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Rise is coming up soon, May 3rd through 5th, and while many of you have probably heard about it, most of you probably haven’t been there. I’d like to talk about how it compares to other industry events, and what makes it so special.

We’ve attended Rise every year, and it continues to be a wonderful collection of kind humans perpetuating greater gentleness to the rest of the world. This is the third annual Rise gathering, and it promises to be just as third eye-opening as the previous ones.

Last year, Graham and Ashkahn got to sit down with Kevin McCulloch and Jacob Resch, the organizers of Rise and owners of Float STL, for the Daily Solutions Podcast which was right in the middle of its run at the time. You could tell from the conversation that there was a certain delight from everyone involved in getting to share horror stories about the stresses of running a conference for the float industry.

During that conversation, Kevin shared his thoughts on how Rise compares to the Float Conference. As he says, it’s a “gift that the Float Conference is already operating” since it’s “the pulse of the entire industry… and we wanna focus on this little sliver. And it wouldn’t even make sense to do that if the Float Conference wasn’t servicing the whole industry.”

(If you’d like to see some of our coverage from last year, you can check out the podcast episodes where Graham and Ashkahn took live questions all day or you can check out the live blog we ran during the presentations.)

It’s difficult to talk about Rise without referencing the Float Conference, despite them being very different. The Float Conference was birthed out of necessity. It was started because there was no other industry event at the time and so Float on started one.

Rise is another conference for the float industry. Absolutely. But that doesn’t make it an East coast Float Conference. While the Float Conference is for the entire industry, Rise is much more focused on float center owners, and even more specifically, those who focus on spreading the practice of floating. You could say that Rise is more a cultural event than a business one. It’s for the float community as opposed to the float industry.

Kevin and Jake will no doubt be leading us in thoughtful conversations, introspective meditations, and sharing the warmth and love that they feel for everyone who comes.

At Rise, everyone does everything together at the same time. If there’s a presentation going on, everyone is in the audience. If there’s lunch, everyone is at lunch. If it’s time for guided meditation, you’re right there for guided meditation. Each event bonds you closer with the rest of the people there until by the end of the weekend, you feel like you’ve just shared an intimate experience with loved ones. Even if you’ve never met them before a few days ago.

One of the best ways to see this contrast is to look at the speakers who attend both events. Justin Feinstein, the head researcher at the Float Lab at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research, shares updates on his research every year at the Float Conference, and at Rise he focused far more on how to get float center owners involved in contributing to the scientific community.

While Glenn and Lee Perry are consistently delightful and kind, in the context of Rise, their talk feels much more like a fireside chat than the TEDTalk style presentation it appears to be at the Float Conference.

Even Graham and Ashkahn are more laid back at Rise – they did their presentation there in bathrobes last year!

Not to mention that St. Louis itself is such a lovely city. There’s always something to do, and getting to visit Float STL is really a treat.

So far, every year we visit, we take a group trip out to the City Museum, which is like no other place on Earth. If you’ve never been, it’s a surrealist wonderland for children and adults. Beyond being just a museum, it’s a monument to the oddities that exist within the human mind. While yes, there are historical artifacts, artwork on display, and educational experiences aplenty to be had, the entire building functions more as a giant playground filled with wrought iron structures, disturbing tile mosaics, and a giant ball pit at the center of a climbing maze. Honestly, it’s something that needs to be seen to be believed.

In short, if the Float Conference is like a family reunion, Rise is like coming home for the holidays. It feels so cozy and familiar. In both cases, everyone there is family, but the setting for Rise is more intimate, less overwhelming. It’s so much easier to say hello to everyone you know at Rise, even if you know everyone!

*Also, consider this an open invitation to join us this year at the City Museum! We’ll be visiting Monday, May 6th, after the Rise gathering has concluded. Below are just a handful of images from the museum to help entice you.

 

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Thoughts on Attending Trade Shows – DSP 121

Thoughts on Attending Trade Shows – DSP 121

When you’re just starting out, you’ll try anything to get the word out. Trade shows are a fairly common way to generate interest in a new technology or practice, so why not floating?

Graham and Ashkahn have a few trade shows under their belt and they’ve had modest almost success at them. They lay out their experiences and challenges that float tanks face at a venue like this and what you should be prepared for if you decide to attend one. 

Thoughts on Attending Trade Shows – DSP 121

When it’s Time to Fire Your Customers – DSP 120

This is one of those situations that’s never fun to be in, but it’s something that’s gotta be dealt with. A customer is rude, unpleasant, or makes the staff or other customers uncomfortable. It can start small and turn into a repeated and difficult problem. As the business owner, oftentimes, the buck stops with you and you have to figure out how to handle that situation.

Graham and Ashkahn share their experiences at Float On with their problematic customers and how they handled it while offering tidbits of advice. 

Thoughts on Attending Trade Shows – DSP 121

Funding your center through Kickstarter – DSP 119

Crowdfunding has made so many projects possible that would otherwise not exist. It seems perfect for niche ideas, concepts that would otherwise never see the light of day, and passion projects that just need to happen. This sounds perfect for float centers, but there are some caveats. 

Crowdfunding is time intensive and there’s not guarantee of success. Aside from that, there are some issues with it that complicate things for float centers that other crowdfunded projects likely won’t face. Graham and Ashkahn talk about the successes of float center crowdfunding and the not-so-successes as well. 

Thoughts on Attending Trade Shows – DSP 121

Don’t Build Your Own Float Tank! – DSP 118

For anyone considering a DIY float tank, give this episode a listen first. This isn’t a discussion on the merits of doing things one way versus another or expressing an opinion on one side and playing devil’s advocate for the other. Graham and Ashkahn know painfully well from personal experience the pitfalls of falling into the hubris trap of thinking you can build your own float tanks. They built two large open tanks in Float On and even years later they still cause headaches.

What’s more, they’ve spoken with dozens of people who’ve also gone through this themselves and heard their horror stories after they didn’t listen to the advice of not doing it.

The perception that it can be a cost-cutting measure or a more reliable way to get an operating float tank in your center by going DIY is generally pretty flawed. There’s so much to it that you just can’t consider before the fact.

Thoughts on Attending Trade Shows – DSP 121

Should Your Float Center have a Blog? – DSP 117

This seems like a good idea on paper. It helps with SEO stuff for Google. It gives you an outlet to write about floating and share information about the industry. And it seems to fall in line with something that other businesses do, right?

So what are the downsides? How much time and effort does a blog really take? What sort of impact does it have for a float center? Graham and Ashkahn lay out the pros and cons as well as things you may not initially consider about the responsibility of having a blog.

Thoughts on Attending Trade Shows – DSP 121

Thoughts on Buying Yelp Ads – DSP 116

There are lots of businesses that experience the dogged persistence of Yelp sales people calling them. Float On has done both buying Yelp ad space and living without it and Graham and Ashkahn break down exactly what that experience was like.

They also go into exactly what Yelp ads mean and how it impacts your float center (or doesn’t, as the case may be) as well as how well Yelp stacks up in comparison to other ad sources.

Thoughts on Attending Trade Shows – DSP 121

When is it Time to Open a Second Float Center? – DSP 115

Okay, so… Float On only has one location (not counting Float On Hong Kong) and there’s certainly a reason for that. Graham and Ashkahn have toyed with the idea of opening up another center multiple times throughout the years but something else always came up. As they’ve met more people in the industry, they’ve seen some of the pitfalls and successes from people opening additional locations, franchises and whatever else. They share their thoughts on when they think it’d be best to open and why they say to wait a little bit. 

Thoughts on Attending Trade Shows – DSP 121

Choosing the Hours to Staff Your Float Center – DSP 114

How do you figure out how many people to hire? What’s the ideal hours for a float employee to work? Is there such a thing as too many hours? Too few?

Graham and Ashkahn share their insights with staffing Float On and what their staff looks like to cover all their shifts running a six tank, 24 hour float center.

Float Success Story – Float Los Alamos

Float Success Story – Float Los Alamos

At the Float Conference every year we hear inspirational stories from float center owners who have carved a piece of the industry out in their salty image. Everyone defines "success" in their own way, and we thought it would be cool to share what that meant to some of...

Thoughts on Attending Trade Shows – DSP 121

Tips for Creating an Inviting Float Center Lobby – DSP 113

Not all of us are interior designers, but we all want to have a space that is welcoming to our customers.
Graham and Ashkahn definitely have an eye for this, especially after visiting so many float centers. They share some of their favorite designs they’ve seen, as well as common tactics to help make your center comfy and inviting without necessarily breaking the bank on furniture. They also share some of their pipe dreams for their ideal designs that never came to be.

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