PGA Trade Show Recap
This past week my team and I (3 of us total) traveled to Orlando Florida for the annual PGA Tradeshow. We were not just there for the show, but we also had a preview VIP event that ran Monday PM to Tuesday PM. 100 of our top accounts were invited to this event for a preview of our collections. Our arrival was on Sunday afternoon at which time we got to work right away getting clothes steamed, gridwall assembled and bust forms dressed. We were holding our preview event at an upscale resort inside one of their ballrooms and our sales meeting was Monday AM so we had to get the entire room set up by Sunday PM. We had loosely preplanned the layout of each collection (there were 20 collections to be shown between 2 brands that were being represented – this included men’s, women’s and children’s lines). We had about 15-20 people or so there at any given time and after 10 hours it was complete. The worst part of this process is that at the end of it when you look at the final product, it doesn’t look like it should have taken as long as it did. This pains me every time but is the hard truth. At 12:30am we returned to our villa, treated ourselves to a bowl of cheerios and started planning the fashion show that we were putting on the next night – Monday was packed so we had to get it finished that night. 3am rolled around and we finally hit the hay.
Monday AM came way too soon and by 8:30am we were back at the ballroom opening packages from overseas that had arrived that AM with late samples – they were literally hot off the press. We frantically steamed them, got them onto their bust forms and on the gridwall. In the meantime, the sales meeting had begun in the middle of the ballroom. By the time they were done, we had finished getting the late arrivals up and now it was time to help present the line and educate our sales team. Each of us was assigned to a group of sales associates and we went through each line and grouping and presented them to the sales team. You must remember that we have been working on these garments for close to 3 months or so by now, and this is the first time the sales team has seen them (most of the team that is – there are select sales people who review and critique the line during our initial design phase) so they have a lot to learn because in less than 24 hours they will be meeting with buyers.
After the line review, it was time to get started on the fashion show. We were short some samples, so we had to pull them off the grid wall, get all of our outfits together, and get them over to the fashion show venue (about 1/4 mile away). We frantically got everything together, got to our venue at 4pm where we had all of our models waiting for us as well as our DJ. The runway was just about set up so we began a quick rehearsal. We had barely enough time to run through everything twice before it was time to try and clothes, finalize outfits/shoe pairings and walking order. 6:45 came before we knew it and it was show time. The whole thing is kind of a blur as most fashion shows are for me. Being back stage is always quite hectic and frantic and everything moves so quickly that I hardly remember anything. All I know is that we got everyone on stage in the right order, the right outfits, and the crowd loved it. Cell phone photo from backstage:
Back stage at fashion show
There was a bit of mingling/schmoozing time afterwards but it wasn’t soon that we had to get all of the clothes back to the ballroom, resteamed and back on the bust forms as buyers would be there in the morning for their sneak preview of the line. After all of that, it was 12:30 and we got back to our room and to bed. A long 14 hour day and we didn’t see much slowing ahead.
Tuesday was actually a bit of an easier day, we got to sleep in a bit and had to be at the ballroom by 10am to walk the line with accounts. We were there for a few reasons, but the two bigs ones were that buyers just “love” to talk to the designers, and that we were still a lot more knowledgeable on the line than the sales team so we could help answer questions. Now let me just say that sales is not something I’m particularly good at or enjoy, so this was not really my favorite part of the trip, but of course it’s always good practice. Throughout the day we continued to receive samples from overseas that we quickly got up on the gridwall and on display for buyers to veiw. Ideally we would have had all samples prior to the show, but for various reasons some things were running a bit behind to say the least… After chatting with many buyers and accounts and presenting the collections, it was 5:30pm and we were allowed to retreat to our villa while the sales team and the buyers went to a fancy dinner. Meanwhile, our PR rep had appointments with various media contacts to show them the line. These appointments ran to about 9pm. At that time, we had to go back to the ballroom to tear down, pack up and get ready to move everything to the convention center where the actual tradeshow was taking place. Done in about 20% of the time it took us to set up, we had everything done in under 2.5 hours and were back to our room at 11:30 just in time for a beer before bed. Here’s the beginning stages of setting the booth up:
Setting up the trade show booth
The next day we trekked to the Orlando Convention Center where we began booth set up. Since we already knew how the collection groupings were to be set up, it was easier this time. Our booth was set up and ready to go by 7pm and we headed out for dinner. Thursday was the first day of the show. The turnout was decent and there seemed to be a good general buzz through the convention center. We walked the show, talked to some contacts, critiqued competitor’s lines and enjoyed the time to just wander and look around. The afternoon was there before we knew it and my coworker and myself left for the airport – our portion of the trip was done and I was thrilled to get back home to my husband and dogs. My boss stayed through the weekend for the rest of the show and to support with tear down.
After a long week, I truly can say that I’m excited to go back to the office tomorrow. The PGA show was a big hump for us to get over and now it’s time to focus 100% on designing Spring 2011. Always my favorite time of the product development cycle, we now get to play with colors, stripes, plaids, patterns and more. For a few weeks it seriously feels like a mix of art class mixed with shopping mixed with a round of playing paper dolls and I love every minute of it.