I have been here in Atlantic City all week attending The Decorative Arts Show/Faux Event at the Atlantic City Convention Center. Today is my one and only day off before I head home tomorrow so thought I’d try to post at least a little bit of the vast information garnered from this event. For me, this convention was much more fun and successful than the SALI convention I attended in July. Now let me stress that my classes at the SALI convention, previously reviewed here, were excellent, but the convention experience on the whole in Charleston, was less than excellent.
The Decorative Arts Show people know how to do a convention right. The class selection was excellent. What worked much better here than in SC, was the fact that all classes were held M,T,F, & Sat and the trade show was open on the only 2 days that there were no classes held. This gave all of us plenty of time to leisurely visit all vendors and play with their products. What I really liked was the fact that you could actually do layers of products on your sample boards, doing a few layers the first day and return the 2nd day to add more or make new sample boards. The two full, uninterrupted days also allowed you to get to know the vendors and their products and ask all the questions you needed to have answered. You could see others experimenting with the products and see how they were using it, and what questions/concerns/ideas they had.
The other area where the Decorative Arts Show/Faux Event organizers have it right is when it comes to networking opportunities. We were wined and dined almost every single night at open cocktail parties for all attendees. Here we were able to connect with all attendees, those who took classes, the instructors, vendors and organizers. It was fun to hear about everyone’s class experiences, talk to the instructors, vendors and just make some new friends. This was a great opportunity to hear what is selling in other parts of the country, discuss techniques, pricing, and all the good and sometimes not so good aspects of our business. Congratulations on a job well done, Sue, Tamara, Linda, Julie and Eddie!
I feel I am going home with a lot of very useful information and samples from the 2 day class I took and the trade show. Today is my one day off, so I am taking a much needed break from the Convention Center and exploring the grounds of the Marriott’s Fairway Villas at Seaview, where I am staying with my friend and fellow decorative painter, Chris. I will be posting more product and class information over the next few days when I return home.