I’m in my hotel by the JFK airport, ready to fly home after my 6th year at SURTEX at 7th year exhibiting at any art licensing show. It’s hard to believe it’s been 7 years! I wanted to jot down some thoughts while they are fresh in my tired mind and promise to blog more details soon!

The show was amazing!

Our booth was busy overall, with some lulls here and there of course. I’ve never been to or heard of a show that was hoping every hour from start to finish! I met with clients and many companies I have never worked with before. Lots of follow-up in my future!

My sister Christine, as always, was an invaluable asset – I don’t know how I’d do it without her! (Thanks again sis!)

I met so many amazing artists – even from as far as Australia – who stopped by to say hi and tell me they read the blog and listen to the monthly Ask Calls. Thank you so much – it is cool to know the information is helpful and inspiring and not just me typing or talking into a void. Also neat to meet so many artists I know from social media!

The class based on my eBook – How to Find, Interact and Work with Artists Who License Art – was a huge success! For the first time in at least 4 years there was a sell-out with 100 people attending. Susan January from Leanin’ Tree and I gave both the artist and manufacturers views of how to best interact with manufacturers and got great feedback.

I was honored to be used as an example of how to use social media by Daniel Schutzsmith in the class about Social Networking – apparently they evaluated my Twitter page and maybe Facebook page? I’m not exactly sure but I was tickled to hear about it! (If you’ve read this blog often you know what a big fan I am of Twitter!)

I’ll write more about the show in the next few days but wanted to share a little before I fly home. If you were at the show – I hope it was a great experience.  If you exhibited, I hope you have A LOT to do when you get home!  (It’s all in the follow up!)  Even with all the capabilities to talk and connect online and by phone, I still contend that face to face from time to time just can’t be beat. If artists who exhibit do well – we all do well and the shows keep giving us the opportunity to meet and connect in person!

I also brought my video camera to the show and got 8 more artist’s Art Licensing Story videos – I’ll be editing and posting them over the next few weeks so stay tuned for more inspirational stories!

Here’s to your creative success!

– Tara Reed

P.S.  If you were at SURTEX, feel free to add your impressions and observations in the comments!

P.P.S. If you couldn’t make the live class, I’ll be doing a teleseminar through Artist Career Training on June 9th – CLICK HERE for all the details.* (this is my affiliate link and how I get compensated for doing the class)