The Nashville market in February is the one trade show a year that I go to. There are more markets I could participate in but at this point, I have way too much to ship, and if I can’t drive it in a reasonable time, I usually pass on it and let my products be shown by my distributors. I drive to Nashville and pull a trailer full of new stuff and old stuff (which is always NEW to someone!). This is a show open only for the trade (shopowners and distributors) and they buy to stock their shops. It’s a nine hour drive from Richmond and the weather is always a surprise. Linda (my office manager) and I have driven in snow and in ice, even in fog, rarely in sunshine.
The show is held in a hotel and we sleep in the back room and display in the front room. We try and set up our “booth” in the most pleasing way possible considering we are not really supposed to move around the existing furniture and we try not to bring so much display that we need a crew of 20 to set it all up. We usually arrive a day or two ahead of time so we can snag the best bellman to help us unload the trailer, and the best one or two usually have a list of first-come first-served guests so we wait our turn so we can get started. It’s a busy time because we always seem to forget something and have to run to 14 stores to replace those items. We have at least 20 staplers back at the office, and 7 hammers. Then we usually need more signage so we go there and order a sign or two–the proprietor has my logo in his computer from previous years. Then we have to fit in a trip to Kinko’s because the new price list and information was done on our way out of town and didn’t get printed.
We are always grateful there is a free happy hour with popcorn set up every day at 5:00 (it’s always 5:00 SOMEWHERE!) however in all our years of exhibiting in Nashville, I don’t think we’ve ever taken advantage of it. We are always too busy, or just too tired…but it’s good to know the opportunity is there for us!
We schmooze a bit with fellow designers and distributors, trade info about new people and old people, what new products are out there…but we are all so busy we really don’t spend more than a few minutes with each other in passing.
The first day of the show, we can’t wait to open our doors…we are not always quite ready but we are excited! It’s fun to see all the shopowners who, over the many years, are almost like family. We know of each others weddings, of family losses, of new grandchildren. Some of us are weathering illnesses, some successful and some not. We welcome new shops, and say goodbye to old ones. The shopowners let us know what we are doing right and what we can fix. We will share industry insights and we’ll bemoan the plight of the economy. We revel in their excitement over our new products. We close our doors at 6:00 pm and crash for a while, then realize we have not eaten all day and ponder where we will eat that is quicker food than room service offers but will take little or no effort to get to it. We take so long to figure this out, we could have had room service by the time we decide where to go. We think about restocking that night but almost always decide we can get up early and do it in the morning…forgetting that we have to work around the housekeeping crew and fit in breakfast…
So the second day of the show, we do the same as the first day! The show is over at 5:00 and we immediately set about repacking and consolidating what we have left. We cannot get on the bellman’s list to load our trailer until we are ready to move out so by the time we can get on his list, it is about 10:00 pm…and he gets off at 11:00. We never know if our name will come up before he has to leave so it’s a waiting game, but usually we are lucky and get packed Sunday night so we can leave (again in bad weather) first thing Monday morning. We practically always either forget something at the hotel, OR we think we do and find it in our warehouse 6 months later. The trek home seems like it takes us three times longer as it did when we were on our way to Nashville. We are exhausted now…the weeks of designing, printing, marketing, packing etc, have taken it’s toll. So we’ll go home, unload, send out whatever we ran out of at the show (there is always something that surprises us) and then spend a few days just sitting around wondering WHY do we keep doing this??? And once we’ve rested, we realize “Hey! We’re tired, but we DID have FUN!” It was worth it, and we’ll be doing it again next year!
Let me know what you think of the new products! They were fun designs, and I hope you’ll find them a fun stitch!
Posted on January 22nd, 2009 by Sue
Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Another “new for Nashville” book and in 
