All,
THANK YOU EVERYONE...
I would like to once again thank Carmen for her efforts! We were very excited to be a part of the first ever trade show Fair Trade Pavilion, realizing a dream that we have shared with other fair-traders for several years. I loved being able to point out the huge FTF logo banner flying high over the aisle as a sky-mark to buyers. And most of all, I loved being in close proximity with Fair Trade members, all who share a vision of seeing the world made fair. The deciding factor for us to attend the LA gift show was to be a part of history in the making and join with other FTF members in this historic event.
OUR SUCCESSES!
We debuted our new Holiday 2009 product and and had very positive response from retailers regarding our Fair Trade Holiday line, new sterling and gemstone jewelry, notecards, wine bags and mini-singing bowls. We returned to the LA show with the hope of re-establishing connections with west coast buyers in a more exciting venue. We were successful in doing just that; it was great to see some of our old friends who don't make it to east coast shows! Orders are still coming in from people we met at the show. We saw Kathy Krassner from Giftware News magazine; she will be featuring our new sustainable lokta paper Kite Card in the next issue. In a venue of cash and carry and LA veterans, Tibet Collection Wholesale stood out as unique and attracted a broad spectrum of buyers.
CHALLENGES
We had our work cut out for us as a primarily order-writing business. Challenges included the shift in ownership of the California Gift Show and the much reduced size of the show, the challenging economy (both west coast and in general) and the focus on cash and carry and one-of-a-kind folk art, and the expense of travel and freight to the west coast, and our 'newbie' status. Whew! Thank goodness for swimming pools, movie stars and mojitos!
LOOKING AHEAD
As I write this, we are in the midst of prepping for NYIGF coming up Aug15-19, and Natural Products Expo East, (Boston, Sept 24-26). I hope one day Tibet Collection Wholesale will participate in a future Fair Trade Pavilion in both shows! We are working on our new 2010 catalog and the concurrent website content, with web2.0 blogging and SEO upgrades. We are really excited to be seeing our FTF friends again in NYC and wish everyone a successful show.
Here are a list of fellow Fair Trade Federation Members that were at the show:
Banyan Paper
Bridge for Africa
Cheppu Himal
Handmade Expressions
Inter-American Trading
Manos de Madres
Matur Suksema
One World Projects
Sevya
Spiral Foundation
Swahili Imports
Zen Zen Home & Garden
Jacque, Design/Marketing Director
Tibet Collection Wholesale
