Dedicated greeting card exhibition, Progressive Greetings Live, met with a great reception from exhibitors and visitors alike. This was the fifth edition of the show, which ran from May 14 – 15 at the Business Design Centre in London’s Islington.
This year’s event combined thousands of new greetings card designs launched by 250 exhibitors, including some of the biggest publishers in the business and an extensive selection of exciting new ranges from up and coming publishers within the Springboard section. G&G Review especially liked the beautiful work of DM Collection, pictured here. (more of them later!)
Colourful ‘meeters and greeters’ at the entrance to the show were dressed up in clothes made from exhibitors’ greetings cards, an Action Medical Research charity card initiative that saw ‘Ladder Club’ exhibitors and suppliers give all their services for free.
One of the world’s most iconic greetings card and gift brands, Carte Blanche Greetings’ Me to You, celebrated its 18th anniversary at the exhibition, where Progressive Greetings editor Jakki Brown presented company owner Stephen Haines with a celebratory cake at a champagne reception. Carte Blanche was also sponsor of the popular PG Live lunch, which underscored the important social flavour of the greetings card industry and exhibition alike.
Joint show director Simon Boyd of show organiser Max Exhibitions commented: “It is great to see the industry connecting, talking and helping each other, and we had a fantastic line up of visitors, with every type of gr
eeting card retailer represented – from the big department stores, to local post offices, and from online retailers, to gift shops, garden centres and the grocery chains.
“In addition, companies in the licensing industry were also very supportive, and we welcomed some new international visitors this year from Mexico, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, the Middle East and Germany which added export interest.”
Planning has already started for the 2014 show which will run on May 13 – 14 2014.
Really Good and Soul owner David Hicks spotted walking the floor
