Grab a flyer at PG Live to nab final slots at London and Manchester marches
As Pride Month gets underway, the greeting card community is all set to celebrate with the two marches in London and Manchester – and, kicking off tomorrow, PG Live is the place to sign up to take part!
At the UK’s only specialist greeting card trade show, which runs tomorrow and Wednesday, 4-5 June, at the Business Design Centre in Islington, Ohh Deer (stand 316), Dean Morris Cards (316), and Ricicle Cards (162) will have flyers with a qr code for people to scan to pick either the Pride In London march on 29 June or the northern one on 24 August, or both if you wish.
Places are free thanks to the generous sponsors – Top Drawer London, Home & Gift Harrogate, Ohh Deer, Dean Morris Cards, Cath Tate Cards, UK Greetings, and Hallmark – and some of the 75 spaces for the capital and 50 places for the Manchester march are still available.
Mark Callaby, Ohh Deer’s co-founder and the GCA council lead on diversity and inclusion, explained there is no cap on how many places companies can sign up for this year, with marchers encouraged to dress up as they “help share the joy of greeting cards and show the diversity of product available” by handing out thousands of cards along the routes.
The 2023 event in London was a fabulous success with the GCA taking part for the first time and the 50 greeting card industry marchers handed out 10,000 cards generously donated by publishers before they’d even covered a quarter of the mile-long route. This year there will be 50,000 cards printed to cover both marches.
Mark added: “We didn’t ask for greeting card samples this year, instead we are printing five times as many card which we will mean we will increase the amount of cards we can hand out along the routes.”
His partner and Ohh Deer co-founder Jamie Mitchell has been busy artworking the designs which have been supplied by Jessie Maeve Studio, Pink And Mint Design, Cath Tate Cards, Ricicle Cards, Dean Morris and Ohh Deer artists – who are also joining the parades.
And the costs have been covered thanks to Fedrigoni supplying the board, envelopes from Enveco, while The Imaging Centre is printing all the cards.
“The backs of the cards will be branded with the GCA’s Pride logo, and have a nod to the sponsors as well as the person who designed it.”
If you want a great day out showing how loud and proud the greetings industry is, check out the GCA blog where there’s more information – remember the sponsors are only covering the cost of the event, travel and accommodation is not included – and you can sign up there to march or pop along to Ohh Deer (stand 316), Dean Morris Cards (316), Ricicle Cards (162), or the GCA stand just outside the Gallery Hall where lunch is served, at PG Live to pick up a flyer.
Anybody wishing to make donations to the Pride initiative, however small, would also be welcome, please speak to Mark on the Ohh Deer stand.
