But-- were people buying? I didn't apply to that one because the
reviews suggested poor sales. What was your sense of how the show
was going for the artists? Was it crowded? Were people carrying
parcels? Was the mood upbeat?
After finally getting back last night after 12 hours of travel, and
an unexpected 5 hour layover in Minneapolis, which lead to an amazing
dinner at Chino Latino (chinolatino.com) with a good buddy of mine
that I called last minute to kill some time, so he picked me up at
the airport we chilled, and got to visit their studio as
well…Aside from meeting Beth and her friend, seeing Michael
Jordan and Bob Dole (and drinking with Mr.Doles personal assistant)
at the hotel, those were pretty much the highlights of the weekend. I
will say MJ is one tall dude…
As for the ACC show itself…what can I say, it was quite a few
days with lots of idle time on our hands. Attendance was fair at
best, the isles were never packed full of consumers, and the only
rush of people came in at opening with a hundred (or two) or so
people on friday and saturday. Sunday people kind of dribbled in
after church and the like.
Sales for me were extremely low, with the exception of the support
by Beth and her buddy (Thanks!!), I made only two other sales, one to
the husband of another jeweler, and one to another artist, so the bro
deals were given all around. Needless to say, this show was a major
loss for me when travel/hotel/food were all taken into account.
Id have to say, all in all advertising for the event was marginal,
lots of freebie listings in various events calendars, but no real
print advertising was to be found in local publications. A couple of
articles were found as well. As for actual paid for advertising, Id
be curious to see what was actually out there. I did hear of a front
page article in the local paper that weekend about the show, but
never saw it personally. Posters at the bus stops, small banners
around the convention center, and postcards at the Mint Museum were
the only other advertising I saw while footing it around the place. I
personally dropped off a stack of post cards to the hotel concerige
where I was staying.
On the online side of things, I only saw 36 individual click thrus
from the ACC site to my site for the entire month of October and
currently 7 in November. Im guessing these were mostly other artists
viewing stuff like me, but I could be wrong. Personally I think the
ACC needs to highligh the next show on their site by making it the
front page of the site for that time frame…having to click thru a
number of pages to get to the current show is a lot of work.
Some of the vendors had a decent show and were able to clear cost,
but it was very apparent that monies were not being spent in volume
at this show and this could be attributed to a number of things. Come
to find out Charlotte is the largest financial district second only
to NYC. This being said, with the stock market going to crap, those
that did have money were very skeptical about spending any of it. The
best quote from a trustee for that weekend was I cant spend any
money until the stock market rebounds that pretty much said I wasnt
going to be seeing any high dollar sales there. Weather wasnt a
factor as it was beautiful the entire weekend. Location may play into
this…granted its downtown, but downtown is a financial district
with the only other major draw being the sports stadiums. Plenty of
good eats, but everything seems to shut down about 5-7pm, not much of
a night life there other than food and a few bars and pubs…given
the fact that the election was a couple days away could have played
into it as well.
Overall, I had a lot of interest in my work as it was unlike any
other jewelers work there, and hoping to land some commissions with
individuals that I chatted with extensively, but in the be all end
all, it was a trying show for me. Will I sign up for this particular
show again? Not positive, being the newbie I know it takes a few
shows to develop a following for your work, but these shows are far
away, a major expense, and quite frankly I dont even know if the ACC
will be the right venue for my work either. If I do this show again,
I will take advertising into my own hands and not rely on the ACC.
Well, up next on the ACC circuit is in Sarasota, FL. One can only
hope its a different market there and have a much better turn out
with sales that can at least cover expenses.
P@