To avoid a date clash with the Top Drawer trade show (which announced recently that it is now to take place February 20-22, instead of its usual mid January timeslot), the GCA’s Dragons’ Speed-dating event will now take place on Wednesday 23 March at London’s Business Design Centre. (It had originally been scheduled for Tuesday 22 February, which would have coincided with the last day of Top Drawer).
Continuing a very successful formula that has worked incredibly well for both the attending publishers and participating retailers, the afternoon event will see publishers make one-to-one quickfire 10-minute pitches about their products and their companies to different retailers, including multiples, small groups and indies.
Buyers from Austin & Co (Malvern), Cardzone, Card Factory, Fortnum & Mason, Funky Pigeon, Mooch (London), Postmark and Red Card (Petworth) are among the confirmed Dragons with other retailers now being invited to put themselves forward to participate.
In addition to the pitching, the event will also include an advice panel session during which leading industry experts will share the benefit of their experience and knowledge across all manner of pertinent issues and subjects.
The online booking ‘office’ opened for publishers just before Christmas, which saw a flurry of places being snapped up by publishers, but there are still some slots available. (All publishers who had booked places for the original date have been given opportunity to transfer their booking to the new date.)
Each ‘dating place’ costing £125 + VAT which can be booked by clicking here.
Attending publishers can also submit up to three cards for each of the 18 buyers ‘goodie/sample bags to ensure that their products will be seen by all.
Commenting, Amanda Fergusson, ceo of the GCA said: “I am so glad that we were able to secure a new date so as to avoid the clash with Top Drawer.
Dragons Speed Dating is such a fantastic opportunity for publishers to meet key retail buyers and vice versa. The networking is great and it’s fun to boot. A great way to generate business as well as build and reinforce relationships.”
To get a flavour of the last ‘Dragons’ event watch the video below…
To hear feedback from some of those who participated last Dragons’ event, click on the film below.
There is a full blog post about the GCA’s Dragons Speed-dating on the association’s website, which can be read by clicking here.
Any retailer wishing to be a ‘Dragon’ should contact Amanda directly by emailing her on amanda@gca.cards.
* To make for a doubly fruitful day. A meeting for PG Live exhibitors and would-be exhibitors is to take place in the morning on the same day (Wednesday 23 March) at the same venue (the BDC). This meeting (which is free to attend) will cover handy tips and hints for making the most out of exhibiting. Bookings for this meeting should be via Jim Bullough, operations director of PG Live, not the GCA hub. Jim can be emailed on jimb@max-publishing.co.uk
Top: Some publishers at the last event waiting to the picked by the Dragons and taken into the den.
