Artist Leigh Hannan sent me this email last week, after reading through the eBook, How to Find, Interact and Work with Manufacturers who License Art .  I thought she had great ideas and asked if I could “share it with the group”.

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I’m almost through your ebook (finding manufacturers) and I wanted to share some info which may be helpful to you for your ebook/licensing blog.

here is a link to the 2010-2011 trade shows schedule (found it when I was looking up the NY Tabletop Show):
http://www.greatrep.com/trade_shows.asp

I’m sure there are many ‘little’ shows on it, but for an artist to walk a little (and presumably less expensive) show is a great way to get their feet wet, gain experience speaking with other artists, manufacturers, buyers, etc and gain some confidence…..I wish some of these were close to me so I could do that very thing!

also, links for gift shop magazine and stationery trends magazine:

http://www.giftshopmag.com/ (even though it’s for retail shops, it helps to see what shop owners are ordering for their retail space)

http://www.stationerytrendsmag.com/

and another source I sometimes use is to check out the new home/design/scrapbooking etc. mags each month (house beautiful, etc), there are always new products/manufacturers showcased in them, and I check out the ads in the back of the magazine as well.

– Leigh
www.LeighHannan.com

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My one caution was this:

Decision makers are not usually at the smaller shows, like the Gift Show in Seattle.  There you will find sales reps who probably on’t know what to tell you.  You can get an idea of the product lines but not get contacts with decision makers.

Otherwise, great resources and great ideas.  Thanks so much Leigh!

– Tara Reed