GLM's Global Gift Show Goes Bicoastal
By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 10/25/2004
George Little Management is bringing an edition of SOURCES, its two-year-old New York gift show, to the West Coast starting in 2006. SOURCES LA will be launched at the Los Angeles Convention Center as a collocated event with another GLM show, the semiannual California Gift Show, Jan. 21–24, 2006.
The SOURCES concept, which matches foreign manufacturers and exporters with U.S.-based importers, distributors and volume buyers in the gift industry, is a natural addition to the Los Angeles market and a logical expansion, said Tony Lee, the show's director of sales.
Being one of three West Coast ports with the ability to handle a new class of super cargo ships makes Los Angeles attractive, Lee said. The city's status as a main U.S. point of entry for Pacific Rim countries was also key, as nearly half of the exhibitors at the 2004 SOURCES show at The Un-Convention Center, Pier 94 in New York hailed from Asia. A similar percentage is expected at the Los Angeles spin-off. So are approximately 250 exhibitors from 25 countries, including Nepal, Peru, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
When California emerged as the fourth-largest state represented at the 2004 SOURCES, SOURCES LA made even more sense, Lee said. To attract exhibitors from the New York SOURCES, GLM will offer priority bookings for the Los Angeles show and the opportunity to leave their merchandise in the country between the two shows.
GLM's online show guide is essential for exhibitors, Lee said, since many "aren't very experienced in the import/export business." A two-day seminar at Pier 94 in New York May 15–16, 2005 will help SOURCES exhibitors and attendees know what to expect at the show.
Not every California Gift Show exhibitor is excited about the launch. Some U.S.-based exhibitors say the event appears to promote outsourcing products and disregard American manufacturers. "That's going to cut a lot of people out," said Helen McCrea, who has exhibited her Ancient Egyptian Collection products in the Gift Show's 45,000 net square foot World Style section for 10 years. "All of the American importers are going to be out of business. I could see the handwriting on the wall."
GLM is "certainly aware that this is not going to be what some people like," Lee said. but whether we like it or not, "it's a small world now."
Manufacturers based outside the United States will find a way into the market no matter what, Lee added, insisting that GLM will maintain the same strict controls on the quality of merchandise exhibited that it always has. "We're not looking to flood the market."
The next California Gift Show, January 22–25, 2005 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, is expected to draw 1,850 exhibiting companies and 30,000 attendees to a 305,000 net sq. ft. showfloor.
The 2005 SOURCES at Pier 94 is expected to attract 500 exhibitors and 4,000 attendees to a 50,000 net sq. ft. showfloor.
