Made in Montana Report: March 2013

I had a huge learning experience at my first wholesale tradeshow at the Made In Montana Marketplace in March 2013!  Luckily I had great traveling weather and I got to experience more of Montana’s exquisite early spring beauty.

A jeweler from Seeley Lake, MT offered to share a suite with me this year and turned out to be an excellent mentor.  I hope to keep in touch with her and room with her again next year!  She is a person dear to my heart and I like her art a lot.  She moved here from California and is an avid dogsled musher and has a hard time getting away from her 13 dogs!

This was her third year at Made in Montana Marketplace and she was invited to join the tour in Billings and Salt Lake City.

http://www.donamiller.com

http://www.sibernytedesigns.com

I hope to one day be invited to tour with the Made in Montana and I will let them know I’m interested.

I learned that I need emphasise my feature product, our 11×14″ gift prints.  I have so many products to offer (sizes, variations of maps, tea stained or not) that my product line is pretty confusing.  I will also put more energy into my notecards as these are popular and simple items for gift shops.

It wasn’t a bang up trip but it helped me get all my ducks in a row.  A souvenir company is interested in using my designs to distribute to their 1,000 retail locations.  I also did get a few new wholesale accounts with new orders coming in everyday.

I’m off to ship a few right now!

xo