Pittsburgh, here we come!

Wednesday morning we leave for Pittsburgh, where spring International Quilt Market convenes this season.

I’d like to tell you this part of the business eventually becomes routine, but preparing for Market is always exciting. I’m especially thrilled about the two Schoolhouse presentations we’ll be giving on Thursday afternoon–before Friday’s opening of the exhibition hall. We’ll be sharing a lot of exciting and controversial material that is guaranteed to get people talking–which is great, because it means we’ll have lots of interesting conversations at our booth during the rest of the show. I encourage you to attend the presentations if you’ll be at Market. Here are the official descriptions:

Oliver + S is giving back-to-back presentations as part of the Brewer Schoolhouse series. Join us in room 334 of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on Thursday starting at 4:45 PM.

In our first presentation, “Capturing New Customers with Oliver + S,” we will show you how you can use Oliver + S patterns to win the loyalty of a new generation of customers—and keep them for a lifetime.

We will discuss the demographic profile of today’s “Dedicated Quilter” and will talk about the emerging generation of customers—customers who may not be shopping at your store today. Come to hear us offer advice on capturing and retaining these new customers and to learn what your shop should be doing to protect itself from the growing number of gray market sellers courting these customers on the Internet.

We’ll follow immediately at 5:20 PM with our second presentation, “Little Oliver + S Projects Lead to Big Sales.”

Designer Liesl Gibson will walk you through several current fabric collections, discussing how you can select and merchandise the fabrics you’re probably already carrying to sell Oliver + S patterns (and vice versa). She will also share some success stories from current Oliver + S customers who have seen their fabric sales spike as a result of carrying our patterns.

And then don’t miss out on Saturday’s big event. No monster trucks or booming announcer voices to accompany them, but come hang out with Heather Ross and Oliver + S from 2:00 until 4:00 at booth #2442. We’ll be displaying outfits made using Heather’s new fabric collection and Oliver + S patterns, and I can almost guarantee some laughs and good times in the process. There may be a few treats as well.

Who knows, maybe we’ll even get silly enough to make our own announcer voices?