Showcase Ireland is a great trade show.
It's run by the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland and Enterprise Ireland takes place every year in the RDS in Ballsbridge in Dublin.
All sorts of companies present, from jewellers to weavers to hats to clothing to artists. And not just from Ireland either. Exhibitors come from all over. And trade buyers come from all over too.
We applied for a stand and were supported by our Local Enterprise Office in Dublin City. The event ran from 19-22 January and we had a great time. Lots of new contacts. Lots of people that we'd been in touch with only over email or phone came to the stand and saw our products for the first time "in the flesh".
Happily, the response was very good. The ShipShape range was quite often called "the most innovative jewellery at the show". Our bead pieces and the Ice Rink range were universally acclaimed as delightful....including when the Secretary General of the Dept of Enterprise came to our stand to say that she'd already bought a necklace at DesignYard and that it was wonderful!
In any case, we'll be following up with everyone in the next few days. It'll be great to talk to everyone again.
And, delightfully, lots of graphic designers and retail experts said that our stand was one of the best in the show. That's nice to hear, because it's important for us to help retailers present things in the best possible way.
Now that it's over, we realize how busy we've been in the run up to the Showcase event. And how much easier it'll be to do any subsequent events. An AWFUL lot of stuff only has to be figured out one time. And that's one of the very good outcomes of the event.
We're ready for the future. Watch how easy the take-down process was!