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The first ever Nail Tech Summit was in 2024. After the pandemic, the team at Monaco Nail Academy felt a craving for community and live events and set out to create the first one.
We never dreamed it would grow to become the industry-wide event it is today, with collaborations from countless educators, distributors and supporters from across the country!
10am - Arrival
Attendees first checked in with Lilly, who had a name tag and itinirary waiting for them, and directed attendees to their rooms so they could settle in!
12pm - Welcome Lunch
Attendees mixed, mingled, let the nerves settle and got some food in their bellies!
1pm - Mentor Panels on Engagement, Gamification and Getting People in the Door
Think Comic Con. You know how they have panels for TV or Movie casts? No? Google ComicCon Panel. Now make it cooler, because it was a panel featuring your favourite Nail Tech Mentors. Each of the 3 panels we ran had a theme. The Mentors had a rough set of topics to discuss within that theme. A moderator then took questions and directed them to the panel. The entire panel was recorded and can be listened to on the Salon Success Podcast, here and here.
5pm - Pizza and PJs
6pm - Social Media Takeover
You want to learn how to improve engagement? Be careful what you wish for. In this session, we asked for volunteers to have real time critiques of their social media pages in front of the group. We were kind, we were constructive, and we gave real, actionable ways to improve and change your social media.
8pm - Garage Sale/Buy Swap Sell
Shopping hour! Attendees were encouraged to bring *second hand* items to set up their own mini store for the remainder of the evening.
10am - Custom Coaching
A morning of intensive coaching in whichever areas our attendees wanted, with complete access to our Mentors, who were walking around helping. Need help with BIAB? You could work on BIAB. Need help with Acrylic? You could work on Acrylic.
12pm - Lunch
1pm - Practice Time
This gave attendees the chance to do one practice nail, aiming to meet the requirements of the competition category they were entering, and they were given feedback based on judging criteria. The nail counted towards their final score, but this was a chance to have a go and get feedback on a completed nail before doing the other 4 nails.
2pm - Open Book Competitions
Attendees had 1 hour to complete the other 4 nails. They had access to judging sheets, could go to the toilet, get forgotten items out of their bags (all no-no's in real life) and most importantly, still have access to the Mentors and judges, who were walking around giving feedback as they went.
When the timer went off, they swapped so their partner could have a turn. We encouraged attendees to consider this an extension of their coaching - with Mentors floor-walking and helping the entire time. It’s not a competition, it’s training with prizes. It’s no different to being on a course (which they were) and getting feedback throughout the day - EXCEPT they had a small chance of getting a trophy.
4pm - Judging
5pm - Get Ready for Prizegiving
Attendees were encouraged to pump those tunes, get those pre-drinks flowing (responsibly) and get ready to partyyyyy! The dress code was FORMAL. No pressure to go out and spend money on anything fancy unless you wanted to, but ball dresses were definitely on the cards.
6.30pm - Prizegiving Ball
We had done the mahi, now we got to let our hair down (without fear of it getting caught in the extraction fan). We served a beautiful buffet dinner before handing out not one but FIFTEEN trophies and then danced the night away with friends new and old to celebrate this exceptional community.
