National Stationery Show Checklist 2015 - Part 2

I will probably never write a series again, as it's now end of July and I still haven't posted all the parts. Here's part 2.

This in a nutshell is what I learned in order of importance to get prepped for the show.

• Cohesive collection of Product
• Clear brand identity and vision for your booth
• Signage with your Brand Name and Booth Number
• Great product photography ( I'm not saying I had this by any means but it's important your catalog looks professional)
• Mailer to send to prospective stores
• Catalog (Big huge time commitment do not leave till the last minute)
• Business Cards
• NCR Forms for Orders
• Promo items for giveaways
• Press Kit ( I ran out of time and didn't have one)

Great resources for info/visuals:
Oh so beautiful paper Blog
NSS website
Tradeshow Bootcamp Blog
Pinterest (of course)
Instagram #nss2015 #nss2014 (you get the idea)

I managed to send out some mailers to potential stores which was a small miracle, given time crunch...

Envelopes for mailer and takeaway biz card.

You know it's going to be a good day when the stamps inadvertently perfectly match your striped envelopes.

Giveaways - A lot of people do totes and pins. I did a very limited edition number of totes and some pins and clips which people seemed to be excited about.

Er, yes I printed these the morning I flew out !!

20 Caffeine fueled hours later and a catalog was born.

I work best under pressure but do yourself a huge favor and don't leave your catalog till the last minute. It was worth doing NSS for this exercise alone, suddenly I had SKU numbers, categories for over 100 random cards and once this was done it was a HUGE relief. 16 pages of blood, sweat and tears and the odd typo. I put the booth number on front cover. I printed 45 of these and gave them out to people who asked for one. I had about 3 on display and having done my research found this to be fine. I even emailed people PDF copies so they wouldn't have to carry more paper around. I would take more next time, but I had a plan of action if I ran out. My lovely artist friend Thinh Nguyen took this photo and when at the last minute literally 2 days before I flew to New York I was searching for a cover pic this one, with some Photoshop magic did the trick.

Did not think this was going to happen, but glad I had them !

NCR Forms, basically a 2 part form to write orders on, so that the buyer can take a copy with them. I had mine done at a local copy shop, cheap and quick. Once I realized you could actually buy the paper itself it dawned on me that copy shops must do them. Most of the online places were around $40 + shipping for 100. I was optimistic I'd take some orders but opted for 40 forms which cost me $8.