[brucelines]

I've registered to go to 2 trade shows in London, UK, this weekend (30th & 31st July) and I was wondering, I'm not too serious about my t-shirt business, but would it be a waste of other peoples time for me to go and chat about what we have to offer?

I was just gonna go there and take a look at things to come next season, but event organisers are saying that many UK buyers haven't gone overseas yet to view new material so this event should be crammed with buyers.

 

[Rodney]

Are you going as an "exhibitor" or just as an attendee. If you are just checking things out, I think going as an "attendee" would be OK. That way you are just browsing.

If you pay money to signup as an exhibitor to setup a booth so buyers can checkout your brand, you probably want to be serious about your business

 

[normsbrand]

I have been thinking about doing the exact same thing. I have no idea what to expect at those types of shows, or what is required, so I thought I should go look, take some notes and then get ready for the next one.

Let me know what you discovered, and I will do the same.

 

[M-BLaze]

Can you tell me the names of the trade shows your attending I haven't seen these.

Cheers
Rob

 

[brucelines]

Margin and tbc aka 2beconfirmed.

I went last year to tbc and thought it was good. Back then I was well out of my element because I hadn't even started getting t-shirts printed and didn't have a website either. My brother did all the talking while I wondered around looking at absolutely everything.

I'm definitely an attendee. I saw Margin's price list for exhibitors, and it was £650 for a 4 feet long rail or something.

 

[imageman]

If you really want to be in t/shirt business,it's a good idea to attend.But,you have to want to do this for real.You can get lots of connections at shows.Do not forget to take your business cards and flyers to pass out.

 

[Akua]

Hello

I'm Akua. I say go for it! Perhaps the show will ignite your creative interest. Just imagine who you might meet! Be prepared and have fun. One never knows...

 

[brucelines]

I totally forgot about this post.

@normsbrand

2beconfirmed is a more popular show that Margin, and I found that a lot of the big players in the t-shirt clothing industry were there. A lot of them were there on serious business and didn't really fancy talking to new start ups in case a buyer walked past. We didn't get any decent advice from anyone there but I suppose that's expected because they're all established brands and probably have some PR guy selling their shirts.

On the other hand, Margin was a better show. I think Margin was more concentrated towards the newer, younger, independent brands. A lot more people spoke to us and we got a lot of info. We also swapped business cards with all the people we spoke to.

It appeared that the smaller brands were more receptive to us than the bigger ones. Even though we approached everyone as designers/rivals, everyone seemed friendly enough to dish out advice.

 

[Pocket]

Margin happened in London a couple of weeks ago. My partner went instead and found out that a lot of buyers were interested in "brand new ideas" which didn't necessarily mean brand new designs on shirts.

We picked up a few clients but wasn't necessarily worth it. I think it might have been better if we'd just holidayed in London and went to individual stores.

It was very expensive since I'm not based in England and was doing business from the other side of the world.

I still however learnt from her experience and am exhibiting at another trade show, I'm not going to give up even if the first show did not go accordingly.