My Virtual Trade Show Experience

Warning: this is a long post, but I think the content is valuable.

My Experience

In case you missed it, and you probably did, the 2022 January PrintSource virtual trade show just wrapped up. I participated for the first time virtually, and the first time at a trade show at all. Written below is my experience and my thoughts on that experience. I am putting this here in case it’s helpful for anyone in the future, though I don’t know how long virtual shows will be a thing (fingers crossed). When I was researching the virtual trade show experience, there was not much to be found. I did email someone who had exhibited, but couldn’t find much written about the experience. So I hope this helps the story…

I regularly meet with a group to discuss all things design and our businesses, fledgling though they may be. One day we got onto the topic of trade shows, and that led me down the rabbit hole of research. Frustrated that I couldn’t find a lot of information, I directly emailed the promoter of PrintSource to find out the pricing for the virtual show. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the virtual exhibitor price was only $575. Now, that is a lot of money, but compared to the in-person pricing of $3250-$5750 for a booth, which does not factor in travel, lodging, food, and supplies; $575 was a total bargain. I immediately expressed my interest, even though all portfolio submissions were due in just 17 days. I shared the information with a friend in my group and she also took the plunge with me.

I was able to actually get a lot of work done in 17 days. I created a few new patterns, recolored many more to better fit my style, and formatted them all into what I thought was a professional looking portfolio. Once my fee was paid and my work submitted, there was not much else for me to do but wait.

There is a lot of information out there about exhibiting in person. People talk about getting their banners printed, and hard copies of their portfolio, what to wear, what to bring, etc., but none of that was relevant to me. I did try to think about promoting myself, but it was a little difficult since I didn’t have a client list to promote to. See, I have never licensed or sold a print. This was the first time I was dipping my toe in the waters and I had no idea which direction to go.

I did make some simple adverts in Photoshop announcing that I was showing at PrintSource, but those got much less traction on Instagram than my typical posts. Plus, I was only advertising to other designers since that is who largely comprises my following. I have a feeling they looked a little too much like an advertisement, so people just kept scrolling. I also didn’t tag any potential clients because 1) I don’t have a list, but also 2) I had no idea who the buyers would be at the show. If I had known, would I have tagged them? Maybe? But as it has been pointed out to me, the people running social media accounts are very rarely the same person who would be buying patterns, so I don’t know that it would have done much good.

There were several emails sent out with the exhibitor list on it, but there was never any variation to those emails. I received a copy of the email, but had no idea who else it was going to. The PrintSource website was eventually updated with the exhibitors in January, but the emails started sending prior to that update. As far as I could tell, there was no posting from the official PrintSource Instagram account.

About two weeks prior to the show I received an email asking me to review my “booth” as it would appear to attendees of the show. Basically I signed into the show, went to my booth and clicked around on the links provided. One allowed attendees to make an appointment with me, one was to my website, and one was to the portfolio I had submitted. All worked with no problems, but I did request that the patterns we submitted to “decorate” our booth were reversed as I had selected what I thought was my best print to be the first print people would see. This issue was taken care of with no problems.

I did sit down and try to work out a cheat sheet of my prints. It included the name and randomly assigned number on it (PrintSource recommended giving each print an identification number), file type (AI or PS), and an estimated price that I would charge for the print. All prices ranged from $500-$800, which I thought was fair. This may be low in the industry, but with less than a year experience I felt I had adequate pricing to my skills. Spoiler alert: while I think this sheet was useful, I did not use it at all.

Finally show day arrived. I moved my computer to a room where I could have privacy and arranged for baby sitting so that I could be fully uninterrupted. Honestly I had told myself not to expect much from this experience and to look at it as three days of uninterrupted time to get some work done.

I was in the middle of an episode of Home Town when I just happened to click refresh on my email and see that I had a meeting scheduled. All of my research and preparation immediately went out of my head and I proceeded to freak out. After the panic subsided a bit, I got organized by setting up a Zoom meeting, replying to the buyer with the link, and pulling up my portfolio and having it ready to scroll through.

I was early to the meeting, of course, and worried when the buyer was a little late. Had the link not gone through? Was there a problem? Of course not, but such is the life of an anxious person. When the buyer came on, we exchanged pleasantries briefly and then they immediately launched into the patterns they were interested in. I was truly glad that the small talk was kept to a minimum because I’m really terrible at it. I was also glad I had pulled up my portfolio in advanced, because I just shared my screen and scrolled as they noted which patterns they were interested in. Once they had identified four patterns, they asked about price and file type. Luckily I had worked on this portfolio so much that I knew that information off the top of my head. Admittedly, I folded when it came to price and lowballed my already low prices. The buyer asked me to send a full picture of the prints as they were all sliced together in various colorways, we made mention of the pain of virtual trade shows, and that was it. The meeting took 11 minutes total.

I was a little bummed that it wasn’t an immediate sale, but set about getting pictures of the prints sent over. I sent the email twice because I wasn’t sure the attachments went through the first time, and received a response back that they would get back to me.

And then there was nothing. Crickets. No more meetings. No reply emails. Nothing.

I only got the one meeting over all three days of the trade show. I was disappointed to say the least. And while I saw a spike in my website analytics, there was no turnover from those actions.

After a week I emailed the buyer back to follow up on our meeting. In reply I received that I would be remembered for next season, which was actually a very nice way to let me know that they would not be buying my prints.

Shortly after the show was over, we did receive a copy of the attendees. The list was over 30 pages long, but seemed to contain multiple entries for some companies. There also seemed to be some blank entries, but we were told that all attendees were vetted. We were not privy to what the vetting process was.

My Thoughts

Overall I feel indifferent about the whole experience, which is surprising to me. I tried to prepare myself to expect not to have any meetings, so having even just one meeting was a thrill (even if it didn’t result in anything). I think the positives were cancelled out by the negatives in this case, which leads to indifference.

Positives:

-Working to get my portfolio finished and additional prints completed really gave me aim and a purpose. If I struggle with anything trying to do pattern design freelance is finding the drive and motivation to actually get something moving in the beginning. I liked having a deadline to aim towards and knowing that my work would be in front of an audience.

-While I didn’t get the response I wanted, I did get a meeting. Someone out there from a reputable brand saw my work and thought it might work for them. And that is something I am really trying to focus on now. It was evident that everything I’ve been told about buyers is apparently true - they are busy and don’t have a lot of time to be wishy washy. So the fact that one took the time out of their day to meet with me means that there has to be some value seen in my work.

-PrintSource is an established tradeshow that draws in some big name companies. Looking over the list of attendees, there is definitely some dream clients on there.

Negatives:

-I wish I had a better way to have promoted myself at the show. Being so new to this, I would have even paid extra to have had the promoters feature my work in one of their emails to their attendees (which was not an option, at least that I was aware of). This is an established trade show in the industry, and they made clear that their role is to get buyers in contact with designers; and nobody is really sure of how virtual anything works these days. We are living in weird times, but I wish there had been a way to better prepare myself for the unknown.

-I feel like the nature of the virtual show is not for anyone who is not established or represented by an agent. I literally had no one that I could promote myself to because I had no idea who would be at the show. I knew some of the big named companies who had been there in the past, but there were no individual contacts given prior to the show. This makes sense of course, but I do question now how I will use the attendee list in the future. Certainly I will follow up with the company I had a meeting with when I have new work to show, but should I just blast the other companies with my work to see if anyone bites?

-While I did get one meeting, I didn’t get much more meaningful interaction otherwise. Yes, there were many visits to my website, but there were no email subscription signups, no DMs or new followers on Instagram. I feel like those connections could actually be more valuable in the long run, and I feel like it might have been different if it were in person. It’s kinda hard to ignore someone standing right in front of you, and a lot of people have said that buyers are more willing to give you advise or critique at in person shows, but you do not get that same experience virtually.

Takeaways

I’m glad I signed up for the show. Yes it was a lot of money and yes I was left disappointed, but it was an excellent experience nonetheless. And I have an invaluable contact list to somehow use in the future. Would I sign up again? It depends. I would maybe sign up for another virtual show if there was a way to directly advertise to attendees, or it I become a much more successful designer over the next year, but that is a very wobbly maybe. I would have to really move some mountains to try it again - virtually. I would absolutely use the list that we were given to advertise myself to the attendees. I would feel like I was being annoying, yes, but it might change the whole course of how the show would go again. Would I signup for PrintSource in person? Absolutely. I felt that the quality of buyers was great and that an in person show would really be totally different in nature. The buyer from the meeting I did have expressed how much they miss in person shows and how much they really dislike having to do their job virtually, so I feel like in person is definitely the way to go. I have also heard that the Printsource team is really responsive to exhibitors for the in-person shows and make it easier to exhibit by offering some amenities (like being able to ship your supplies rather than bring them with you). I didn’t have much experience with their responsiveness since I didn’t have a need. I also think that PrintSource is a more intimate setting than some of the other shows, which means that you would have a better chance of being seen. I can’t say for certain that this is true, but that’s what I’ve heard.

I also think I would include fewer prints in my virtual portfolio. I only made 23 new prints between the time I submitted my portfolio and the show opened. My show portfolio included nearly 80 prints, all of which I thought were my best work. For those who followed through to my website, there was nothing new for them to see without looking really hard to find those 23 new prints. What they had in their hands was it, and if none of that worked for them then there was no reason to make an appointment. I think I would have been better served to minimize my portfolio wayyyy down, and include some contact pages of collections instead. That would have maybe tempted those who visited my site to think that I had even more to show in a meeting.

Going forward, I also plan to handle my file management differently. That includes creating not only an unmarked thumbnail, but also a watermarked, low-res thumbnail. It would be so much easier to do it for each file as I make it than to have to batch create them later on. I also think it might be a good idea of create Illustrator copies of Photoshop patterns as you create them. I don’t know if this is necessary, and it might not be easy, but I was asked if they were all vectors. I’ve been told that it does’t really matter these days, but it would be nice to be able to present them in the desired format without a lot of work on the backend. And it would be easier to just create in Illustrator to begin with, but I’m really liking Photoshop at the moment, so this extra step might be something I decide to take in the future. Thoughts?

The plan now is to actually prepare myself to get ready to exhibit at Surtex in 2023. That seems to be the premier tradeshow for designers, and really a way to get yourself out there. Surtex is in person for 2022, but the deadline was too close and I didn’t have $10,000 to spare at the moment. But I also feel that another year of work, of pitching and creating my own products, will really better prepare me to make such an investment.

Check out my next post, which will be about where do I go from here now that I don’t have a concrete goal to work towards!

Feel free to message me with any questions you have and I will be happy to answer them best I can!