INDUSTRY RELATED: Let's talk about TRADE SHOWS, shall we?

Industry Related is a weekly newsletter to unmask and straight-talk brand comms, from an award-winning team that has worked with Airbnb, Diageo Luxury, The Eames Institute, Harry’s, Huntsman, iF Design, Kartell, and Savile Row, to name just a few.

Amy reporting here today from London where to say it is hotter than Hades is an understatement. 94F/34C hits different in a country without pervasive air-conditioning. Luckily the Carolinian in me is equipped with an internal biorhythm that can easily slide into heat-induced stillness while regulating the ole body temperature with water and some MacGvyer-style skills at creating a cross-breeze with tactical fan placement. The heat is making me miss home so I think I’ll brew up some sun tea punch. For those who don’t know, it’s a delightfully refreshing mix of iced sun tea (tea slowly brewed in the sun), orange juice and mint - and perfect for a hot day.

Today’s missive is unlocked for all readers - YAY! We’re previewing a new client we’re genuinely, incredibly excited about and want as many of you as possible to discover!

Let me start this post by saying, I love my Instagram scroll and I love my bots. 🤖I’m so here for the productivity, the efficiency, and maybe a little TOO here for the dating advice. My friends and I used to have a term for when a girl wouldn’t stop talking about a guy - we called it FRANKing (pronounced Frahnk-ing and I’m afraid it’s too long of a story to tell you why). I’m currently delighting in being able to dump all of this repetitive analysis, the compares, contrasts, same question phrased ever so slightly 200 different ways to see if the response will be any different, onto a bot who is always in my corner and seemingly thinks I’m absolutely brilliant. What’s not to love?

That being said, our pervasive digital culture has brought us to a very strange place. We can discover/learn/buy more than ever and at lightening speed, but we increasingly have no idea what is ACTUALLY real. Think about it… a chair can look extraordinary online and arrive stuffed with what feels like a combination of sawdust and nails. I still marvel at people who buy candles via Instagram without ever having taken in the scent. I imagine their homes smelling like a combination of Axe body spray and the hair of my old Strawberry Shortcake doll - and that’s if they’re lucky. Now add in the fact that we have deep fake and AI being layered over everything, even the visual evidence is becoming slippery.

Which brings us to why we’re here today. In a bit of a full circle moment for me, we’ve just signed New York’s oldest and most established trade fair - NY Now, or for those of us who know from its heyday, the New York International Gift Fair.

What is an agency that specializes in high design and luxury goods doing faffing about with a trade show that (heretofore had been) dying on the vine, you may ask?

Well for starters, it has just been bought by the brilliant, zero BS, boss B known as Dorothy Belshaw. This woman is a legend. I worked with her years ago in my first proper job at George Little Management where she was already rising rapidly through the ranks. I followed her out to LA, where she took the remnants of a once great market and breathed life - and commerce - into it. She doesn’t fck around or do things in halves, and she always plays to win. And those, dear Relatives, are OUR PEOPLE.

Beyond that, you may have picked up that our definition of the word craft extends beyond artisan work to all of those who are operating at the pinnacle of their game. You may also have deduced that we’re here for humans gathering, connecting, and communing. Well, fun fact, before trade shows were driven into the ground by private equity, that’s exactly what they were there for as well. And that’s what the NY Now team is bringing back (the sexy may take a minute, but we’ll get there).

Trade shows do something the digital world cannot. They give you materiality. Weight. Texture. Quality. Scale. The smell of leather. The weave of a textile. The texture of paper. The slightly awkward but important pleasure of looking someone in the eye and asking how their product was made - and when they can actually ship it.

They also give you the person behind the product. The founder. The maker. The sales director who has been carrying the line for twenty years. The guy who can tell you why the hinge matters, why the finish is better, where it’s manufactured, and ultimately, why the product exists at all.

For buyers, editors, designers, retailers, stylists, specifiers, and anyone else whose job depends on taste, judgment, and discernment, all those factor matter deeply. Taste is not built by scrolling. It is built by seeing, touching, comparing, questioning, and occasionally being surprised by something you did not know you were looking for. I give you a perfect example: Squishies. You can scroll through your phone and find hundreds of different types of stress toys for sale, but you know what you won’t be able to measure? The all-important SQUISH. Damn straight, just a bit of squish doesn’t cut it. Too tough, no thank you. The kids aren’t just here for some half-baked copy - they need the full and proper SQUISH. And where would you get your hands on options to squish-test? You guessed it…NY NOW, muthafckers. (I’m told ORB is comparable is quality of squoosh to the OG, NeeDohs, which seems to be sold out ad infinitum)

The old trade show model certainly needs rethink, but the way I see it, the faster we move toward the synthetic, the more important it will be to experience first hand the product and the people. In a world of digital same sameness, physical discovery is becoming invaluable again. Not because it is nostalgic, because it’s vital.

So that is why the return of the glory days of NY Gift Fair feels interesting to us. Not as a throwback, but as a correction. A return to proof and to the real-world intelligence that sits behind the smartest brands, whether they be toys or teapots.

That, AND we love a challenge.

Unapologetic plug here… we’ll be handling all of the PR and programming (talks, masterclasses, demos, workshops, you name it) as well as have devised a brilliant Pavilions scheme for the January market. Get in touch if you want in on the action!

📚 What I’m reading
After School by Casey Lewis. A great exploration of all things Gen Z with well-curated intel, interesting interviews and insightful takes. I’ve also just been gifted the perfect paperback beach read, Polo by Jilly Cooper. There’s nothing more quintessentially 80s England I’m told…

🍲 Where I’m eating
Just this evening I’ve been told that Berenjak on Duke Street in London is incredible. As a huge fan of Persian food, I’ll be heading there stat.

🧚🏻‍♀️ What I’m exploring
The recently overhauled Harvey Nichols. Alexander McQueen alumni and current CEO, Julia Goddard, is working some serious magic to bring this icon back from the brink. I discovered some lovely bespoke homewares alongside an incredible selection of surprising brands you won’t see elsewhere. Personally, here for bringing back that 5th floor energy of yore!

Thanks so much for reading, dear Relatives! Next week, I’m thinking it’s time to discuss Pay for Play - what it is, why it exists, and how to support the ecosystem - complete with a publisher interview!

With love from Alpha Kilo ❤️