high-energy session, LuAnn Nigara introduces her proprietary eight-step DIALOGUE framework: a structured, repeatable system for negotiating with clients, vendors and partners without eroding your authority, your relationships or your profit margin. The goal is never to win — the goal is the win-win.

Learning outcomes:

Define the outcome you need before entering any negotiation
Identify your non-negotiables, and stick to them with confidence
Listen for the real issue beneath the stated objection
Reframe the conversation toward a solution both sides can own
Close with commitment, not ambiguity

3:30 PM – 4:30 PM · Working smarter: the future of process in shading

Moderator: Dustin Hayes | Hermosa Digital Panellists: Kate O’Hara | The Lake House Group

Technology is not just reshaping the products in this industry; it is reshaping how the business behind them runs. On the sales and operations side, AI and CRM tools are helping retailers and workrooms sell smarter and run leaner. On the installation side, laser measuring, 3D room modelling and augmented reality are changing what a site visit and an install actually look like.

This panel brings together voices from across the business and installation side of the industry to talk about what is actually working — which tools are worth adopting now, and which are still a few years out.

Learning outcomes:

How AI and CRM tools are changing the way businesses sell and operate, and where to start if you have not adopted them
What laser measuring, 3D room modelling and augmented reality mean for accuracy and efficiency on the installation side
A practical view of which process technologies are ready for adoption now, and which are still a few years from mainstream

Wednesday, November 4

Sessions for Wednesday will be published as the program is confirmed.

Thursday, November 5

Sessions for Thursday will be published as the program is confirmed.

The conference program is free with any registration. See our speakers for full biographies, or apply to speak in a Knowledge2Go session.