The Framers Forum

Organised by the Fine Art Trade Guild at Robinson Centre, Wyboston Lakes Conference Centre Wyboston, Bedfordshire, MK44 3BA.

Seminars and demonstrations: Saturday 11th 2 - 4.30 and Sunday 12th June 10.30 – 2
Free to attend. All day refreshment ticket, compulsory, £3.50; lunch barbecue, optional, £7.

Art & Framing Industry Awards event Saturday 11th, from 7; tickets from £50 + vat.

View and admire the entries in the 2011 Guild Framing Challenge

LEARN from leading seminar leaders and demonstrators:

Lyn Hall GCF Adv, Fringe Arts, Innovative Mountcutting Techniques
Jim Anderson, FramingMentor.com, Preparing your Framing Business for Success
Neil Duguid, Primrose Gallery, Social Networking for Art & Framing Businesses
David Wilkie GCF, Eagle Gallery, How to Choose Colour in Framing
Peter Learoyd, Imagiclee, Essential Photoshop Skills
Toby Herlinger, Fotospeed, First Steps in Inkjet Printing
Mal Reynolds GCF Adv, Harlequin Frames, Fabric Mounting and Framing
Colin Ruffell, Crabfish, How to Sell Art off the Wall
Heather Power, Artist, Oxford Printmakers – screen printing on glass
Jack Siwinski, Lion PFS Face Mounting onto Acrylic
Brian Bogie, Colourmount An interesting presentation explaining the process of manufacturing mountboard
Pete Bingham GCF, Everest Paints Demonstration of a new contemporary finish using Everest materials. Pete will be happy to share his experience and expertise with visitors


MEET leading publishers and suppliers in the table-top trade show:

Arqadia, John Green & Derrick Hicks of Arqadia will be showcasing their latest product launch including Sherwood and Luminoso by Larson Juhl http://www.arqadia.co.uk
LION Picture Framing Supplies, Martin Harrold, Lee Tandy and Jack Siwinski showing you some of their latest ideas and products http://www.lionpic.co.uk
Ashworth & Thompson, Peter Thompson, Phil Sheldon, Adrian Craig. http://www.ashworthandthompson.co.uk
Colourmount, Brian Bogie, Sales Director, will be discussing their new ‘Taking a Fresh Look at Colour’ long-term mountboard marketing initiative. http://www.colourmount.co.uk
Buckingham Fine Art, Neil Eggleton, showcasing work by artists awards finalists Kerry Darlington and Barry Hilton http://www.bucksfineart.com
Crabfish, Colin Ruffell http://www.crabfish.com
D & J Simons, Joe Davis http://www.djsimons.co.uk
Autumn Fair & Spring Fair, Charles Downing and Alison Graham would love to talk to visitors and exhibitors about what they’d like from SFI and AFI http://www.springfair.com
Fletcher-Terry, Roy Rowlands GCF, your expert on all things Fletcher http://www.fletcher-terry.com
Fotospeed, Toby Herlinger http://www.fotospeed.com
Framer’s Corner / Wizard, Sam Cook, showcasing the new Wizard 9000 model http://www.framerscorner.co.uk
Gunnar, Sarah Osborne GCF http://www.gunnar-int.com
Hot Press, Steve Goodall will be on hand to answer your questions, showing the latest presentation styles http://www.hotpress.co.uk
Innova Art, James Cannone, Laura Townsend, Sarah Punt, Mike Gonzales. Inkjet media and the Jetmaster fold-up canvas wrap http://www.innovaart.com
International Graphics, Ian Cairns presents IG’s new silver foil printed images and Alu Dibond collection http://www.international-graphics.com
Keencut, Robin Lockwood, founder of the highly successful Keencut Company, wants to talk to mountcutter users and learn from them what features they would like to find in the perfect mountcutter. http://www.keencut.com
Permajet, Doug Morgan, Steve Paige. Papers and inks for high quality digital printing. Inkjet media http://www.permajet.com
Valiani, John Cooper of the Valiani Users Support Group and Nico Valiani http://www.valiani.com

CELEBRATE at the Art & Framing Industry Awards event:

The Art & Framing Industry Awards event, organised by Fine Art Trade Guild, is the most important social event in the art and framing calendar. Now in its 19th year, it’s where framers, gallery owners, artists, publishers and suppliers get together for an evening to celebrate the hard work and achievements of the past year.
Many of those attending will have entered for one of the prestigious awards which will be presented during the evening, so they’ll be excited as the tension builds. Many others will have come along for the enjoyable evening meeting friends and acquaintances and networking generally.
The evening kicks off with a drinks reception from 7pm, outside if the weather is good, then a formal dinner and the Awards presentations. The evening is rounded out with dancing to a live band. The ticket price, from £50 + vat, includes the drinks reception, the three-course menu and an evening of excellent entertainment.
More information: http://www.fineart.co.uk or go to http://tiny.cc/uon2x
email moira@fineart.co.uk tel 020 7381 6616

MLC - Minor correction to listing - Jack Siwinski will only be demonstrating on the Saturday. There will be samples of face mounting to view and discuss on the Lion booth.

Only a few days to go

Programme all in place and looking very comprehensive with a good range of subjects to interest artists, galleries and framers. You can see this at http://www.fineart.co.uk/Article/Detail ... 567D5ED193

Thought you might find this helpful - if you miss the road junction going north it's quite a long way to the next turn!

How to get there

Wyboston Lakes Conference Centre
Wyboston
MK44 3BA
Tel: 01480 226 300

Wyboston Lakes is just off the A1 Great North Road http://www.wybostonlakes.co.uk/pdf/corp ... .05.07.pdf

Wyboston Lakes is just off the A1, at a rather complicated junction. Look out for the big Cath Kidson warehouse. When you turn in, very soon after the roundabout, it looks like you’re driving into a field!

We're in the Robinson Centre which is on the right as you enter the property, shown in magenta on the map

See you soon

Well the first day of MLC is completed & I won't be retiring on the profits of the sales leads - BUT - it was nice to meet a very few people I hadn't met before - other opinions would be of interest - please submit...

It's your forum- use it...

It's a well-used forum!

The event is still happening; I'm sure any forum members attending, today and/or tomorrow will fill us in, not that many/any have said they would be. I nearly went, but being exceptionally busy lately wrote today off and Andy Murray in the Queens final, followed by the Montreal Grand Prix will have me rooted to the sofa tomorrow and if I didn't have the 'pause live TV' feature I'd have to wear incontinence pants.

Never fear Steve, I'll be there first thing in the morning to pester you.

and if you can see your way clear to lending me £3.50......

I know what you mean about the sport Robo - but it finishes at 2pm - so I hope to be back home for the start of the F1- Go Maclaren!!!

John - I think you should bring a flask - failing that - I'll buy you a coffee

Getting set for day 2 - I think it starts at 11 - but I am aimimg to be there for 10:30 - to find out who won what awards...

Catch ya later folks permitting

Morning All...( don't forget, I can't speak as the man what voiced me died last week, OK ! )

Well...as Stevie G. says, we could have done with a lot more people attending MLC this weekend. It was nice to meet those that I had not seen before & very nice to meet again those that I had seen previously...but it would have been even nicer to have seen more people, be they old or new to the trade...

Still....got to borrow the Guv's Merc for the trip down to Bedfordshire !(...don't worry, it was a Merc Sprinter, full of A & T stuff ! )

See you ALL at the next event...?

Ohh...AND I got see some fantastic pictures of a fully " punked -up " Steve Goodall with simply AAAMMMMMMMAAAZZZZZIIINNNGGG hair - so there !

Thanks to everyone who attended; speakers, exhibitors and visitors alike.

I hope the select few who made it along to the daytime event enjoyed the individual attention they received - there was certainly plenty of time to chat and play with the equipment on show.

We had some great talks, including sessions with the two winners of the framing awards, Lyn Hall GCF Adv and David Wilkie GCF - you can see their pieces online at http://www.fineart.co.uk/Article/Detail ... 4F0273A572

Hope to see some of you at the North West Branch event next week.

Louise

SSShhhuush!!! - Phil we agreed to not talk about those pictures of me in my punk days!!! The hair is long gone - but the "attitude" remains - still it did kill a few hours between visitors...

Well done to the FATG for putting on M.L.C. 2011.

I was very disappointed in the number of 'No shows' of visitors for both days.

It was a good job that there were 9 awards on offer. At least the Sponsors, award winners, finalists and nominees turned up for the awards ceremony and dinner.

In fact on the Sunday, there were more exhibitors than there were visitors and there were loads of 'uncollected' name badges on the reception desk.

It would be interesting to find out why so many 'no shows'?

If you put your name down and change your mind for any reason, it's just as easy to say so as it is to register.

Were the seminars as poorly attended?

Had I known the tennis was going to be rained off and the GP red-flagged until about 6 pm, I may well have gone - could have got back in time (M25 permitting)!

I would have gone as it is only a short trip down the A1 from home.

But - last weekend and the next few coming up are the Artists Open Studios all across the region and as my wife is one of the participants and a lot of my customers are as well I need to support my wife's event and drop in on some customers.

Trouble with this time of year is everybody is trying to cram in events from beginning of June to when the schools break up and people traditionally take their holidays. Have a look in the local paper or free sheet and you will see Church Fete, School Fete, Agricultural Show, Raft Race, Run for Life, Giant Car Boot etc. etc.

To mis-quote 'we put on a great party but not too many came'.

The 'show' last weekend was pretty good, many excellent seminars and trainers and a good trade show with most of the leading suppliers and publishers there. The evening awards dinner was also excellent - well, it always helps to make the evening go well if you win an award, and the Lion team did win the Customer Service Award for the 7th time. We're now level pegging with the those nice people from near Bedford (our thanks to those of you who cast your vote in our direction).

It's the first time that the Guild has presented what might be called an 'enhanced' Awards event. A lot was learned and much good experience gained. Those that came thought is was good. The comment that there is a lot going on in peoples lives in May and June is very valid. Many of those are outdoors based, whereas training and trade show is essentially indoors, apart from in our case an excellent outdoor barbie.

Maybe we should make it earlier in the year? Maybe we should move it? - many people believe that trade shows do better in or near London. The Guild has staged the Awards dinner in Coventry, Stratford On Avon, Bolton, Bristol, Central London and now Bedford, but numbers have stayed roughly the same. Maybe the price is too high? Maybe it should be on a weekday - a Monday? Maybe with Spring Fair, Framers Forum and now Meet, Learn,Celebrate there are too many? But the fact is that if you add up the numbers of framers and galleries attending all three, the total indicates that the majority of those in the art and framing trade currently do not attend any of them.

I've always believed that a strong art and framing trade needs a strong national trade show. And of course, a strong trade show needs a strong trade. There is a perception that our trade is shrinking. Certainly it's changing. But, from the heyday of over 300 stands filling one hall at the NEC, things are now much reduced. The current excellent team running the Spring Fair openly admit that mistakes were made by their predecessors which hastened the decline. They are working hard to correct matters.

The Guild believes that there is room for another kind of event, where seminars and training, a trade show, the Awards dinner and networking all take place at one event in one hotel. That is the model of the highly successful West Coast Art & Framing event in Las Vegas. What we did at Wyboston was a trial of the concept in the UK and it will happen again next year, but with many refinements.

That's the scenario. Positive comments and ideas invited.

martin

the big difference between the west coast show and the FATG show is that the west coast show is run by framers for framers, not unlike the framers forum show that was very successful in stratford

and the next framers forum live i think will grow and build on this success

Er, no. The WCAF is run by Bruce and Rob Gherman, who are magazine publishers, with a strong focus on the craft and hobby market. I'm pretty sure that both of them can talk a better frame than make it.

As for the Framer Forum event, there is no doubt that that it has become a succesful weekend. In an ideal world, the two events would merge and the Guild, which is run by artists, publishers, framers and suppliers, would always be ready to open a conversation on that.

But the strength of the framers forum event is the control by framers and not suppliers!

and for the west coast show, its not controlled by suppliers is my point,

trade shows controlled by suppliers are a thing of the past

Martin Harrold wrote:I've always believed that a strong art and framing trade needs a strong national trade show. And of course, a strong trade show needs a strong trade. There is a perception that our trade is shrinking. Certainly it's changing. But, from the heyday of over 300 stands filling one hall at the NEC, things are now much reduced. The current excellent team running the Spring Fair openly admit that mistakes were made by their predecessors which hastened the decline. They are working hard to correct matters.

Well said Martin. I to believe we need a good trade show, It concentrates you mind and invigorates you especially in the gloom of February. However a trade show needs to be worthwhile to invest the time and money to visit, which sadly is something that spring fair is not. To many exhibitors have abandoned the idea as they feel that it is not rewarding enough due to falling footfall, totally understandable. Conversely buyers don't attend because there are not enough exhibitors. Chicken and egg situation. Perhaps the organisers need to bight the bullet and make sure that exhibitors attend the show and the only way to do that is make it financially viable for exhibitors. Increase the exhibitor numbers and you will increase footfall.

However perhaps spring fair is just a too costly dinosaur which has not kept up with today's market and is doomed in its present format?

Perhaps a more grass roots approach may be what is needed.

Alistair

Sorry, stcst, but as it is suppliers that pay the bills for all trade shows (currently there is no admission charge to any framing trade show), then almost by definition, they are involved, directly or indirectly, in the planning and organisation of shows. However, suppliers need customers and customers need suppliers, which creates a natural and healthy balancing effect.

Martin Harrold wrote: However, suppliers need customers and customers need suppliers, which creates a natural and healthy balancing effect.

Isn't that what business is, a symbiotic relationship between supplier and customers, basic business principal stcst.