Buyers from Sainsbury’s, Between the Lines, House of Cards, Postmark, Moonpig as well as strong indies, Calladoodles, Red Card and Cardies have been the first to commit to being ‘Dragons’ for the third ever GCA Speed-dating with Dragons event, which is scheduled for Tuesday 26 February. The Speed-dating event will take place at the Business Design Centre, home of PG Live.
Publishers however will have to ‘hold fire’ on booking their places for the event as bookings will not open until 10am on Tuesday 29 January.
Continuing a very successful formula that has worked incredibly well for both the attending publishers and participating retailers, the afternoon event will see 60 publishers make one-to-one quickfire 10 minute pitches about their products and their companies to different retailers, including multiples, small groups and indies.
The GCA is well underway on recruiting the ‘Dragons’ for this year’s event, but as many have found participation both rewarding and fun, the ‘Den’ will fill quickly.
Amanda Fergusson, ceo of the GCA has written to all GCA publisher members informing them of the event and when the booking line will open.
“Our first two Speed-dating with Dragons events have been such phenomenal success stories, for both publishers and retailers that we just had to organise another one!” commented Amanda. “Last year’s event sold out in minutes so I am expecting the GCA email inbox to be very busy with traffic after 10am on January 29!”
The GCA will be informing members of fuller details of booking in a few weeks time. Any retailers wishing to put themselves forward as a Dragon should contact Amanda Fergusson on gca@max-publishing.co.uk
In addition to the pitching, the event will also include an advice panel session during which leading industry experts will share the benefit of their experience and knowledge across all manner of pertinent issues and subjects. The panellists include Paul Woodmansterne, md of Woodmansterne; Rachel Hare, md of Belly Button; Ged Mace, md of The Art File and Brett Smith, sales director of Danilo.
To see some photos from last year’s event, click here https://www.pgbuzz.net/bgallery/gcas-speed-dating-with-dragons-2/
* An exhibitor meeting for PG Live is taking place in the morning on the same day (Tuesday 26 February) at the same venue (the BDC), but bookings for this are being made though the PG Live team, not the GCA hub.
Top: The ‘Dragons’ for the 2018 event, but this year’s line-up will be equally strong.
