I can still hardly believe that last weekend’s Cake International Show at the NEC was the 10th time Lindy’s Cakes has exhibited at this ever growing and hugely popular cake decorating show.
Creating an attractive stand is always a challenge and one that we spend months deliberating over. A stand to both inform and entice our cake friends, Facebook fans and customers old and new. We know you like to be inspired by my new cake and cookie designs but we have to balance this with product displays, as attending the show is a huge financial investment for us! The added challenge for me this year was that I only managed to finish the manuscript for my next book two weeks prior to the show, so wasn’t left much time to plan and make all my usual finishing touches. I do, however have a fanstastic, dedicated, small team behind me so this really helped.
Loading the van for the show is like doing a giant 3-D jigsaw puzzle and it never gets any easier, as each year we take different stock and have different displays. Do any of you remember our early stands? Everything back then used to fit into two cars, now we hire a long wheel base high top van – how times have moved on!
Unpacking the van and assembling the stand is a mammoth task in itself. This year there were seven of us, including two of our university students, and it took no less than 45 man hours between us (and that’s having already done a mock up of the stand here at our offices in Wendover). Ten years ago it took two of us only a few hours!
It’s always so rewarding to see the fruits of all our hard work at the end of the day – cakes on display to give inspiration and create focal points, plus lots of interesting and unusual products all with cupcake, cookie or mini cake examples – who could want more?
The feedback we received from our customers this year was wonderful, so thank you if you took the trouble to let us know what you thought of our stand. I heard may people say that ours was their favourite stand which is very flattering. I am aware however, that there is lots of room for improvement – I already have some different ideas for next year!
This year the show was the biggest ever, more floor space, more stands, more demonstrations, more for visitors to do and see. This meant for us that there was actually time to talk to you, give advice and hear of your cake experiences – so much more sociable and enjoyable!
It was lovely to catch up with my cake friends from both the UK and around the world. It never ceases to amaze me how far people travel to this show. I met cake friends from Brazil, the US, Portugal, Holland, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Spain etc etc. I was simply staggered by the number of people that came over to specially thank me for my books and inspiration. Many told me that they had set up their own cake businesses and that it was all thanks to me giving them the skills and confidence to do so.
Time flies when you’re having fun, so the three days of the show went incredibly quickly for us. I hope you all enjoyed your time at Cake International too and for those that didn’t make it this year, next years dates are the 8th – 10th November 2013!
Looking forward to seeing you there
Lindy