In the week leading up to ISSE in Long Beach, American International Industries brought together its top educators from around the world to give them an intensive training course in all of its products. Educators from Russia, Thailand, Argentina, England, Italy, the U.S., and more, stayed close to the AII facilities in Los Angeles for a week attending advanced training for all AII products.

I sat in on a course about ibd’s new Soak Off Gels taught by AII’s director of education Gary-Dawn Tingler. The class opened up with Gary-Dawn talking about the chemical makeup of the product and why it is unique in the industry, and was followed up with product application demonstrations by global educator trainer MaeLing Parrish. 

The teamwork was apparent as everyone shared their experiences with the product and gave each other little tips on how best to apply it. It was impressive to see so many educators, about 20 or so, coming together from all over the world and sharing their common interest in nails.

After the courses were over the educators all went to ISSE to compete in the nail competitions and to do demos at the AII booths.

This was my first off-site training session with a manufacturer and it was really eye-opening to see how detailed the classes are. Remember these are “train-the-trainer” classes so the AII educators were learning all the latest techniques so they can go out and educate the rest of you. Continuing education is a great way to stay on top of your game and set yourself apart from the competition. It’s important and it’s worth it. (I just took a continuing education class myself on copyediting and it’s really helped me in my day-to-day job function.)

— Tim