It’s pack up your bags time for us again, this time to one of our favorite cities… Chicago.
The show this year will be a first for us on a few fronts. Number one, we are finally moving our booth to a brand new space in Lakeside (yes! away from the wall). We’ve doubled our space from previous years; we now have a full 600 square feet of space to fill. We’ve also built a brand new booth that is really magnificent. It’s been six months in the making. Can’t wait to see it on Saturday when we arrive.
Number two, we are launching five of our six new products for 2010 at the show. While they still need to be under wraps for a little while longer, I can tell you that there’s a lot of excitement here about these new projects, and we are thrilled to be showing them for the first time in Chicago.
As always, we look forward to seeing old friends at the show, and making new ones. Plus, we get to sample some of Chicago’s finest cuisine.
We look forward to seeing you there.
I’ve barely unpacked my bags from China, and here I am heading off again, this time to Houston for our annual pilgrimage. I’ve still got a pretty good dose of jet lag, but I’m sure that by next week the cobwebs in my head will be a little fainter.
China was great by the way. We met some amazing people saw some cool things, and of course we had food to die for. If you’re ever in Hong Kong, and you love crab, do yourself a favor and head straight for Under Bridge Spicy Crab. It is not to be missed. There must have been a pound of garlic with our crab. It was incredible.
So next week it’s Houston. If anyone out there knows of a great restaurant in Houston, I’d love to hear about it (no steak houses please). If you’re attending the show, we will have our wonderful new Digital Velocity V100 iron on display, and our full line-up of fabric care products. We’d love to see you, so don’t be shy.
Hardware Show 2009
It’s 4º C in Toronto this morning, so the thought that I’ll be in a desert in less than two weeks is a very warming thought.
It will be interesting to see what kind of turnout we get at the National Hardware Show 2009. In spite of assurances from the Houseware Association, attendance was clearly down from last year. There’s a slight feeling of recovery that is in the air, so I remain hopeful that Hardware 2009 will be well attended.
If you are planning on coming to the show, I hope you will drop by our booth. We will be demonstrating the new Digital Velocity V100 compact vapor generator iron, and the new Enviromate E3 and E5 steam cleaners. We’ll also have the latest IronMaven J420 ironing station on display. Lot’s of new stuff. Look forward to seeing you there.
Vision '09
This is one of our busiest times of the year as we prepare and finalize the new products that we will showcase.
This will be our second year exhibiting at the International Window Coverings Expo . The Expo is in the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta Georgia from May 13-16th, 2009. Our booth number is #752.
Our booth will be staffed by Mel and Steve Tramell and the good folks at Southeast Sewing Machine Co.
If you are planning on attending the Expo, have a look at the new MSK-755H heavy-duty blindstitch machine. It’s a terrific machine for hemming heavy fabric with our without blackout. And the best part is the price.
Our workroom sewing machines will also be equipped with the new energy saving Sewquiet 4000 servomotor which are a standard feature on all of our machines, or can be purchased as a replacement for your old clutch motor. Our popular i500 and i700 ironing systems will also be on display, including the longer 11.5′ steam hose and cord sets used by drapery workrooms.
And finally, we are be launching the new MSK-373N/DTACK pleat tacker. This is a remarkable new machine, able to tack a 3/4″ pleat, yet is extremely economical. Priced at just $2,499.00. You’ll not want to miss seeing what this machine can tack.
I’m pleased to say, that we’ve survived yet another Housewares show. The much publicized event was definitely slower this year in terms of overall attendance, but we kept ourselves busy, particularly on day 1 and day 2. Day 3 was a different story. I guess many companies decided to save on the extra nights stay and brought their staff home early.
It’s always a very stressful week, getting the final touches to the booth ready, preparing promotional material, and making sure all of the last minute details have been looked after. After this years show I am more determined then ever to hire a company to do our booth set up and tear down. It’s not that we do so many shows any longer (we don’t), but it’s a very long week as it is, without having to deal with the booth itself. I’ll try to remember this for next year (note to self, remember this).
We did get a chance at the show to say hello to many of our new reps that have come along with Dave at NRPP. A special hello and thank you to the reps that spent time with us, learning about the products and getting to know who we are.
The response from our customers and reps for our new products was very rewarding. We’ve spent a great deal of time on these new items, and I was delighted by the positive feedback.
And of course a special thank you to Alice, Art and Martha for all of their help during the week. We’ve got quite a team here, and they stepped up to the plate like they always do.
Chicago was as schizophrenic as it usually is. One day hot, one day freezing windy cold. You’d never know there was a recession by the line-ups at the restaurants in Chicago. One hour minimum. But the wait is always worthwhile, and our normal spots didn’t disappoint. Can’t wait to do it all over again next year.
If it’s March, it must mean we’re in the beginning of our trade show season.
The second big trade show in our season is the very popular National Hardware Show in Las Vegas May 5-9th. This will be our second year at the Hardware Show, and if last year was any indication, this year should be a great show again.
While I have to admit that being a non-gambler, Las Vegas doesn’t hold the same attraction to me as is does for many; I always look forward to a fantastic Thai meal at Lotus of Siam. The food is outstanding, and it’s just minutes away from the Hilton. It’s a great reprieve from the hustle and bustle of the strip, and it’s close enough to the Hilton that we can walk our meal off.
If you are planning on attending the show, please come by to say hello and have a look at some new products for 2009. Our booth number is 35306.
See you in Vegas!
It’s official. We’ve got four weeks to go, and we’re off to Chicago for the 2009 Housewares show.
Chicago is one of my favorite places to visit. Whenever we’re there, the first restaurant on our list is always Cafe Iberico. I guess it’s the favorite of a few others as well, as it ’s always packed solid with hungry tapas fans.
On the show front, we’ve got a few surprises this year with some great new products and a brand spanking new booth. As always, you can find us in the Lakeside Building, booth L11033.
Please make sure you come by to say hello. And if you’ve got some favorite Chicago restaurant spots of your own, I’m sure the foodies that are reading this would like to hear your choices. in our comments section. See you in Chicago.
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