Julie Ann Shahin's Inspiration For Generation C

Many of you have emailed me asking me about my experience at Memory Trends this past week in Vegas. I am happy to give my re-cap here. If you have any specific questions, let me know and I will address them here.

My goal for attending Memory Trends as an independent freelance designer was to see what it is all about, to make networking contacts, to take a seminar, workshop, and participate in industry forums. Also I hooked up with a retailer who could not attend, and placed a few orders for her. This retailer was Maryfrances of Scrapbooker Online. It was my first tradeshow for the scrapbook industry, so I have to admit I was nervous and scared not knowing what to expect. Many people told me to wait until the CHA Winter 2007 show instead. Yet that is exactly why I decided to go now: it's a smaller show, with only the scrapbook industry instead of all the craft industries - less overwhelming, and easier to make one-on-one connections.

My plan was to attend the Designer Dinner (arranged by Wendy Reed, Las Vegas area resident) as well as swap phone numbers with other designers to meet up with on the floor. I also emailed several manufacturers whom I admired or followed their blogs - letting them know I hoped to meet them. I know some designers such as Leah Fung actually made appointments with various manufacturers, I'm not sure if she set them up specifically as an agent for BHG or as a freelance designer. I also hoped to get "better" treatment from manufacturers because I was associated with a retailer.

Memory Trends this year was indeed a slower paced show from the feedback manufacturers told me. I found it to be just perfect for this first-time newbie, I did not feel too overwhelmed. I did feel like I was treated well by the manufacturers. I did not make it to all the booths for several reasons: the booths I did see I took my time in, thus I ran out of time eventually, and I ran out of energy. Usually by 3 pm I was exhausted each day. The show ran from 9-6 pm Tuesday and Wednesday; and 9-3 pm on Thursday. When I got to the point of exhaustion, I did not force myself to meet people at the booths and network because I wanted to be at 100% while networking. (As a side note: I do have fibromyalgia, and that was a factor in my energy level).

I did attend the designer dinner although it conflicted with the announcement of the CK Scrapbooker of the Year (CD Murkosky), and the launch party for the dotscrap Alliance. The dinner was held the evening after Day One of the show. Previous to the dinner, I walked the floor of the show hoping to see some familiar faces, yet prepared based on advice that I wasn't going to be just bumping into people. One of the first faces that my roommate and I did find was PC Smart aka mojito aka Pamela. Pamela is very cool. She was working the HP booth, and showed us their fantastic printers. Yet there were a lot of faces I did not recognize. After the dinner, I would run into many of these women again on the floor. Not only that but the dinner was really fun. It would have perhaps been better if we had a private room yet there were so many of us it might not have made a difference to us. It probably would have benefitted the other diners who were trying to have a quiet dinner more than it would have benefitted us. The food at P.F. Changs was amazing, even to someone like me who doesn't eat much chinese. We were seated with the Dream Street paper girls - who are so amazing and talented.


Booths that I did get to spend time in (in no particular order):
7gypsies - absolutely awesome of course
Artic Frog - despite designers lovin this manufacturer, did not seem like retailers have caught on yet
Adobe - sponsor of Scrapbook Lifestyle show
Autumn Leaves - all star cast!
Brainiac Scrapbooking
Basic Grey - yum - never disappoints
Crafttrends magazine
Crate - love their new Avenue collection
Creative Imaginations (some of it...not all of it)
Daisy D's - introduces 5 minute, 10 minute, 30 minute scrapbooking
Delish Designs - gorgeous monograms
Die Cuts with a View - wow! tons of new and exciting stuff - will blow your mind (and I am on their DT you should know)
Dream Street Papers - Love these girls and their papers
Eyelet Outlet
Fancy Pants Designs
Flair - super friendly
Hambly - fresh original designs as we expect
Hampton Art - awesome make-n-take with Melodee Langworthy
Helmar
HP
K & Co.
KI Memories - fun pet line of products
Lasting Impressions - You must see their digital scrapbooking software - it is TOO EASY and SO FANTASTIC
Maya Road - awesome mini albums
My Mind's Eye (Bohemia, Magnolia) Gorgeous
Pink Martini - so fun...another all star cast with gorgeous papers
Prima - now has paper!
Primedia - Celebrity Central
Provo Craft - busy booth
Scribble Scrabble
Tonic Studios
Upsy Daisy - fun new designs
Zsiage

People that I got to meet: (in no particular order)
Leslie Flynn aka Hey_Pooks - my roommate; designer for QuicKutz
Heidi Swapp
PC Smart aka mojito
Linda Harrison with Artic Frog
Tia Bennett, Becky Novacek with AL
May Flaum with Fiskars
Nancy Hill, DCWV
Wendy Reed & Lesley Ashe
Tracy Whitney, Amy Teets, Tara Governo, Alexis Hardy, Dana Hollis with Dream Street papers
Melissa Runcie, Angela Daniels, Johanna Peterson, Leah Fung with BHG
Molli McLaws
Beth Root
Thena
Suzy West
Danielle Bogdanovich
Melodee Langworthy with Hampton Arts/Danielle Johnson CI
Becky Fleck, Kim Kesti, Amy Martin with Pink Martini (I know I'm forgetting someone there)
Kimber McGray
Becky Olsen aka bekzilla
April Anderton with www.digitalscrapbooking.com
Renee Pearson and Lin Sorenson with Primedia
Ro aka Rozannw Paxman, Valerie Randall, Mandy Steward with Scrapgirls.com
Ashley, owner of polkdotpotatoe.com
Kelly Purkey
Tamra
Becky Thompson
Tamar of Tarisota Collections in Australia
Anna Aspens of Designer Digitals


People I saw but didn't have the nerve to introduce myself - being my first show:
Becky Higgins
Kelli Crowe
Tim Holtz
Jessica Sprague


People I wanted to meet but didn't get a chance to connect with:
Holly Van Dyne
Diana Lyne McGraw
Amy Howe
Tina Freeman



I will post more throughout the weekend and this coming week about my MT experience, my favorite products, and lots of photos. Here's the first slideshow I bring to you - from the Basic Grey booth. Scrapbooker Online will have Blush and Fruitcake by the end of next week in her store!




Have a great day, happy scrapping! (P.S. What do you think of my re-cap so far?)