guest post: POOL trade show

Today I’m excited to bring you a guest post from Leslie Yang of Feisty Elle.  Leslie has graciously agreed to share her experience exhibiting at the POOL trade show.  Thanks, Leslie!

Hi everyone, I’m Leslie Yang, owner and designer for Feisty Elle, a San Francisco-based business offering sustainable jewelry and accessories made from merino wool felt and bamboo ply. My design vision is to inject color and versatility into what I make and to use sustainable materials as often as possible. Megan has invited me to share with you all my first tradeshow experience at POOL, which was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, February 16-18.

POOLTRADESHOW is geared towards contemporary fashion with an ear to the ground for emerging art and design driven brands. Larger companies exhibiting included American Apparel, Jeffrey Campbell, Tokidoki, and Yak Pak. I also saw companies that I’d admired from afar such as: BAGGU, FluffyCo, Poketo, molly m designs, Gama-Go, and Supermaggie.

First things first, POOL is a smart name. It says so much about navigating the unknown waters of wholesaling and tradeshows. I like to tell people that POOL offers the smoothest transition and introduction from retail to trade shows and yet isn’t a kiddie pool experience. I have a few years under my belt of doing retail shopping events but, as I found out, a tradeshow requires much greater preparation, strategy, and focus.

I was an exhibitor for POOL’s Cash & Carry section, which was $750 for a table with a lovely wall (or two if you’re on a corner). I could have applied for an 8×12 booth, but for my first show a table felt manageable. Here’s a picture of my table:

The lead up

In early January, as I recovered from the madness of December sales, I began to look more closely at the calendar and realized that I had only a month and half to prepare for the show! Gah!

I wasn’t sure where to start but I quickly remembered that I’d flipped through Craft Inc. Business Planner lazily one day at a bookstore and it had a section devoted to tradeshows. I bought the book and started to make countless lists of what I needed to do. I would then spend every waking hour after my full time job, on weekends, during breaks, to redesign my line sheet, add new lines and colors, take product photos, assemble press kits, make buyers kits, work with a friend to make as much product as possible, print carbonless order forms, and think of ways to jazz up my table. I also read all relevant entries on CraftMBA as well as Retail Minded for tips and experiences on tradeshows. By the time I was done preparing for the show, I was beyond exhausted.

Show time

I flew in a day early to set up my table and then met up with a friend, who would stay the rest of the week to work the table with me. And thank goodness she was there! (NOTE: A friend at your table = sanity.) The first day was exciting and a bit overwhelming. There was plenty of foot traffic and onlookers throughout the day and I was in full saleswoman mode. I met a retailer that put in my biggest order yet as well as the lovely retail buyers of Feisty Elle I’d only corresponded with over email or phone. Face time with a buyer proved invaluable. Helping a buyer learn more about felt made all the difference when it came to deciding to put in an order or buy a sample. I handed out line sheets in exchange for a business card (Thanks Megan for the tip!) as well as business cards and postcards.

I also met fashion students, staff from BUST magazine, exhibitors walking in from other shows, people interested in exhibiting at POOL in the future, as well as a number of mysterious people whose name tags were flipped over, one of whom I found out later was a buyer for Fred Segal. You really never know who you’re talking to so the best thing to do is to be friendly and engaging with anyone and everyone.

Over time, I learned of the lovely and tough part about C&C, which is that buyers can purchase your work on the spot as well as put in orders, but this means you have to bring as much product as possible. At some points I ran out of certain colors and had to refuse to sell the last ones on display, which made a few individuals cranky. I wound up offering to ship samples once I was back in San Francisco, which soothed most people.

The next two days had less foot traffic, which I attribute to the economy; cautious spending by consumers means buyers and retailers have to make tough decisions about which shows to go to as well as take more time to consider if they’ll try out a new brand or line. I still handed out plenty of buyers’ packets, sold a bunch of product, and took orders. I also had a chance to walk around, network with fellow business owners, and buy samples from other exhibitors.

And did I happen to mention that POOL has a DJ, a manicure lounge sponsored by Jeffrey Campbell, and a bar? Young, fun, AND taking care of business is definitely POOL’s mantra for putting on a good show.

POOL love

All in all, I felt Feisty Elle was in the right place at the right time. I have nothing but gratitude for the staff, who were all professional, accommodating, and down to earth. (Many thanks to Anita and Abe for always being responsive and helpful.) I’m also grateful to POOL for offering a smaller footprint at an affordable price for businesses like myself scaling up to wholesaling and exhibiting at tradeshows. I highly recommend POOL for businesses looking to graduate to tradeshows and wholesaling.

Thanks for letting me share my first tradeshow experience with you all!