The Harrogate Home and Gift trade Show is over for another year. It ran from the 17th to the 20th of July, filling the whole of the International Conference Centre (and much more besides!). I’ve been attending as a visitor for the last 5 years, since I started with Chiggs, and this year seemed to be the biggest ever- they keep finding subterranean halls to open and fill with exhibitors, and I think now the whole of the underground car park has been turned into exhibitor space. I’m sure that the vast majority of residents of Harrogate have no idea about the acres of space, bustling with people, under Kings Road!
Many local hotels are also used for the Home and Gift Show, with The Cairn hosting Gitware exhibitors, and The Majestic having ‘gifts for Men’ in the hotel, a rather wonderful jazz band playing on the terrace, and its grounds filled with semi-permanent ‘marquees’ (that word doesn’t do them justice, they are better built than my first house was!)
I went to meet some Twitter friends who run businesses exhibiting there, to browse businesses supplying products Chiggs need to purchase to make our business run smoothly (display units, stationery, packaging, embellishments etc ) and to check out the trends in the greeting card and gift market (if ’bunting’ is the new ‘cupcakes’ I wonder what the new ‘bunting’ will be?!)
Another trend that struck me is ‘square’ greeting cards. Now, I didn’t set out to design only square cards, the dial that makes the cards so useful and unique, in many ways, dictated the size and shape of Chiggs Wheels. While some greeting card publishers have a variety of shapes and sizes in their ranges (including a few square cards), I noticed a few companies exhibiting at this year’s trade show whose entire range was square. It’s hip to be square!
More info:-Chiggs Wheels are approx 13cm x 13cm square, supplied with a white envelope and sealed in a cellophane wrapper with a printed insert. They are available to buy from the Chiggs online shop, from a variety of independent retailers, and at trade and wholesale rates exclusively from Chiggs.
