Starting next year, GLM plans to launch Sources, an exhibition connecting international and domestic manufacturers, artisans and producers of materials, home decor, accessories, gifts, private label apparel and handcrafts, with U.S.-based importers, wholesalers, volume buyers, product designers and U.S. retail chains. The semi-annual event will first take place as SourcesNY at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center Sept. 18-19, 2013; SourcesLA will launch in February 2014, at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, Calif.
“Sources will provide GLM’s 6,000 exhibiting companies featured at the New York International Gift Fair, National Stationery Show, International Contemporary Furniture Fair, and Surf Expo with a dedicated resource of the world’s better suppliers,” said Kevin O’Keefe, senior vice president, GLM. “Now our customers and the nation’s importers need not search the globe for the best manufacturers and artisans; Sources puts them all in one place, all vetted by GLM.”
GLM expects to attract nearly 4,500 representatives from U.S.-based buying offices, catalogs, importers, wholesalers, designers, distributors, mail order merchants, major retailers, product developers and volume buyers. Both events are strategically located near the nation’s largest ports, and will each will present some 300 suppliers, with anticipated representation from Bolivia, China, Ecuador, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Macau, Mexico, Nepal, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Thailand, West Africa, Central Africa, Vietnam and other countries. Featured product categories will include ceramics, craft items, desk accessories, floor coverings, frames, glassware, home entertainment, home textiles, housewares, jewelry, leather goods, lighting, pens and writing instruments, personal accessories, stationery, travel accessories, decorative accessories and woodenware.