The NSS Report Part 1: the Booth

Ta- Da!
This is what our booth looked like at the National Stationery Show. We were pretty happy with it -- especially since this was our first time exhibiting. My inspiration for the gray walls came from Kristin and Mike Taylor's apartment*. I really like how it made the artwork stand out.

For those who are considering showing at the NSS next year, here's some more info about the booth:

+ Size: 8x10 feet. There are different sizes you can choose, but we thought this one worked well for a small company like ours. 6x10 would have seemed a little too small for us with all our posters.
+ Walls: We opted to spring for the custom color foam core walls from Manny Stone. You can find them on the NSS website. They were very helpful, and it was great to show up and have the walls already in place. Especially since we were traveling to the show and didn't have room to bring our own walls. Most of the booths around us hung fabric instead of having walls, so we felt like the walls helped us stand out. However - these things cost an arm and a leg -- almost as much as the booth fee itself, so we have to wonder if it's worth the cost. Hmmm.....
+ Signage: We had some vinyl adhesive signs made at a local sign shop in Columbus: Redi-quik Signs. We had our logo banner across the back walls and then the booth number on each of the top corners of the wall that were closest to the aisle. The upside is that I think they really looked clean and nice on the walls and that they were inexpensive. The downside is that the big ones can be tricky to apply and they aren't re-useable. The most stressful moment of the show was when Kirk and I screwed up while trying to put up the sign and were afraid that we wouldn't be able to remove horribly bubbled, mess of a sign without ruining the walls. Luckily, we were able to get the messed up one down with only very faint damage to the wall and we had an extra sign to put up. Next year, I would consider getting smaller little decals to label different sections of products on the walls.
+ Flooring: If your booth decor has a really industrial feel to it, you could go with the bare, beat up, black cement floors of the Javits Center. We bought some carpet tiles at Flor (and took advantage of a free shipping promo). They were easy to install (no need for the adhesive dots even) and we can use them again and again. Plus, they held up great and still looked like new at the end of the 4 day show. (We made sure to get tiles that are made for heavy traffic.) A lot of vendors used these. I did see some vendors using those interlocking foam tiles, which were so comfy and nice to stand on. The ones that were printed to look like bamboo flooring were pretty convincing unless you stared at them up close.
+ Lighting: Whatever you do, don't think that the regular lighting from the Javits will be enough. There was a really nice booth on our aisle that didn't have any extra lighting. Even though it was decorated thoughtfully and the products were cute, the booth was so dim that it was difficult for the products to stand out. We decided to go with a parcan light from the Javits. It's a strong light -- the kind they use on Broadway. The problem was that it spotlighted the back wall, but didn't get the side walls very well. I saw some other vendors who were able to attach some arm lamps to the metal frame behind the foam core walls and were able to get much more controlled, even lighting all around their booth this way. Next year, this is what we want to do.
+ Furniture / Display: Like many other vendors, we relied on Ikea for the furniture in our booth. The cubby shelf and stools are from our office at home. Sitting with our knees crushed against the dashboard, were able to barely squeeze the shelf into the back of our little hatchback, along with our bags, products, etc...It didn't make for a very comfortable drive to New York, but at least we didn't have to pay to ship the furniture.
I liked the way the shelf and stools looked, but next year we decided that we'd like to try a taller counter or table with bar stools or chairs. That way, you can sit down and rest your feet but still be on eye level with people who come into your booth. We got this idea from other vendors around us, and let me tell you, it's a winner. Our feet/legs/hips/lower backs were killing us at the end of each day of the show. Even though we had stools in our booth, we didn't feel like we could sit on them because they were so low and made it awkward to converse with people walking into the booth.
I loved having all our catalogs, press kits, order forms,etc... hidden in plain sight in the good looking storage containers on our shelf unit. The orange ones are from the Container Store, the blue file holder is from Paper Source, the white boxes are just the cardboard ones that envelopes come in, and I picked up the yellow magazine holders at a thrift store. I also used some vintage milk glass type candy dishes to display some cards on top of the shelf, and a jewlery tree from Ikea to display the gift tags.
I used some yellow masking tape to stick a couple of posters to the back wall, and adhesive Velcro to stick all the products to the side walls. This stuff worked great...and if something was a little off, you could just pull it off and reposition it.
Phew. I think that's enough for one day. I'll be posting more about the NSS soon.

*(This photo was taken by a photographer friend of Kristin and Mike's of their little family in their apartment. Click here to read my interview with Kristin about her art.)