This past June, Aveda held their second annual Dare to Dream conference at the Maheffey Theater in St. Petersburg, FL. More than 1,000 Aveda artists attended the two-day event jam-packed with powerful presentations covering how to turn dreams into reality.
At this year's conference, Tom and Karen Petrillo, owners of The Salon People, asked attendees to focus on how to make their dreams a reality by using the "5-Second Rule." Created by Mel Robbins, based on her book by the same name, the theory is simple, but life changing—count down from five, make a decision and act on it.
Leading the event with humor and inspiration were Virginia Meyer, co-owner of Aveda salon FOURTEENJAY, and Creative Strategist Christopher Hermann. Presentations were presented by salon owners, artists, educators and recent North American Hairstyling Award (NAHA) winners and nominees— with talks designed to present their own steps to how they have achieved their dreams.
Aveda Global General Manager Barbara De Laere was also on hand, presenting a passionate and exciting talk about research and information on the beauty industry as a whole and how stylists are in a unique position to cater to changing consumer needs.
“You can’t digitalize a haircut or hair color,” she says. “Consumers are so informed now, and they want a consultation—a diagnosis. You give guests an experience, a personalized consultation, expertise and curation, connection and transparency, and an authentic, natural brand,” she says.
The first evening concluded with the Best New Aveda Artist Awards ceremony and an hair show presentation by Pyure Salon of Coconut Creek, Florida.The following morning, Pyure Salon owners Elan Levy and Luca Boccia shared details with the audience of how they designed and rehearsed for the previous night’s performance, and how their dream of performing at Congress will be coming true this fall. “We spent six months rehearsing this show, but it really started 12 years ago for us,” Levy said. “It was always part of our mission to go onstage and push ourselves.”
For more information on this year's conference, visit daretodream.thesalonpeople.com