CMC Preview Show Bows at Cal Mart
The California Market Center (CMC) debuted with a small sampling of gift showrooms, giving buyers an indication of what is in store for them at the center’s full-scale launch July 16–23.
The gift show partnership between dmg world media, Trammel Crow Co. and George Little Management LLC bowed on the 12th and 13th floors of the California Mart with five showrooms featuring more than 200 lines.
The CMC preview show, which runs from Jan. 15–22, overlaps two other local trade shows: Los Angeles market week, which ended Jan. 15, and the California Gift Show, held at the Los Angeles Convention Center and running Jan. 19–22.
The gift show floors were already attracting attention from apparel buyers during Los Angeles market, according to Bill Winsor, president and chief executive officer of the Dallas Market Center, managing entity for the CMC. And joint marketing efforts between the CMC and the California Gift Show, produced by George Little Management on behalf of dmg world media, will likely prompt cross-show shopping.
That was the case on opening day at the California Marketing Associates (CMA) showroom, according to CMA president Carol Lang.
“We’ve already met new buyers from the apparel side and hopefully our buyers will be buying apparel,” she said.
Lang said the company plans to keep the showroom staffed five days a week and will be open during each apparel market in order to cater to that crossover business.
During the run of its show, CMC will run shuttles between the Cal Mart and the Los Angeles Convention Center. Badges from the CMC show and the California Gift Show will be honored so that buyers do not have to register twice to attend both events. CMC and the California Gift Show are publishing a joint directory with listings for exhibitors at both venues.
Jackie Jones of Jones Coffee Co. in Northridge, Calif., was one of the buyers who took the shuttle over from the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Jones, a longtime visitor to the California Gift Show, described it as “like an old shoe—it feels comfortable.”
Still, Jones praised the look of the new CMC space (although she said the lighting was a little low) but questioned the logistics of traveling between the two shows.
However, rep Lee Bishop of Firestone Associates pointed out that buyers should be accustomed to traveling between two venues, since they traveled between the Convention Center and the L.A. Mart, which also houses gift showrooms.
“With the gift show, you expect to travel,” she said.
The CMC showrooms—CMA, Firestone Associates, Raj Imports, Roger Wilson & Associates and Peter Norton Sales Co.—carry a variety of gift items, including home accessories, seasonal merchandise, personal care products, collectibles and home textiles.
The five showrooms comprise approximately 80,000 square feet of the planned 250,000 square feet of exhibition space at the California Market Center.
CMC organizers were unable to predict just how many buyers would attend the preview show but noted that they had been sending flyers and cards promoting the event to retailers. Also, the shuttle service between the Cal Mart and the Los Angeles Convention Center should help to bring some of the anticipated 30,000 California Gift Show buyers to the CMC event.
