248 | Live from the trade show floor at Noted & SF Now 2022
Selling wholesale at in-person trade shows is a completely different experience than selling wholesale online. Here at Proof to Product, we truly believe in the benefits of trade shows—from the sales, connections and new ideas to opportunities for collaboration and brand visibility, the benefits are endless.
In today’s episode, I’m sharing a compilation of live interviews from the trade show floor while I was at the combined Noted & SF Now trade show last month. I talked with brand new exhibitors, as well as trade show veterans from our community.
Did you know that we had 54 Proof to Product students exhibiting at Noted & SF Now this year? Our members accounted for over a third of the overall exhibitors in attendance. If you’re ready to learn more about exhibiting at trade shows and prepare your brand for wholesale, join the waitlist for Paper Camp!
What It’s Like to Exhibit at a Trade Show
To be back in-person on the trade show floor after two years, it feels almost surreal—especially to be at a brand new trade show with Noted & SF Now. You may be wondering exactly what it looks like to exhibit at a trade show, so while I was at Noted & SF Now, I did live interviews from the trade show floor with brand new exhibitors, trade show veterans, and Proof to Product community members. While the brands ranged in experience and products, they all had great things to say about Noted & SF Now!
Isabella Ghazarians - Isabella MG & Co
For Isabella Ghazarians of Isabella MG & Co, Noted & SF Now was her very first trade show as a wholesale business. Initially she wanted to exhibit at a trade show to scale her wholesale business and logistically, debuting on the west coast made sense since she’s from San Diego.
While she’s already in over 125 stores, her goal coming into this trade show was to connect with her existing businesses and relationships while potentially meeting bigger accounts to open the door to a big box store.
Her biggest takeaway from this show is that she truly underestimated the work that goes into a show, but she’s glad she did it and excited for the connections she’s been able to make in-person.
Krishna Chavda - Nanu Studio
Krishna Chavda of Nanu Studio has been exhibiting at shows since 2019. In comparison to those past shows, while a shorter show, Noted & SF Now 2022 has offered her brand a lot more traffic and interest while maintaining a relaxed vibe. Over the last few years, she’s put a lot of effort into her marketing and relationship building, and found that she’s being recognized more now than she was in the past.
After so much time away from trade shows over the last few years, Krishna found rekindling that in-person community to be an amazing experience. Noted & SF Now has offered her the opportunity to make a lot of strong connections with potential buyers and reps that she’s excited to follow up with!
Amy Frazer - Keller Design Co
I’m excited to introduce you to Amy Frazer—if you attended Noted & SF Now as a Proof to Product member, you likely already know Amy! Even though Amy is a first time exhibitor, she helped support our LABS & Paper Camp community to prepare for Noted & SF Now by organizing a community for calls leading up to the trade show! Since this was her first time exhibiting at a wholesale trade show—she realized just how much goes into it!
Amy claims that the information shared in LABS helped her better prepare for it as she completed her product line, put together sales tools, order forms, and catalogs. It also helped her with a framework for what she needed and wanted at the show.
Amy’s initial goal for Noted & SF Now was to get there, be organized, have the tools to take orders, the confidence to sell and take an order. Her other goal was to make contacts. Congrats to Amy for receiving her first wholesale order, and a big one at that!
Allison Tsang - Love through Letterpress
Allison Tsand of Love through Letterpress debuted her brand at Noted & SF Now for a few reasons—she’s local to San Francisco, she knows the market, and she loved that the booths would be built for her.
Since she knows the market and many of the buyers would be from the west coast, she also debuted her new wool city flags at the show, which turned out to be her best selling product with interest for expanding into additional cities.
She absolutely loved that the show offered her real time feedback and responses to her product, along with the opportunity to connect with other brands who are doing different things.
In preparation for Noted and SF Now, Amy reached out to 30 of her contacts that she wanted to connect with at the show by sending them a personalized note and a city guide of San Francisco that she knew would help her stand out. She also called some of her reps and posted to social media. For the connections she did make, she plans to follow up with each after the show!
The biggest takeaway she got from the show was that she is now solidifying what she wants to do with her brand, how she wants to posture herself in the market, and how to differentiate her work.
The journey is not linear.
Michelle Angenent - 417 Press
As a seasoned exhibitor, Michelle Angenent of 417 Press has exhibited at NSS, New York Now, Atlanta, New York Now Winter, and now Noted & SF Now. The biggest differentiator for Michelle with these shows comes down to the buyers who are attending—Noted & SF now attracts a west coast market that she doesn’t get at the East Coast shows. With the addition of Noted & SF Now, Michelle believes she’s now able to cover the corners of the map to branch out to all of the areas through trade shows.
One of the biggest benefits that Noted & SF Now offered to Michelle’s Canadian brand was providing the paneling and booth setup. This eliminated the responsibility and work that most shows require with booth setup!
Michelle came in with zero expectations, but was pleasantly surprised with the connections she’s made, the sales she’s secured, and is excited for what’s to come post-show. Overall, Michelle was happy with the free and flowing vibe and experienced positive energy from everyone she connected with.
Kate Murray - Quick Brown Fox Letterpress
Kate Murray of Quick Brown Fox Letterpress plays such an important role at Noted and SF now as a planner for the Greeting Card Association board in putting together Noted and SF Now. In addition to helping plan this event, Kate also exhibited for her own brand. As an exhibitor, she loved not having to worry about building her booth and that the show was shorter.
Prior to this show, especially with it being on the west coast in a new territory for Kate, she did her homework in researching stores and brands, connecting with them online, and knowing who she wanted to connect with. This allowed her to push her outside of her comfort zone to get out of a mindset of just east coast store connections. This meant she was doing more outreach to brands on Instagram and Faire—many of whom she’d never met in person..
Being back in person has also forced Kate to adjust her sales pitch for in-person, allowing her to add in more personality.
Carina Murray - Crow & Canary
Carina Murray of Crow & Canary shares how jazzed she is at the reopening of a show in San Francisco—as it’s filling a whole that’s been there for a while. With it being the first show for Noted & SF Now, it was fairly regional with buyers, yet she fully expects to see it grow in the future.
The addition of a show in San Francisco opens the doors for those who are on the west coast and have been hesitant to either exhibit or attend trade shows due to logistics of travel to the east coast, to now be able to experience a show without going all out in their travel budgets.
With the intimacy of the show, it almost felt like it offered a higher level of quality by the lines that were exhibiting, deeper conversations, and better connections and sales.
Having walked the show, Carina believes that Noted & SF Now will continue to grow because so many people are having great experiences and sharing the word.
If you’re considering exhibiting at a trade show, like Noted & SF Now, I’m so excited for you, plus I’ve created a resource just for you! Don’t go into your first trade show without the proper knowledge like I did. In my free masterclass, The Booth Blueprint, I share three secrets to maximizing your trade show investment and keep wholesale orders coming in long after your investment. You can access this free class inside our free resources library!
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Connect with Katie Hunt
Katie Hunt is a business strategist, podcaster, mentor and mama to four. She helps product based businesses build profitable, sustainable companies through her conferences, courses and coaching programs.
Website: prooftoproduct.com | Instagram: @prooftoproduct
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