Well, we have made it back alive from our debut showing at Surtex 2012!! It was quite a whirlwind and seemed to fly by way too quickly, but we wanted to just pause for a moment before we get back into the full swing of things and recap our little adventure in NYC! We’ll start with our quick summary in case you’d like to forgo the rest of this long post. Overall, we’re really happy with our first showing! We talked to so many companies that we have dreamed of partnering with and then ended up meeting and discovering all new companies that we would’ve never been exposed to without this show. Lots of people have been asking us, “So, how was Surtex?” and we really don’t have a quick answer because the truth is, the actual show is just the beginning of conversations. The talks and possible contracts (fingers crossed) are things that will happen over the next many months, possibly even over the entire year! So, we think it went great, but we will keep you all posted on what (hopefully) exciting things come of it as time goes on!
Ok, onto our little recap. So we headed out a few days before the show started to get settled and have sufficient time to set up our booth. Surtex takes place in the Javits Convention Center and it is just HUGE! We walked all of our banners and books of patterns to the convention center as soon as we got into town and we immediately got busy setting up. Thanks to many dear friends who helped us plan our booth, things went relatively smoothly. We had our banners printed and made with pole pockets that we used to insert yard sticks and “S” hooks to hang on our booth wall. (Below: Morgan prepping the banners for hanging)
We had a corner booth so we had two walls to fill with pattern goodness. One one wall we did three large panels of patterns and on the other wall we used one of our patterns as wallpaper and put up a sort of gallery wall of some other works. We used metal clamps and this awesome neon duct tape that we ran across. And as if we didn’t have enough color going on, we decided to tag our booth pole with every color of neon tape that we had!
So our booth went from the above picture to the below picture!!! It totally felt like our own little home away from home. We felt perfectly content sitting in our crazy pattern world!
So clearly it was time to celebrate!
And then the big day was finally here!! Surtex runs for three days from 9am to 6pm. Never fear, we made sure to be well-caffeinated for each day.
(Above: Carrie looking all cute in our booth!)
Check this out! One of our favorite visitors was this cool duo that came upstairs from the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (going on at the same time as Surtex on the bottom level) just to walk around. We chatted for a bit, they recommended some great places for brunch, picked up our business cards–and voila! One of our business cards suddenly turned into a pretty rad fashion accessory!
We squeezed in as much time as we could to hang out with friends, but really, next year, we are most definitely padding our trip with additional time because we didn’t get to see everyone and we also didn’t get to play in the city as much as we’d like! But for those we did get to hang out with, thank you for making the time and the trips in to see us!!!! You guys were the treat after long days in a trade show! You know who you are :)
And, just like that, it was all over! Until next year, Surtex!
sending...
the booth looked AMAZING!!! awesome job, ladies. congrats!
You ladies rocked that booth! You made it look like you’re seasoned pros – it was so polished.
Phew, I’m exhausted just reading that post. ;)
LOVED the recap, ladies!!! i can’t wait to see what comes of the show. a yearly NYC trip is definitely that is if i don’t pick up & move there! ha!
oh thanks, ladies!!! it really was a crazy busy trip, but we squeezed a lot of fun in there, too :) glad you like the booth!
An annual NYC trip is on the calendar…done and done! :)
Thanks for the recap! I am glad it went well and it is exciting to see all your process since we are on out way there and we also work together but we are remote. You guys are such an inspiration!
Yay! Congrats on the amazing booth and all of the hard work. It looked beautiful. :) You two are so inspiring!
Dariela and Jing!
Thank you so much for the kind words. We are flattered!
Hi Carrie and Morgan,
Thanks for the great summary. I am the gal from Minnesota who introduced herself. I will probably see you at Surtex next year :-)
Love you blog!
Mary Jo
Your booth was so very well done…complete eyecandy!! You’re work is fantastic and it all came together so very well! Excited to see what’s next for you lovelies!
Enjoyed reading your recap and so glad you had a great first show!
Booth looked awesome!!!
Loved reading your blog! Reminds me so much of the days when I traveled to Surtex to look and buy — but so proud of you two doing it on your own!! You are two talented ladies!
Thanks, Helen! We appreciate your sweet words!