British Craft Trade Fair

BCTF - British Craft Trade Fair

The BCTF is a large trade fair showcasing the best of British handmade crafts for perusal by a range of retailers from many different sectors.  The likes of Liberty and The National Trust rub shoulders with boutiques and art galleries to look around the dazzling and beautiful stands that exhibitors have gone to a great deal of effort to create.

Lunaria pendant

For three days of talking to prospective buyers and interested parties, some exhibitors have been planning their stands on and off for a whole year.  From the moment they booked their spot at the end of the last fair they have been developing and creating stock and art works ready for this event.  Ranges will have been decided upon, hundreds of photographs taken, tweaked and editted for websites, online catalogues and pictures for their stand. They will have debated prices for hours on end, under valuing themselves and asking various friends for their opinions and so will have worked through prices several times until they are happy that they can charge that price and still pay themselves a wage and pay the rates.

There are so many decisions to be made and so much money that could be spent!  We'd all love glossy brochures and stunning lighting, amazing props and bespoke furniture to grace our stands but the truth of it is that many of us are independant businesses working on a limited budget and so we need to rein ourselves in and keep costs to a minimum where possible.  Sometimes though, that can be a false economy and if you were to spend a bit more money on something it might be the thing that turns your experience from an okay show to a brilliant one.  There is just one draw back, there are no hard and fast rules and what works for one product may not work for another and so there is a lot of pressure on making the correct decisions.

Nimanoma publicity 

So decisions have been made about what publicity you need and all that needs to be done then is the design.  If you are lucky this can be given to someone else to do but once again many of us do that ourselves to cut costs.  I know my brochure was an awful lot of work, masking out images, aligning everything, making it as fuss free as possible but to be honest the price list and order form were equally difficult to design!

Set up day

Possibly one of the most important decisions is how you will display your work to show it off to its best potential.  My display consisted of a two tiers to give me height and space but the shelves I used were from my kitchen and so hundreds of books had to be relocated to the living room!  At last the fair arrives, and set up begins.  It's all very exciting and a little nerve wracking, never mind hard work lugging everything in from the car!   Soon the empty stand you have been given begins to take shape and the plans you have had for the last year start to come together.  

Nimanoma stand set up and ready for action

What a feeling though when all the work is done and all you have to do is meet the buyers.  I say all you have to do, that's a whole different blog post!  And before you know it, the three days have passed and you are breaking down your stand hopefully with orders in the bag and contacts to follow up on and your stand booked again for next year....

Ta dah!