Philadelphia Buyer’s Market Recap- Day 1

Being too cheap thrifty to arrive in Philadelphia the night before, my mother and I left the house at about 4:45 a.m. to make the 5 hour trip to Philly and managed to arrive at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in time for the first session of the Visiting Artist Program.

Day 1: Session 1: Wholesale 101
Our first session was “Wholesale 101″ with the very dynamic and funny Bruce Baker, the display and sales guru for the crafts world. First thing that Bruce tells us that we must “Change or Die!”.

Whoa.

Next thing Bruce tells us is that if you don’t take credit cards as a method of payment, you’re basically shooting yourself in the foot (very true…about 70% of my sales are credit cards).

Bruce then goes through some of the things that artists need to get over before they start wholesaling work. For one thing an artist has to get control of that left brain/right brain balance and get a hold of unfocused creative energy and be able to balance it with some good analytical business discipline. Artists also have to learn to deal with control issues and not feel that they have to do everything in their businesses. Learn to hire good people and let them do what you don’t want to do or what you don’t need to be doing….more on that later.

Bruce then goes on to explain a little more about the ins and outs of wholesale…how galleries arrive at their prices for the things they buy for their shop for example…they typically set retail between 2.0 to 2.5 times your wholesale price…so it’s important for artists to set their wholesale prices carefully. He also goes over some of the typical wholesale lingo…and there’s a lot (Net-30, pro forma, COD…oh my!).

And just when our brains are about to implode…it’s time for lunch.

Day 1: Session 2: Booth Design
We meet back in an hour for the second session, also run by Bruce Baker on “Booth Design”.

Now I’ve been reading Bruce’s column on booth design in the Crafts Report and I’ve also listened to his very informative CD about booth design several times (you can check out all of his CDs out on his website), so I knew in general what he was going to say, but this was still a fun session and he provided some excellent information that I hadn’t heard before. He went over some guidelines on the best materials and colors for your booth. And for the record, burlap is possibly the worst material that you could ever think to use on the planet. It’s ugly, it smells when wet, it comes in the worst colors imaginable, and it’s expensive. Bottom line…stay away. As far as good colors, he suggested that we stay away from gray, purple (booo!), and orange and look for complex neutrals. If you don’t know what a complex neutral is, take a walk down the Martha Stewart aisle at your local Kmart.

Bruce also took the time to extoll the many virtues of VELCRO! If burlap is the cause of all the troubles in the world, then VELCRO will heal all your pain. It can be stronger, less messy, and nicer looking than duct tape. He told us a story about a potter who hung a big platter on the wall of his booth using VELCRO. Don’t leave home without it.

Finally, Bruce went through a picture slide show of various examples of actual booths…the good, the bad, and the ugly. And yes, burlap was sometimes involved in the ugly.

Day 1: Session 3: Group Mentoring with Wendy Rosen
Next up was Wendy Rosen, the president of the Rosen group. In this session, she had pre-selected some members of Visiting Artist group and did a group mentoring session with them…yes in front of the rest of the us. Those lucky few where a bit nervous to have Wendy Rosen critique their work and give suggestions in front of the entire group, but rest of us also benefited because she made suggestions for the rest of us to apply to our own work.

Wendy also took the time to go into what the main goal of the Buyer’s Market is…mainly to create a protected market where artists and craftsmen can sell their work to galleries and shop owners without having to compete with cheaper imports and mass market goods. If you’ve ever had to do a retail craft show where you were selling your handmade work while your neighbor was selling something was produced in an offshore factory somewhere, you’ll understand how great this truly is (Thanks Rosen Group!).

After Wendy’s session were individual mentor sessions. This is where the visiting artists had an individual session with a volunteer gallery owner to answer specific questions about wholesaling, products, or anything that came to mind. Mine wasn’t until Monday so I went to find something to eat and unfortunately was served some somewhat indigestible potato skins (Thanks Hard Rock Cafe!).

Day 1: Tour of the Buyers Market Floor
First off, I must say that if you’ve done craft or art shows before, the Philadelphia Buyer’s Market is really nothing like a regular show. For one thing, this show is not open to the public…and they don’t allow just anyone in. Just to set foot onto the show floor, you must be a) an exhibitor or an assistant to the exhibitor, b) the owner or qualified buyer of a gallery or shop, c) a member of the press, c) an artist participating in the Visiting Artist Program, or d) a member of the Rosen Group staff. Anyone not fitting that criteria are refused entry or if they manage to find their way in, are escorted out. The security is all part of of trying to provide the protected market that Wendy was talking about in the group mentor session. She even told us a story of foreign manufacturers being thrown out after they ran in past security…snapping pictures of the art as they ran.

After the mentor sessions, we all gathered to be escorted onto the show floor. We had some rules…no photos…no sketching…no interrupting the artist while they’re doing business…and no taking of business cards, postcards, and the like for design ideas or souvenirs…those are for the buyers and artists may have limited quantities. Basically we are to remember that the artists are working and that while they’ll be happy to answer questions, we shouldn’t get in the way of them doing business (ahh…if only we could give out these rules at a regular craft show!).

After being duly warned we were led into the main hall (Thanks Holly and Meghan!). If you do get to visit the show floor of the Buyer’s Market, you might mistake the show for being slow. It’s true that compared to a retail show where you sometimes have customers elbowing each other out the way, the Buyer’s Market doesn’t have a large volume of traffic. But the big difference is that people go to retail crafts shows because it’s an afternoon of relatively inexpensive entertainment in which they might happen to buy something. At the Buyer’s Market, people are here to shop…in volume. Here the volume is not in people but in actual products. So the first thing you need to wrap your mind around is that this is not a show where people buy a pot, pay you and leave. You have gallery and shop owners ordering 10 pots, a dozen mugs, and 3 teapots…you go to your studio after the show, ship them when they’re ready, and then you get your money.

The second thing about the show are the booths. Don’t expect to see a lot of pottery stacked up on card tables. These booths are well designed, professional looking, and are lit as bright as a casino in Vegas. In the session on booth design, Bruce Baker stressed the importance of lighting…and it certainly shows in the main hall. Third thing…the work is incredible. I had to remind myself constantly that I’m not here to drool over the fantastic art, but I’m here to see what works, what doesn’t, and what I can adapt to my own booth.

The show is huge…and I can see why it takes four days to go through. I forget how many artists there are, but it’s around 1,500. Yup. I managed to zip through part of the glass section and to make my way to the jewelry section where I spent some time talking to Benjamin Beamer of Beamer Jewelry. They’re the ones that make the fabulous jewelry out of bottle caps and vinyl records. Be sure to check out their jewelry here. Great guy to talk to…and he gave me some great information about the show. Before I knew it, the hour tour was up and it was time for me to go to my Jersey hotel and crash….hard.

So…some key takeaways for the day

• Get a merchant account
• Artists have to learn to let go to succeed
• Wireless internet is free in the convention center lobby (yaay!)
• Parking in downtown Philadelphia can cost as much as $26 a day (booo!)
• VELCRO = Good…Burlap = Bad…Potato skins at Hard Rock Cafe = Very Bad
• This ain’t your regular show. If you’re thinking that you can pull up with your card table and burlap tablecloths and do well at this show, think again. This is a whole new ball of wax…and if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can be a very expensive ball of wax.
• Bring lights…lots and lots of bright lights.