Screen Printing - February/March 2020 - 19

Family Industries live screen prints at events worldwide, from music festivals like Stagecoach (pictured) to veterinarian tradeshows,
and for major clients like Lyft and Disney.

at the event and why we're promoting this specific product and
can then direct the customer to a manager onsite," he says.
To make sure live printing is a success, Hellmann relies on
his team. "There's a couple of staff who will manage events and
different roles in-house, like logistics and information about
being onsite, loading time, live time, power drops, fitting in
booth space, making sure we know if there's a union onsite.
...," says Hellmann. "You're dealing with Freeman Company
[event logistics], booking travel, flights, getting equipment
ready at the shop, making sure gear is properly equipped and
up-to-date, checking inks. If we're building a custom app, we
have to test the app [yes, they offer an app] ... there's a lot you
have to do before." And then they have to travel onsite, set up
and test, and work the event the next day. Plus, they ship their
own gear. "Some shops use shops in different markets to cut
costs, but we don't want to risk the potential issues." The team
has built road cases for presses, and they ship them to different areas or transport them in a car or van if the event is local.
There are a lot of perks with travel, says Hellmann - the
team has been to Mexico City and the Dominican Republic,
printed shirts at the bottom of a ski lift, and attended more
music events than they count - but there's a downside.
"People get tired. There are big asks. Someone may fly from
Orlando to New York City to Chicago back to Orlando just to
start it all again," he says. "It's pretty demanding."

print out thousands of different items for the client onsite,"
says Hellmann. "It's efficient. People aren't waiting around
for printing." The team has 20 full screen tablets that host the
app. "Agencies are more interested in full customization the
last couple of years," says Hellmann. "Screen printing is a
really good way to increase booth traffic and visibility, but
now people have seen it so they want the next thing."
So, who is a typical client? From Bat Mitzvahs to veterinarian
tradeshows, the list ranges far and wide. Agencies come to
Family Industries for differentiation, sublimation, and any other
type of embroidery or transfers. "There's so much you can do
onsite with customization," says Hellmann. "They're always
asking for new things from us."
Family Industries has a good base of existing clients, too.
"Agency people move around all the time, so we keep relationships with them wherever they are," says Hellmann. "It
really matters who you're working with directly and building
relationships with the staff."
This list of printable items seems endless. Shirts, totes,
mugs, laser engraved wallets, socks, hats, custom Adidas
shoes, neck gators, oven mitts, trivets, bucket hats, hoodies,
duffel bags, custom posters, pencil cases, lanyards, laptop
sleeves, bandanas, notebooks, and smartphone cases are just
a fraction of the selection. "Pretty much anything you can customize in a shop, you can print live," Hellmann says.

DATA AND ACTION, ON DEMAND
Live screen printing at an event is the draw, but Family
Industries has to turn that into usable data for the client.
"Toyota wants the data, mainly emails of potential buyers of
the cars within their market segments. So, our team has to
be able to accommodate that, specifically. We need to help
Toyota achieve their goal," says Hellmann. Prior to the event,
the shop gets a rundown of the function and the product, a
basic email is sent out ahead of time to the employees, and
the staff then meets with the event company onsite.
So, about that app? Family Industries has a team they
work with to create a custom app while using sublimation
and sometimes heat transfers and screen printing at events.
"People can design, drag, and drop different options, there's
personalization, they can create text in the app, and then

WHAT NOT TO DO
Hellmann and Meiners have now been involved with 3500plus live screen printing events, but with any business there
are lessons to learn along the way. At the duo's first live
event together, everything that could go wrong did.
Their first client was Hellmann's previous employer, the
marketing agency, and the event was a movie premiere for
David Lynch. "It was a big-time event," says Hellmann.
"They had bands play, David did a Q&A, and we had screen
printing onsite." They brought in a basic setup with waterbased ink, which Hellmann says is never recommended
onsite. "It's a huge mess. We had 12 people, which is way
too many, but we didn't know how it was going to work.
We had heat guns to cure the water-based ink, which also
doesn't really work." The screens locked up and they had
FEBRUARY / MARCH 2020

Screen Printing - February/March 2020

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