Take away one major new idea from the smart jewelry show, and we will have succeeded.

 Unless you’ve spent the past year on the International Space Station, you know that our first trade show, THE INSTORE SHOW — THE SMART JEWELRY SHOW is being held this month.

And we feel like a nervous host waiting for the party guests to arrive.

More than that. We feel like a nervous host who has invited all his guests to a samba party, when up until now, everyone else has only held barbecues or sit-down dinners.

So here we stand, looking at our watches, nervously adjusting bowls of guacamole.

Will people come? Will they enjoy the dip? Will they like the music? Will they loosen up and dance?

Similar to our magazine when we started, our goals for the initial smart jewelry show are modest. We expect you to go home with one major new idea for your store — whether it’s a new category of product, a new promotional idea, or a better way of calculating your business numbers. Just one thing that has a big impact on your business.

Aside from that, we expect you to learn new things about buying. We want you to get better at selling the things you bought. We want you to have fun, feel relaxed, and make new connections with vendors and other retailers. We even want you to dance. (Samba is welcome — but so is the “funky chicken.”)

Since it’s a first effort, we also want to learn how to make our second effort even better and more useful to you. And our third effort even better and more useful than that. Repeat process until you have a trade show that is as important a part of your business lives as our magazine is.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Wishing you the very best business,

David Squires
[email protected]