Nail techs Diana Bonn, Jenny Markakis, Debbie Doerrlamm, and Athena Elliot take a break from walking the show floor to attend the nail competition awards. Markakis, who came all the way from Australia, was a first-time competitor; Debbie was a model; and Bonn and Elliott both served as judges for the competitions.

Nail techs Diana Bonn, Jenny Markakis, Debbie Doerrlamm, and Athena Elliot take a break from walking the show floor to attend the nail competition awards. Markakis, who came all the way from Australia, was a first-time competitor; Debbie was a model; and Bonn and Elliott both served as judges for the competitions. 

I recently attended the Premiere Beauty Show in Orlando, Fla., where I attended the first annual NailTech Internet Breakfast, hosted by Vicki Peters and Karol Singleton. I joined more than 50 nail technicians who “speak” to each other on a regular basis over the Internet on BeautyTech.com, but most of them had previously never met face-to-face. Tom Holcomb of EZ Flow was the surprise guest speaker, holding an informal Q&A with the excited techs, who joked that they could now tell people that they not only met Tom Holcomb, but they also woke up with him. (Breakfast started at a yawn-inspiring 7:00 a.m.) More than $2,000 in product donations from leading manufacturers were raffled off. But the best part of the breakfast had to be witnessing the face-to-face meetings of so many techs who had only known each other by their screen names.

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