If You Make One Meeting at ICSC 2026, Make It This One

How do you keep a brand consistent across 75 locations?

What happens when a city will not approve the sign package you use everywhere else?

Is that new digital technology actually useful, or is it something you will regret owning three years from now?

How can you open locations faster without creating problems later?

Those are the conversations we want to have at ICSC.

If you have 30 minutes while you are there, sit down with Dan and Mike from National Sign Team. Bring a problem. Bring an idea. Bring something you have been trying to figure out. That is probably a much better use of 30 minutes than collecting another stack of brochures.

Not Every New Sign Idea Is a Good Sign Idea

The sign industry has no shortage of new technology. Some of it is excellent. Some of it solves a real problem. Some of it looks impressive at a trade show and becomes a maintenance headache later.

Mike is good at separating the two. When you have spent three decades watching materials, lighting systems, fabrication methods, digital products, and installation techniques come and go, you start recognizing the difference between a trend and something that will actually improve a sign program.

That does not mean staying stuck in the past. It means asking better questions.

And maybe most importantly, does it solve a problem we actually have? Those conversations can save a company a lot of money.

Mike Is Also the Guy You Want to Know When Things Get Complicated

Every sign program eventually runs into something unexpected. Sign codes vary dramatically from one municipality to another. Permitting requirements change. ADA requirements have to be considered. Buildings rarely match drawings perfectly.

Sometimes the problem is straightforward. Sometimes you need someone who knows who to call.

Mike has spent more than 30 years building relationships throughout the industry. Fabricators. Installers. Designers. Permit specialists. Vendors. People who understand specific markets and specific problems. That network is valuable.

When a client calls us with a problem in a market halfway across the country, the answer is often not, "We will start looking for someone." The answer is, "We know who we need to talk to." That comes from years of doing this work.

Technology Should Solve Something

We are interested in innovation, but National Sign Team is not interested in adding technology to a project just so we can say it has technology. There needs to be a reason.

• Maybe a digital display lets a restaurant change messaging throughout the day.
• Maybe a new lighting system reduces energy use and maintenance.
• Maybe different materials improve durability in a difficult climate.
• Maybe better controls allow a company to manage signage across a large group of locations.

Those are useful changes. Technology works best when customers barely notice the technology itself. They simply notice that the experience is better. That is the kind of innovation Dan looks for. He is constantly evaluating new products, materials, lighting systems, digital platforms, and ideas to figure out where they make sense in the real world.

Mike and Dan Do Not Always Look at Things the Same Way

That is a good thing.

Mike brings more than 30 years of experience and tends to ask, "What could go wrong?" Dan looks at a new idea and asks, "What could we do with this?" Those two questions belong in the same room.

A new idea needs someone willing to explore it. It also needs someone who has enough experience to see the problems hiding around the corner. That balance is a big part of how we approach projects at National Sign Team.

We do not want to keep doing something a certain way just because that is how the industry has always done it. We also do not want a client to spend money chasing something new when a simpler, proven solution would work better.

Sometimes the right answer is new technology. Sometimes the right answer is something we have been doing successfully for 20 years. Usually the best solution comes from understanding both.

Think About the Next Five Years, Not Just the Next Sign

One of the biggest mistakes we see is companies solving one location at a time without considering what happens when that solution needs to be repeated. One location becomes five. Five becomes twenty. Twenty becomes one hundred. Suddenly, a decision that seemed small becomes a standard.

That is why we like talking about the bigger picture.

A good signage strategy should make future locations easier, not harder.

We Also Want to Hear What Keeps You Up at Night

Every company has one part of its sign program that creates more headaches than it should.

For one brand, it is permitting. For another, it is inconsistent fabrication. Someone else cannot get accurate site surveys. Another company is constantly dealing with lighting failures. Sometimes nobody inside the organization even owns the entire process, so marketing, facilities, construction, and vendors are all working from slightly different information.

Those are exactly the problems worth discussing.

Mike can bring decades of practical experience to the issue. Dan can look at whether a different technology, process, or approach could solve it. Between the two, we can usually get pretty far in half an hour.