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PG Live 2017
Nine Lives
Above: The Business Design Centre is home to Progressive Greetings Live. Below: Jacqui Parr, marketing manager of PG Live (fourth from the right) with the rest of the PG Live team (left-right) Tracey Arnaud, Warren Lomax, Jakki Brown, Simon Boyd, Clare Davies and Ian Hyder.
There is an ancient proverb that claims: ‘A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays and for three he stays.’ However, most of the time it is our feline friends’ incredible dexterity that enables them to always land on their feet that gives rise to the ‘nine lives’ myth. There is nothing mythical about the ninth ever PG Live (June 6-7), however the 280+ exhibitors at this year’s show are living proof of the creative dexterity in the greeting card industry. PG Live’s marketing manager Jacqui Parr, shares nine ‘purrfect’ reasons why retailers and overseas distributors will feel like ‘cats that got the cream’ after a visit to the show.
Tickets Galore
Thousands Of New Designs “New designs are the lifeblood of the greeting card industry and with more exhibitors than ever before at PG Live - over 280 companies - there will be thousands and thousands of brand new designs for retailers and distributors to feast their eyes on,” confirms Jacqui. As well as major launches from leading brands - it will be the first time anyone will see Five Dollar Shake’s Christmas collection and it will be the only chance to see the lovely new creations from Wendy Jones-Blackett, for starters – there are 160 new and emerging companies all waiting to be discovered in the Springboard and Springboard Extra areas. Adding to the diversity, and continuing the show’s international flavour, this year’s PG Live includes exhibitors from all over the world. These include Artige from Holland, Affirmations from Australia, fotoeigenArt from Switzerland, Pabaku from Austria and Maarit Kontianen from Finland for starters.
“There will be even more whoops of joy as there are lots of different specially produced tickets and vouchers for retailers to spend at the show this year,” explains Jacqui. The most famous of these are the Gold and Silver Tickets (issued to winners and finalists of The Retas 2016) that are worth £150 and £75 respectively when they place an order at the show. For the first time, the recently announced finalists in this year’s Below: Bob Short, md of The Imaging Centre, has once again been PG Live’s ‘Willy Wonka’, not only producing the Gold, Silver and Sunshine Tickets, but also printing over 21,000 postcards for exhibitors to promote what they will be showcasing at the exhibition. Seen here with his print ‘oompa loompas’ Andy Churchett and Andrew Chapman.
Above: Austrian publisher Pabaku is bringing its own style to PG Live. Left: Postmark’s Mark Janson-Smith delighted to be shown new designs at last year’s show.
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
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