Sources looks to bring world to America

NEW YORK — Trade show organization George Little Management came here recently to pitch foreign trade representatives on a new trade show targeting volume retailers, wholesalers, importers and designers.

The Sources show, debuting at Pier 94 here May 17 to 19, will feature only overseas home product producers, and attendance will be limited to U.S. companies that are capable of buying in bulk, said Alan Steel, GLM's executive vp.

Sources intends to create a marketplace for a category of customers not well served by GLM's existing New York Gift Show, he said. "Most of those customers — 88 percent — are not going to import product from overseas," he added. "What [Sources] is trying to do is bring not the companies that buy six of an item, but the companies that buy six containers."

To date, the show has signed 400 exhibitors from 29 countries – 300 of them from India, China and Taiwan. The remainder hail from South America and Eastern Europe, Steel said. Exhibitors include larger producers as well as craftspeople, Steel said.

Home textiles represented at the show will include linen, bedding, pillows, tapestries, throws and rugs. In addition, Sources will feature home décor, housewares, lighting, glassware, crafts, stationery and writing products and gifts.

International displeasure with current American policies aside, including the war on Iraq, Steel added, "the reality is that the American market is a huge magnet for the types of businesses we're talking about. The consumption here is huge."

He said that GLM representatives are working closely with exhibitors to smooth visa problems.