Is anyone out there a member of this organization and can you tell me more about it? Why it would be a benefit for me to become a member? What all is involved? ETC, ETC,... 
Thanks !!
Hi My old instructor is a member of ICES and loves it. I'm going to join soon. She is a state officer and goes a couple times a year to conferences. They have demos from top cake decorators. They had Nicholas Lodge not long ago. They always make things. She says they have a great time. 
So is it like a tutorial? The conferences I mean? What is the membership money for ? Do you know? I read on thier site that if you are a member your conf. tickets are cheaper but not by a ton. I was just wondering what the advantages are because the website seems kind of vague to me...
Mac-I want to join, please sell me on it!!!
Michelle104--
The membership dues are like any other organization's dues. You get newsletters and the registration fees for the Annual Conference are cheaper. The conference is awesome. You will learn so much and meet so many cakers. Demos are 1 hour and a few are longer than that. I tok demos from Norm Davis and Bronwen Weber (Food Network Challenges). Kerry Vincent did a demo. Plus you get tons of stuff at the conference. A Wilton tote bag, samples of fondants and gumpaste, cutters, instructions. Of course, these things may change every year, but I had to keep going back to my room to unload.
Believe me, it is so worth every penny. I was in cake overload when I got home.
http://www.ices.org/events/events.htm
Here is a list of upcoming at I.C.E.S.
I attended my first local ICES meeting a few weeks ago (Thanks sundine2 for alerting and inviting me to this!). It was great to meet other local cake decorators. THere were 3 demos that were so very interesting. I went home that night and tried 2 of them! One lady who runs a well known cake shop in town did a demo showing how she uses (sanitized) credit cards to smooth her icing! Went home that night and tried it and OMG it is the BEST method! This lady also had pics of the cake she did for Germaine ONeil's birthday (for non-sports people, Germaine is an Indiana Pacer). She told us the marketing firm that called her only gave her 2 hours to design it...... it was awesome!!!!
Another lady did a demo on making purses and shoes and brought in a cake that utilized this design. We had a contest to see if we could guess what she charged for the cake. She had charged $2700 for this cake.....wow! (my guess was WAY off, btw!)
Joining ICES is definitely in my budget this year!
Thanks so much for all the input! That helps the decision making so much!! I appreciate it!! Michelle
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