Welcome to Bird Meets Worm! Usually, on the first
Tuesday of the month I share an interview with a fabulous artist/illustrator/designer.
However, this month, in lieu of my usual
monthly blog interview, I'm posting the BEST tidbits of exhibiting-at-Surtex
advice from 10 smart, talented and very superstar artists, whose booths I got
to enjoy at Surtex 2014. I had an amazing time at my Surtex debut and I couldn’t
have done it without an immense amount of love, support, and yes, advice from
so many generous artists. So today I’m sharing, celebrating and paying it
forward! Hooray!
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| Me, Super Jane, on set-up day, getting ready! |
1)
Put your I-love-to-talk-to-everyone face on. It's so important to be active in
your booth. If passers-by show the slightest bit of interest in your booth,
strike up a conversation and give them a card. You never know!
Abby Zweifel
2) It helps to have support at the show. I arrived at
Surtex by myself—but knowing that my friend would be coming in Saturday
afternoon to help me finish my set-up, go to dinner with me, spend the night
and help me for the first part of the first day did more for me than I realized
at the time. Even just 'knowing' that she would be there calmed my fears and
gave me self-confidence. Another friend came in on Sunday through Monday
afternoon, shoring me up even more—leaving me pumped-up and so sure of myself
and my work that I sailed through the remaining time on my own.
Kim Moulder
3)
Although your entire booth design is important, the panels by the aisle are the
first things most people see as they walk down the aisle. Put something
eye-catching there, such as bold art or attractive product, to get the
attention of people passing by.
Lauren Minco
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| My table laid out with portfolio books, postcards, business cards, sample postcards and notepads! |
4)
I would recommend 'indexing' your work for quick reference. A lot of the people
visiting your booth are on a time limit and don't have all day to thumb through
every piece of art that you brought (even if they want to), so I did a few
pages of thumbnails. On the thumbnail pages, I had the names of each piece and
numbered them all, and then I numbered the back of all of the collections. This
helped me be able to quickly reference pieces to show. For instance: if someone
dropped in for Christmas art, I could quickly page through my print-outs and
find just the Christmas pieces, instead of them having to flip through
children's art or florals or whatever else that they were not interested in.
Tracy Mattocks
5) Make sure you say hello to every person who
walks by your booth. Surtex is so visually overwhelming that it’s easy to fall
into a “tradeshow daze”. A simple greeting does wonders to snap people out of
this. It encourages them to stop and look at your booth (and then hopefully
your portfolio.) I can’t tell you how many connections I made this way.
Dana
Garczewski
6)
1. Try and have a near death flight experience the day before like I did—it
will completely remove all stress about Surtex!
2.
Have a good, organized system for collecting all your leads effectively for
follow-up. We had a form with questions, and attached the person’s business
card also, and that worked fab!
3.
If eating healthy is important, then eat here, it is close enough to go for
lunch, but also could be good for picking up meals before and after the show
too. They had everything!
4.
Wear comfy shoes! I wore my comfiest flat boots, and still had aching feet for
days afterwards!
Karma
Voce
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| Posing with my Woodland Critters and Singing Log on the final day. |
7)
Be yourself! And be nice!
Kate Austin
8)
Try and reach out to as many exhibitors as you can at the show while you are
RIGHT THERE. Everyone is very warm and receptive and it is a unique club of
lovely artist exhibitors.
Valerie Hart
9)
It's hard to whittle down everything I learned from Surtex into one tip—In fact,I did a recap post of several things I learned here. But,
something I did not include in that post, and that I would like to share with
the Super Jane readers, AND that I think is probably THE most important tip is:
Pre-Show Marketing. I didn't do such a hot job of this, and boy do I wish I
would have. Take a significant amount of time a couple of months prior to the
show to target companies you would love to meet and work with. Send them
marketing materials and samples of your work. Try to get meetings set up with
them. My neighbor at the show, Victoria Johnson, did a good
job of this (also her first year) and it was obvious from day one as her booth
was jumping right out of the gate!
Sarah Ehlinger
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| I love my booth! So fabulous! |
10)
My top Surtex tip is to take ALL the tips to heart! Comfortable shoes, yep.
Keep snacks handy, check. Meet your neighbors (they'll be great!), definitely.
Bring a buddy to help out at the booth (even if it's part time), sure. Take
everyone's advice. My personal 2¢? Take the time to do some press kits and put
them in the press area. I definitely had a few people who came to the booth
because of mine. Totally worth it!
Kimberly Ellen
Hall
And
lastly, here’s MY best tip for exhibiting at Surtex:
When
it gets overwhelming and you are second-guessing pretty much everything –
yourself, your booth design, your outfit, your hotel choice, your
fill-in-the-blank – (and it will happen at least once or twice!) take a deep
breath and remember that this is part of the LONG game. Your career is not
composed of one moment; its all your efforts combined over a long period of
time. Which means, you’ll be back! Surtex isn’t something you do once. And when
you exhibit next time, you’ll course correct about a million little things and
then you’ll learn about a million more that you weren’t ready to learn the
first time around. So cheers to all the first time exhibitors! And I can’t wait
to see you all again next year! XO