Edward Conk

About Edward Conk!

Edward Conk was sitting in his room one day as a student at the University of California - Santa Barbara (UCSB) and an idea came to him. It was a fairly simple plan and if done properly could potentially provide a decent income. Eager to put his business skills to use, Edward Conk soon started his first company. The genesis of the operation was a contest Edward organized where the sororities of UCSB voted for the cutest boys on campus. It was a fun idea and Edward’s fellow students participated in droves. Edward had high quality photographs of the winners taken and printed on a black and white calendar. He turned around and sold the calendar on campus where it became a wild success. Based on this initial achievement, Edward surmised that there was a broader market than just the girls at UCSB. Shortly thereafter, Day Dream Publishing was born. To get his new company off the ground, Edward enlisted help from his sister, Joellyn and their brother, Chris. The trio began developing a selection of generic themed calendars that did well, but the Conks shifted focus to be more in touch with popular trends and fashion, with a concerted focus on acquiring the top licenses in the marketplace. This was a strategy that within a few years had grown Day Dream to employ over 600 employees and develop into the largest calendar and poster publishing company in the world. With Edward Conk at the helm as CEO and Chairman, Day Dream enjoyed an annual compounded growth rate of 30% from 1984 to 1997. All of this phenomenal success did not go without notice and, in 1993, Edward was a finalist for Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year award. Today Edward Conk lives in California with his wife and two children.