filed in
My Experience at the National Stationery Show in New York City
This year I had the opportunity to attend the National Stationery Show in New York City. I have wanted to go since I started my business 7 years ago. This year, the opportunity presented itself, and I’m so glad it did! I planned a quick 48-hour trip and hit the ground running. I flew into JFK Sunday morning at 8:30 and decided that it would be fun to try and use public transportation (and nice to save on some cash!), so I downloaded the Moovit App to help navigate me through the city. This app was awesome! It told me where to go to catch the AirTran to get out of JFK, and then which lines to get on for the Subway. It was definitely one of the best city navigation apps I’ve used! The Javits Center is located a little ways from everything, but with the line 7 opening right across the street from the center, it was pretty easy to get to!
I met up with my biz-bestie, Sandy of Roseville Designs, and we explored the show together! The National Stationery Show is for wholesale distributors to showcase their products for retailers to pick up. So let’s say someone sells a line of greeting cards, or a wedding invitation line that they want a store to start selling, this is where they would go! NSS also has suppliers there to showcase their papers, printers, and other awesome supplies. This is what I was most interested in!
This year NSS scaled back a little in size, so Sandy and I were able to walk the whole show in about 5 hours. We saw some absolutely amazing designers and talked to some awesome suppliers. Below are some of the coolest designs we came across! For anyone in the stationery industry who is thinking about going, I would highly recommend going at least one. It is an amazing experience and a great way to connect with new vendors and others in your industry. It is every year in May up in NYC!
I am so glad that I went; it was such a fun experience. Since we were able to walk the show in one day, I was able to spend my next day there exploring the city!
It was pretty rainy, but I grabbed an umbrella at Grand Central and set out! I started out at Times Square to see the sites and grab some souvenirs for the kiddos. After that I stumbled upon Wafels & Dinges food cart right outside of Bryant park, and man am I glad I stopped! Hands down the best Belgium waffle I have ever had. Like seriously. And it had Nutella on it. A must have if you’re in the city!
From there I set out for central park and fifth avenue to grab some yummy macarons from Laduree to bring home (do you see a pattern here…).
After that I needed to find somewhere inside to dry off and kill some time before I had to head back to the airport, so I headed over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was such a cool experience! The Met is HUGE! I walked it for about two hours and still probably didn’t see everything!
I decided to skip public transportation on the way back to the airport to save a little time, so I grabbed a cab and headed back to JFK. About 10 minutes before we got to the airport, JetBlue decided to text me that my flight had been canceled… not delayed, totally canceled and they had put me on 5pm flight for the NEXT DAY. To say I was a little beside myself was an understatement. While I stood in line of about 50 people at customer service, my husband called JetBlue and was somehow able to get me on an 8am flight. Which was great, but that still meant I had to stay the night at JFK, definitely not how I wanted to end my trip. Let’s just say I’ve never been happier to get home to my dirt road and country living, but I am still so glad I went to the Big City for this!
-heather
Grab Your Stationery Checklist
Picking out the perfect wedding invitations can be so overwhelming, much less knowing the perfect time to start the process or send them out! Grab your free guide to walk you through a checklist of what you need and when you need to send them!