Several Fridays ago I boarded a plane destined The National Needle Arts Association (TNNA) meeting in Columbus, Ohio. As one passenger after another took a seat and pulled out a knitting project, I knew I was on the right plane.
TNNA is a huge trade show for retailers, designers, publishers, and suppliers in the needle arts industry, and this was my first time going. Although I didn’t really know what to expect, I had done my homework, and I had clear objectives for my time there. I wanted to:
- Explore options for printing and distributing hard copies of my patterns
- Meet with book publishers about doing a book of my designs
- Talk with yarn companies about supplying yarn for new designs
Entering the show (for photos and news about the show see Amy Singers’ blog post on the knittyblog), I was ready to network, equipped with business cards printed with tiny thumbnails of my patterns and tearsheets showing a sample pattern page backed with a photo essay of my designs. This simple tearsheet turned out to be invaluable, as it opened doors to long conversations and new opportunities.
I navigated the vast exhibit hall with a map with notations for the vendors that I absolutely had to visit. With hundreds of exhibits, it’s easy to get distracted, so for two days I relied on this map to keep me on track with my objectives. Since the main purpose of the convention is to sell to retailers, I was always careful to approach people politely, keep my introductions brief, and leave contact information for later follow-up.
The most surprising thing I found about being at TNNA was that everyone was incredibly nice, open to the idea that I was exploring my options and graciously willing to share information. This held true from the most seasoned, senior editor at a major book publisher to established designers, magazine publishers, and yarn company owners.
If you are a designer reading this, I would like to share some things I learned at TNNA that might help you move through the learning curve a bit faster than I have. (If you’re not a designer, you may want to stop here.)
First, yarn manufacturers seem to “type” into three groups when it comes to their relationships with designers:
- The first type of yarn company doesn’t publish patterns of its own but likes to partner with designers to showcase their yarns. The company provides yarn support to the designer and then picks designs to feature its yarns. Many of these are small companies with limited product lines.
- The second type of yarn company wants to provide yarn support with virtually no strings attached to lots of designers to get as many patterns as possible using their yarns. Generally, this was the case for the major yarn companies who have a broad product line.
- The third type is the yarn company that wants to have control over its image and is not financially able to offer yarn support to all comers. Some offer wholesale accounts to designers, and some want to review a designer’s work or look at design submissions before offering yarn support.
If you want specifics about my impressions of particular companies, shoot me an email. And, for more “first impressions” read Dark Matters Knits blog post.
Finally, here are things I learned that all designers on their first trip to TNNA should know (but I didn’t):
- Make sure you get an invitation to the Yarn Thing Designer Dinner [YTDD] (you can see photos of this year’s dinner here) , which is organized by Marly Bird. I didn’t know enough about it this year to get a ticket ahead of time. Next year spaces will be given out on a first-come-first-served basis, and I am putting this event at the top of my list.
- North Market is the place to get lunch. It is just a block from the convention center and has great food, including Jen’s Ice Cream. You will read a lot about this ice cream if you follow Twitter or Facebook activities!
- Stay over until Monday. The show is more relaxed, crowds are less, and people are freer to chat. Best of all, vendors are in give-away mode, since they don’t want to pack up and ship back all of the samples from the show.
At the end of the day, I feel like I really got my money’s worth at TNNA, and I ended my time there with a much clearer sense of my options and vision as a designer. This was an unexpected and exciting outcome, and I am already looking forward to next year’s meeting!
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