We just finished up 4 days in Atlanta at the gift market and are quite happy to have a ton of follow-up to do – it was a really good show. We went into this market with more appointments than ever before, 3.5 days of running from one end of the place (three buildings, 14 to 20 stories, each one FULL of showrooms…) to the other and loved (almost) every minute of it. It was a strange show in many ways, we heard from some clients that they were having a great show, some a so-so show and even one who unfortunately was having one of the worst ever. Traffic did ebb and flow quite a bit, although I thought it was kind of slow even for a July market and it was way down on Sunday.
What I am taking away from this show is that the clients we saw were almost all looking for that new…something. We need a new angel collection, we need a new wildlife artist, we need a tweener line, have you a good Halloween?…there was not much “fill-in” work being sought, they were looking to find new and fresh lines to bring to market. We had prepped our books for a gift show, heavy on collections and concepts, and that will definitely pay off. We also noticed that there was not a lot of new “wow” product – almost none actually, which of course may explain why they are all looking for fresh new lines. The scrapbookie/pattern mix/collage look (coupled with inspirational messages) was EVERYWHERE, much of it virtually identical, so I suspect you can look for that to go away as it becomes even more overdone.
All for now, my feet hurt and I think I hear a well deserved glass of red wine calling my name….
I also found it to be a good show and am wading hip-deep through follow up right now as well. It was nice to see you & Ronnie ~ how did we miss having that cocktail again??
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