As a new FEDA Associate Member, our president Mindy was asked to explore the concept of “Partnerships in the Age of Speed” for their Summer 2019 issue of FEDA News & Views. This was such an interesting and exciting opportunity to take a look back at how business here at CFI has changed—and hasn’t—over the years!

When we started in a garage more than 35 years ago, communication and production time was much slower than today. Sometimes I marvel at how we pulled off production schedules while waiting for hard-copy product photographs to be shipped in the mail, compared to the easy access we have now using email and shared drives. I’m proud that, despite the lack of technology, we built a foundation on human connections that turned into lasting partnerships. The focus on those connections remains a priority to this day.

Labor-intensive and extremely time-consuming, catalog production in 1982 was more akin to scrapbooking than the digital processes we use now. [read more]

Photo Credit: Laura Evans