Progressive Greetings Live 2010

On May 25-26th Fay's Studio was in Islington, London taking part in its very first trade show. It was a difficult decision taking the plunge into such a large and fairly expensive adventure for my business but I would recommend it to anyone.

          Fay's Studio stand showing the current greeting card ranges and new designs yet to be printed.


If you came to visit the show you may have met my wonderful Mum who helped with every last ribbon and sticky foam tab and she was great with the customers! Needless to say we were exhausted just after the set up as we had travelled by train with all of our equipment. It was a hard task but that isn't to say we wouldn't do it again because it was so easy to take down at the end of the show.

                                        This is me looking slightly tired at the end of the first day.

It took around 6 hours to set up the stand and by 8pm on the Monday we were dehydrated and very hungry, but very pleased with the stand which had made the transition from my bedroom wall to The Business Design Centre. I have to say I was quite proud of myself, but still feeling incredibly nervous about the next day.

Tuesday was a very mixed day, chatting with the standholders nearby and getting to know them and their products. I met distributors from America, Japan and The Netherlands which was a good start to the show and Wednesday brought many more opportunities and contacts in the UK. I met so many people from a variety of businesses who really loved my designs, it was really encouraging that my designs struck a chord with many different retailers.

I have come away from the show exhausted but extremely pleased to have taken part, and optimistic for the future of the business. I am already looking into different paper and board suppliers and a whole new printing company for my products just to meet the demands of my customers. I hope to get even more green too, which will really benefit the environment and also please many customers who enquired about packaging.
I can't give away too much at the moment but I will no doubt have more to say in the near future about the next steps for me and my designs.

I am already raring to go with new designs sketched out this week, and getting excited about meeting a rep from a paper company to decide on the best surfaces and finishes for my products. So keep a look out for the new products. It's a really exciting time!