Atlanta Market + Demdaco, 2012

We are still experiencing the after effects of spending time away from home.  It's always a bit of shock to come back to our real lives!   Especially when you splurge and stay at the Four Seasons!   Can we be real though? We were a bit out of our element! We're used to staying at places where you get a free continental breakfast and there is no tipping of any kind involved!  We don't normally stay at places that offer evening turn down services or have bathrobes or have restaurants that lay your napkin in your lap for you and cause you to doubt the language the menu is in, because you don't recognize anything on it!  But by the time we decided to go, rooms were scarce that were anywhere close to the AmercasMart.  We knew that at least this hotel was close to MARTA (or "Martha" as we affectionately like to call her) which would get us everywhere we needed to go.  So we went for it!  Somehow we were upgraded to a Terrace room!

   

The market itself is huge.  I mean like overwhelming humongous.  It was our first time at the Atlanta market, last year we went to the Chicago version, which we thought was big, but it's not nearly on the same scale as Atlanta!  There are 3 buildings like this:

Floor and more floors.  FULL of merchandise.  With this many choices, it's a wonder that anyone ever finds or picks our line to carry in their store!  It's kinda crazy.

DEMDACO invited us to a special mingle event on Thursday night where their customers and artists could meet.  We had the opportunity to meet and thank many business owners who carry our line, many of whom we recognized through connecting on facebook!  Some even wanted to take our picture with our display.  Surreal.  General feedback was that the lazy susans, family rules, and welcome sign have all been good sellers for people and so have the small winged plaques. 

Everyone at Demdaco had such nice things to say about "This Thing Called Family" too.  They are so excited about how it's first year went and are very optimistic about its future!  We met many new sales reps, saw many familiar faces from our previous visit to Kansas City headquarters and got to visit more extensively with the product developers for our line.  They got us all pumped up about 2 more releases later this year of TONS more awesome new things to TTCF, plus thinking ahead to 2013!  We can't wait to get started on designs for 2013.  We've got so many ideas that it's going to be a challenge to narrow it down!  Guess that's a good problem to have!

The Demdaco showroom is huge!  Here's some pictures of our display:

6 new sets of phrases

The three on the left are new!

Some close ups of more new crosses:

New owl nesting dolls

New Look What I Made, magnetic board

New Share, Spend, Save set

New Perpetual Calendar -Alleluia!  Doesn't it look like it has a halo?!

New Step Stool!

We can't tell you enough how much we enjoy the atmosphere at Demdaco.  They are genuine and friendly.  They are all about people and building relationships - both internally and with their retailers.  They are concerned about creating something that is meaningful and lasting: in spirit, in business and in products.  They made us feel right at home, when we are so clearly still new at this.  Wandering around the showroom and overhearing sales reps as they talked to customers, it's easy to see why Demdaco is rated #1 in customer service for the whole gift industry! 
 

*Next time we'll share pictures and stories of all of the talented artists that we had the pleasure and honor to meet!