First Time at AmericasMart, Part Three: Just for fun

So I spent most of my first day, Friday, in Building 2, prospecting. I also happened into an unplanned meeting with a manufacturer. I was sure glad a friend had lent me his iPad for this trip. Before the trip, I had reserved an iPad from the Apple store, but it had not arrived in time. I was not looking forward to the prospect of lugging around a huge spiral binder all the time (you never know when you might need it, planned meetings or not!) and the iPad seemed a to be sensible and attractive solution. My friend lent me the iPad the day before, so did not really have much time to get fully accustomed to the device before using it for meetings. Of course I had a couple of hiccups navigating through my portfolio, but even though I hadn't yet found my "legs" with it, I found it to be a really a nice way to show work, and everyone I met with the entire trip was forgiving of any learning curves I had with the device, and seemed to enjoy viewing work on the iPad. :)

The Ladies of Licensing

On Friday night, I met up with a great group of art licensors - and one art licensing lawyer - at a hotel bar. My friend Carol Eldridge is the only one I knew in person, and it was she who had invited me to come. I was very glad she did and I was so glad I made it. It was without a doubt one of the very top highlights of my trip. It was so much fun to meet the group, and I had quite a few really good conversations in the time frame of 1.5 hours. I am really glad I went! I met some great gals!!

Building 3

The second day was spent checking out the temporary showrooms in Building 3, a large atrium, rotunda-styled building. The floors of this building were circularly shaped around a large "hole" where you could look down to the ground floor, or up to the glass, sky-light ceiling. And with so many floors, it was overwhelming. I was only able to cover a few of the floors because I had a couple of meetings in an adjacent building, and also had a flight late that afternoon. I just didn't have the time.

One of the first things I did do on Saturday was a walk-through of the "Cash & Carry" area, which is on the first floor of Building 3. "Cash & Carry" was an alien term to me until Friday night when Tammy Browning-Smith (the lawyer of Friday night's group) explained it to me. But now I will never forget it! This section of the show is created for buyers to just buy what they want off the trade show floor and take it with them that day, right then and there. I had heard that there are some very good deals in the cash & carry section. As I walked through the floor, much of what I saw was not personally appealing to me. That is, a lot of it was nice, but none of it was anything I wanted to pack up and take home with me. But of course, if you have any shopping genes at ALL, sooner or later you walk by something that speaks to you and just to you, and your weakness is exposed, and that is what happened to me. :) I got lost on the Cash & Carry floor, which led me to walk the perimeter of the floor, in order to eventually find myself closer to an EXIT sign. Well, I walked right into a trap, like a bug in a spider web -- the costume jewelry and accessories area. Since I wear bobby pins in my hair nearly every day,  coming upon a large table full of sparkly bobby pins, I was not going anywhere for awhile. I got out easy - leaving the Cash & Carry room with thankfully just a small amount of finds:  two barrettes, two bobbies, one Hello Kitty crystal charm bracelet and one pair of Hello Kitty crystal stud earrings - and all for the super-low bargain basement price of $26. I do wish I purchased more of those bargain bobbies. Finally, I spotted a really kooky, EXTRA large, EXTRA blingy "Hello Kitty" crystal pendant necklace, which made my my jaw drop. It was $20, and it was ridiculously awesome but the Practical Me said "Now REALLY, WHERE am I EVER going to WEAR this thing????" Of course NOW, I keep thinking about it that necklace... and, you know, honestly, I really think I could have pulled it off...

All in all, it was an excellent whirlwind trip and I am glad I finally cracked the seal on that jar of pickles. I knew I would learn a lot. It's just usually a surprise at what the "learning theme" is going to be --  I always learn these little "hidden" lessons at trade shows that maybe were not immediately on my radar in the beginning. I guess that is the best kind of learning - the kind thatBLINDSIDES you! Ha ha! Anyway, great trip and now I am back home and working like mad on new things... Please Wish me Good Luck... :)

THE END! Until January 2011...

 (airport snack)

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First time at AmericasMart, Part Two: the Lay of the Land

My first day (Friday) was all about getting the lay of the land. A trusted advisor suggested that AtlantasMart's building #2 might be the building of most interest to me. Good advice, and that is where I concentrated most of my energy. After spending most of the day in that building and needing the entire day to get through it, I surmised that a good rule of thumb is to budget one full day per building. It's a good general average to follow.


The three AtlantasMart buildings are connected by these tube-like, glassed-in bridges. Did you ever have a pet hamster? These connecting bridges reminded me of habitrail tubes my old pet hamster used to run around in. Building 2, where I spent my first day at the show, houses many permanent showrooms of giftware and paper manufacturers. Elevators were the main mode of transportation from floor to floor. Those elevators sure fill up fast, so I learned that it pays to be quick on your feet! Sardine-packed elevators notwithstanding, the mood was positive and people would kindly make as much room as possible to accommodate as many people as would safely fit in the elevator. On some floors, there were escalators too, which certainly helped.


Within Building 2, I spent the most time on the permanent showroom floors. I checked out what the manufacturers were 'investing' in for the upcoming seasons in terms of art and product, and I noted which companies I thought my work would be a good fit for. Being faced with so many manufacturers and products at a trade show such as this can be tricky. It is much easier to lose sight of your main focus when you are in the midst of sensory overload. For a show such as this, when you are prospecting new companies you'd like to work with, it's important to constantly 'check yourself' to make sure you stay on track and you are making note of the manufacturers that your work might really, TRULY be a good match with. You DON'T want to end up with a gigantic list of companies where your work might "sort of, kind of..." fit, or where your work would fit only with a GREAT DEAL of (likely somewhat painful) massaging.


You also do not want to put yourself in a position of not feeling 100% about anything and everything you create and present to a potential client. You HAVE to have a lot of confidence in what you are pitching and in whatever potential partnership you are proposing. It just doesn't make any sense to waste your precious energy on a big bunch of "...hmmm well MAYBE..." companies. Besides, if you aren't all in 100%, how will anything you propose be 100%?


The goal is to come away with a bright, sharp list of potential partner companies that you feel confident about working something up for, that you feel confident contacting because you really believe your work fits there. Places that you think you could bring something new and fresh to the table while 1) staying true to your own brand aethetic; 2) bringing something to the table that will click as something that they NEED to either fill out their offerings or is otherwise on target and desirable; and 3) keeping in check all of the above, staying within their comfort level of their brand. All of these things at one-- quite the balancing act, eh?You have to get know your work well from a product standpoint and be able to really be objective about it in terms of it selling at retail. Hey, I've got a long way to go in this regard myself, but I'm now at a point where I feel comfortable with these concepts and I am able to enjiy the very creative work of imagining and designing my work in other forms.


Besides all of that - look, studying markets and being ruthlessly focused is a great learning exercise in investigating YOUR CORE identity as an art licensor and artist-- AND in following your true gut instincts. This can be a hard habit to get into, especially if you are used to second-guessing yourself, which a lot of people are (I have done my share!). But stop yourself from doing this --DON'T sell yourself short. Instead, practice listening to, and following, your TRUE gut! It's one of your most valuable tools, and, I think in art licensing, it is INvaluable.


So, following my own advice, I came away with a moderately-sized list of companies to look into deeper, and a handful of companies that I plan to develop pitches for.

I am planning on writing one more blog post about my first trip to AtlantasMart. So please stay tuned!

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First Time at AmericasMart, Part One: What's it all about?

Last week, I attended the AmericasMart show in Atlanta for the first time. This is often referred to as "the gift show" and it is the largest of its kind in the country. The event takes place twice a year - once in July, and again in January. The show exists mainly to deliver easy access to the latest and greatest in products to retail buyers from across the nation. Buyers for retail stores across the country who budget one show per calendar year will likely choose this show for their one-stop shopping needs.

The July show consists of manufacturers who exhibit in either Temporary or Permanent Showrooms (though a few show in both- more on that later). All of the showrooms reside in three connected "AmericasMart" buildings. The buildings collectively take up about the equivalent of a couple of large city blocks.

The "permanent" showrooms are on their own designated floors, and resemble large shopping mall stores with product beautifully displayed, but without the registers and price tags. The "temporary" showrooms are typically on the lower floors of the buildings (though Building 3 consists largely of temporaries with exhibitors booths taking up several floors in an artium-style, circular-shaped architecture. The floors in each building are broken down thematically- for example, a floral buyer can go directly to the "Floral" floors, or for a shop owner who only buys Christmas at the show, they can spend their time perusing the floors labeled with the word "Holiday".

Each of the three buildings have areas for both permanent and temporary showrooms. The permanent showrooms live in their areas all year round. Buyers can visit these showrooms throughout the year, to my knowledge. But the manufacturers' bi-annual big product/line collection releases are launched at the bi-annual shows.

The temporary showroom exhibits are not housed in the storefront-style floor plan- these are regular tradeshow booths. These usually feature smaller manufacturers, but some companies who have permanent showrooms choose to also exhibit in the temporary showrooms (such as paper company Gina B. Designs). I noticed that a number of other manufacturers seem to also cover their bases in this way, as well.

This is an excellent show to attend if you are interested in seeing what types of art & products manufacturers have committed to in their lines, to sell to the store buyers. So Basically what you will be seeing at the show are the products that will be the freshest and newest products at retail for the next six months. (What is more fun and exciting than that??) As such, this may be THE MOST important show for an art licensor to attend. I am sure a lot of folks would debate me on that, but the bottom line is that, between Surtex, Licensing, and AmericasMart, (can't speak to CHA; never been,) this is the only show of the three that's all about the finished product. Art and design's entry into the commercial retail market from the hard work and collaboration between art licensor and manufacturer.

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Checking In

For the first time, I'm visiting Atlanta at the end of this week. I will be attending the Atlanta Gift Show. The purpose for my going is to discover companies who manufacture products that my art might be a fit for. I'm looking forward to it. It will be a busy couple of days full of sensory overload but me and my notebook are getting prepared for it.

With art licensing, It's been an interesting year thus far. I've been working really hard, but you would really never know it because I don't post any of the artwork on the internet and I don't post much to my blog about things (though I do tweet). It's a funny business in that way -- everything is sort of "off the grid" until it's a Done Deal and then it's WAHOO time to throw the confetti and uncork the champagne! I'm looking forward to these moments for myself, but for now I will continue to plug away, (on the web inconspicuously), and chart my path.

I  will share my observations on Atlanta here, when I get back. So please stay tuned.

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