Top Drawer Trade Show

It’s all go at the moment in the office with Jane and myself getting ready for Top Drawer, just to add, the first trade show we have ever done, no pressure…! 

Jane and John left shortly after 10:30, not quite the 9am they were planning! Everything all prepped and boxed up in the van, how much easier it is planning for Top Drawer rather than the Spirit of Christmas, no stock needed, one of each product, and then just the two of us. 

The first of the pictures I started receiving from Jane, it definitely didn’t look like much when I received this…

Getting there… It’s easy from where I’m sat, at my desk at HQ!

Nearly there…don’t think I’ll mention it sloping along the top!

Think they both deserve the next picture I received…

and it’s complete, rather impressed for the first show this year hopefully many more to come. 

Sunday morning I catch the train up to get ready for the next three days, meeting new potential customers, putting names to faces and looking for new products ourselves. Doesn’t sound like we are going to stop. It is a great show to network with people and really make the most of new products we have available.

Staying in London really adds to the show as I get to catch up with friends that live there, it is so different to where I live, we can actually socialise after 9pm and there are bars and restaurants open! It really makes you feel refreshed for the next day, or not! 

Breaking down after the show is something I have never done before, so I will describe it in one word…easypeasy, not quite one word but so much easier than the Spirit of Christmas breakdown!

Again we have managed to bump into our Spirit of Christmas friends and have brief catch ups before we must all head home, back to HQ’s and to crack on with the workload we have brought back!

-Shannon 

Spirit of Christmas 2015

We all know at JS that Christmas has approached once we attend the Spirit of Christmas show in Olympia, London. 

Whether you attend Spirit of Christmas for the food and wine, a social event, or to start the christmas shop, the week long fair has all of the above!

So Jane and John head off from our Somerset studio to hit the road, early should I say! It’s all go once we get to Olympia, vans pulling in from everywhere, boxes being unloaded, the odd fragile box you hear drop… We leave the stand looking like we aren’t going to be ready for the Monday and that the week is going to be an utter disaster.

Sunday is when I (Shannon) come along, I get the long straw for setting up! Pricing products and making the garland look ‘pretty’. The Sunday flies by as does everyday when we are exhibiting, but, ta dah the stand is complete, so the week commences!

On the Thursday it is late night shopping, the day still seems to fly by even when it closes at 8pm. This is the night I manage to escape from the stand and check out the show, need I say more when Lily, from Branche D’Olive and I end up sampling the upstairs which is of course, the alcohol…!

The whole show this year was a complete success, it was our second biggest year since we have been attending and that’s been quite a few years. It was such great fun, meeting repeat customers, new customers and also networking with other businesses, what more could we want. We have the lovely ‘Branche D’Olive’ opposite us, ‘Helen Moore’ to the right and ‘Carina Hildebrandt’ just around the corner, such a fun and festive atmosphere!

We hope you have a lovely Christmas from us all at Jonny’s Sister and hope to see you at next year’s Spirit of Christmas! 

-Shannon