OUR FIRST VIRTUAL TRADE SHOW
The Creative Matters trade show team goes virtual: clockwise from top left: Madeleine Baigent, Ali McMurter, Carol Sebert, Ana Cunningham, Sandra Ciganic-McKinney.
January is usually a busy month for trade shows for those of us who create handknotted rugs with the Domotex show in Germany and Maison&Objet in France. This year however, we participated in our first virtual trade show - an innovative event organized by COVER, the world’s leading magazine for handmade carpets and textiles for interiors.
“The booth featured a new five-minute video Creativity, Collections and Customization (below) introducing visitors to our services and values,” said Madeleine Baigent, Designer & Retail Coordinator.
“The booth also included product pages for a selection of our rugs that visitors could scroll through - the next best thing to flipping through a stack of rugs at a live show,” said Madeleine.
Lucas from the Halycon Collection was one of the 30 rugs on display in the Creative Matters virtual booth.
“The 30 rugs we uploaded included closeup photos of the front and back of each rug to to show the high quality we offer. This was an attempt to give clients the feel of the rugs without being able to touch them,” said Carol Sebert, President and Founder.
Closeup photos enabled booth visitors to get a “feel” of the rugs. Here, the Creative Matters Imprint - Aqua design from the Arashi Collection.
Named COVER Connect, the show ran from January 12 - 15 and included 37 exhibitors from 14 countries. Visitors came from an incredible 62 countries. Because of time differences, each exhibitor chose the hours their booth would be open. The five members of our trade show team each covered slots between 7:00 am and 5:00 pm E.S.T. when they chatted with visitors, responded to email requests and set up meetings. “I found that quite a few things were the same as a regular trade show: developing the booth, getting everyone updated on pricing, rising early to get ready,” said Ana Cunningham, Vice President. “There was definitely a shift into the trade show headspace. The main difference for me was learning how to navigate the website ahead of time which was quite easy to do with excellent guidance from COVER. They even sent someone to come by our booth the first day to see how we were doing just like they always do at the shows.”
Creative Matters’ Shadow - Grey from the Arashi Collection was also available at our booth.
As far as the benefits of a virtual event go, Vice President Ali McMurter said, “When the booth is quiet you can visit other booths or complete office work. It was possible to see the panel discussions since we weren’t stuck in the booth the whole time. No jet lag but we still needed to deal with time differences. Home for dinner!”
There was potential to have even more traffic than a traditional show, said Ana. “I noticed booth visitors from a much wider variety of countries. The costs to be an attendee was much lower compared to paying high travel and accommodation expenses. Tradeshow halls are massive and sometimes attendees can’t see everyone on their list, but with COVER Connect people could get around quickly.”
Carol said it was nice to “talk” with some other retailers that we often don’t get a chance to see as we are all in our booths most of the time. It was also nice to “cruise around and see what everyone has been doing for the past year.”
Isabel from the Halcyon Collection was another Creative Matters design we chose to display at COVER Connect.
But what did the team miss? “Chatting with people, having them see our beautiful quality. It’s just a more natural way to correspond with people and walk them through our pieces. I think it would have felt a little more personal if the chats had been video,” said Sandra Ciganic-McKinney, Project Manager and Senior Designer. “Checking out the show, looking at new products,” said Ana.
The virtual event’s offering also included a number of inspiring panel discussions that attracted over 100 viewers each. Carol Sebert hosted Collaboration in Interiors (below) for which she had assembled a panel of reknowned interior designers: Eric McClelland (Fleur-de-lis Interior Design), Emma O’Neill (Studio Sofield) and Glenn Pushelberg (Yabu Pushelberg). We have worked extensively with these firms and the panel obviously enjoyed discussing how some of our collaborations with them had progressed.
Rachel Meek said, “The mutual respect between Carol and her panelists made for excellent viewing and there was some very useful advice offered too.”
Finally, we asked the team if they think virtual events are here to stay even when the pandemic becomes manageable. “Likely in some form. I think they are a great way to save money and the environmental costs of so many people travelling but I think in-person events would still need to happen, if not as often. It is such a nicer way to develop business relationships,” said Sandra.
“I think this experience reminded everyone how important in-person events are. Selling rugs by way of imagery is particularly difficult as you cannot see the quality. We have a very high end product and it’s hard to explain the value when you can’t touch the rugs,” said Carol. Carol concluded by saying that COVER Connect was really good and we are interested in participating in another virtual show, we just don’t know of one yet.
We have just heard that due to popular demand, COVER plans to repeat the event in September 2021. As Rachel said, while it is impossible to meet in person, the lessons we are learning from working within these constraints have the potential to improve our industry in the long run.