Excited to be a Featured Blogger at ISSE: The West Coast’s Largest & Most Influential Pro Beauty Show

This weekend, January 24 – 26, 2015, is the International Salon and Spa Expo (ISSE) Long Beach – the West Coast’s largest and most influential professional beauty event open exclusively to licensed beauty professionals, students, instructors and exhibitors of some of today’s hottest beauty brands. ISSE is held annually at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California and nearly 40,000 beauty professionals attend every year.

ISSE is produced by the Professional Beauty Association (PBA) and has evolved over the years into one of the best comprehensive beauty events for hair, nails, cosmetics, esthetics and advanced education. The nearly sold out show floor will feature more than 350 top international beauty brands, 150 educational classes, live stage performances from top industry icons, and hair, nail and barber competitions. ISSE Long Beach carefully curates the brands that exhibit which makes it a coveted show for brands launching new beauty products and services as well as for attendees wanting to uncover the latest and greatest on the beauty landscape.

I was absolutely delighted to be chosen as a featured blogger in this year’s inaugural Blogger Cafe. The show floor will feature a one-on-one Blogger Cafe showcasing top beauty influencers (like me!) and allowing us to meet with show exhibitors, brands and attendees and offer them insights, feedback and social media strategy suggestions. In addition, each beauty influencer will carefully walk the show floor and nominate their picks for the best new product, the best established product, and best of show in hair, nails and skin amongst all the exhibitors. The “Best of Show” winners will be announced by celebrity hairstylist, Ted Gibson, at the ISSE Long Beach Night Out Party! taking place on Sunday night.

In addition to the Blogger Cafe, here are some of the other exciting activities taking place at ISSE Long Beach this year:

Southern California Beauty Job Fair: Show attendees and beauty professionals will have the opportunity to speak one-on-one with representatives from beauty companies and salons/spas about available job opportunities

OMC Tryouts: New this year, competitors will have the opportunity to compete to be on Team USA at OMC Hairworld 2016 in Seoul, Korea. OMC Hairworld is a bi-annual global competition inviting the world’s most talented hairstylists to compete on creativity, skill and the ability perform under pressure.

The Nail Spot/Cut, Color & Style Stage: The Nail Spot and the Cut, Color & Style Stage are the newest additions to ISSE Long Beach. Dedicated to nail professionals, The Nail Spot will feature creative and technical education, nail competitions and more. Nail professionals looking to enhance their knowledge, creativity and skills, will find it at The Nail Spot. The new Cut, Color & Style stage will showcase stylists educating attendees on the latest techniques and creating the most sought after styles at any skill level.

PBA Beauty Bar: Attendees will have the opportunity to choose their favorite five deluxe product samples from select ISSE exhibitors in exchange for a donation to the PBA’s CUT IT OUT®: Salons Against Domestic Abuse charitable program. All proceeds from the Beauty Bar will benefit CUT IT OUT®, a program dedicated to mobilizing salon professionals against domestic abuse by building awareness and training salon professionals to recognize warning signs and safely refer clients, colleagues, friends and family to local resources.