The Framers Forum

We are back at work this morning and buzzing with ideas after such a great weekend - congratulations to JGF#1 and Mrs JGF#1, you both did an amazing job, with of course your fantastic team of all the other organisers around you, congratulations to all of you too. Watching Grahame sorting out the cameras covering the seminars and then asking questions coming in online was great. You all deserve a huge

The seminars were as good as we hoped and it was great to have time to chat to so many people and ask advice and gauge opinions on things. There was a good mix of traders and it was a more relaxed environment than Spring Fair, so easier to ask questions and have discussions without feeling rushed. Staying over at the hotel was a great decision because we got to socialise a bit more and the dinner on the Sunday night was loads of fun. It was great being able to put faces to forum names. The hotel was brilliant and we felt it was a great venue.

It was well worth the trip up from Devon and we are looking forward to next year.

Tudor Rose (and Trigger too)

My thanks to the organisers too. A very well run event.

The seminars were well worth attending from both educational and entertainment perspectives. Most of the suppliers seemed to get something out of it too (seemed proportionate to the effort put in), so looking forward to next year.

Staying over was well worth it, good to meet some new people. The Guinness was very moreish and that was a first for us with the Brazilian wine.

Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant is all I can say. Well done to the organisers and thank you very much

I really enjoyed the weekend

Paying for it now though

and it was very good to put faces to some of the names

and have good informal discussions with both suppliers and other framers

some of the suppliers really bought into the whole informal nature of the weekend. and talking to some of the suppliers i know it was worth their while coming

Thank you to all the organisers, trade suppliers, guest lecturers and fellow framers for a very enjoyable event.

I really do not believe you realise how lucky we all are to have such great support and available encouragement to do the job I hope we all love.In my many employment roles, in varied industries, there is nothing to compare with this community.

This was my 3rd outing and it gets better each and every time. Still being made to feel welcome by new and old forum and trades people. Thank you all for that.

Got to go now, need to do some 'up selling' on the framing to pay for the wine the wife drunk. Brazilian - very moorish...

Hi All

Fully support all the above. As a long time bespoke framer I found it very worthwhile being able to chat and discuss wider aspects of the business, such as printing and machine maintenance. Found the suppliers much more approachable than at Spring Fair or Focus. It was interesting listening to what many framers deemed to be their personal objectives for coming years in terms of new business ideas and potential machinery upgrades. Needless to say I ran out of time getting to interact with all stands but may I extend my thanks to them all here. Finally from a personal point thanks to STSSTC for professional advice and tips plus special thanks to John Noy for his hard work and efforts.

Regards

Marty D

Thank you very much for giving us the possibility to present at FFL. A big thanks to John Noy who made us everything very comfortable and easy. I would say the organisation was perfect, the seminars excellent.
A lot of people really liked our frames and Richard Christie told the people in his seminar how to create these handcraft finishes on mouldings or frames (closed corner frames). We are very optimistic for our future sales of that kind of product.
To say it with Shakespeares words: We really enjoyed to be in Stratford at FFL this year and there must happen strange things not to be in Stratford next year. Probably we feel more confident driving a car in England next year

Greetings from South East Germany

Florian
Spagl GmbH
http://www.spagl.de

A big thankyou to the organisers from Val & Chris Pendleton ( Rightangle ) . We had a great time & it was good to put faces to names. We took orders for both my own work & Chris's, so we were a happy couple of artists on the way back home !
We're looking forward to next year's event :0)

I think its rude requesting a free ticket and not showing, so perhaps you could charge a fiver, this you could give back to the person if they come to the show. Then only serious people would come.All over the uncollected fivers could go into the pot. I don't think some people realise what a good resource that we have here.
I know its admin, but it may filter out timewasters.
I enjoyed the event.
Thank you

Brenton West

I just wanted to add my thanks & compliments to all those who helped organise & visited the event.

It was brilliant & I was wondering just how many sets of car keys are now swinging off Hot Press lanyards

Steve Goodall wrote:... I was wondering just how many sets of car keys are now swinging off ...........Hot Press lanyards

I wondered where you were going with this

Hopefully my Jetmounter (ordered on the back of FFL) will arrive today

Steve

Although it's all been said, nevertheless another thanks cannot go amiss. Well organised, excellent content, thanks to all exhibitors and organisers.

Steve Goodall wrote:
I was wondering just how many sets of car keys are now swinging off Hot Press lanyards

We're going to use ours for name badges in the shop, Steve. Waste not, want not. Thank you so much for providing them. It helped us tell who had signed in and who hadn't.

I love it when a plan comes together!!! - or was that Hanibal off the A Team????

Who knows - maybe the FATG would let me supply them with a few for the event in June - for the same fantastic solution that you guys came up with - well organised!!!

It is hard to believe that the FF Live was only 10 days ago and is now so far down the list of threads. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves throughout the day and are very grateful to all those involved in the organisation of such a great event. Our delayed response is because we are just back from a short break.

The seminars and demonstrations were full of interested and eager people all looking to learn new skills or improve old ones. Those providing the seminars and demos (Jim, Mal, Elizabeth and Richard) kept us interested and gave freely of their knowledge, that you would have to pay for elsewhere. I would certainly have paid to see them!

The suppliers and the Fine Art Trade Guild deserve a pat on the back for attending and allowing us to network, ask questions and discover new things that we hadn't seen or heard before. I liked the informality and the relaxed atmosphere during the day.

We also stayed on for the evening social, something we have looked forward too since the first one in Birmingham. Can't remember who suggested that first event, some shy retiring chap who may well have retired by now. There were certainly more people attending the evening event this time around and of course the networking continued in the bar afterwards. Why am I always one of the last to leave? I think it was Stephen's fault this year.

I have found a thank you email and a request to fill in a follow-up survey and I have completed that because our feedback will help provide an even better event next time and I'm looking forward to that already. And who knows, maybe we'll get that elusive pint from Phil the next time?

The event was really excellent in general terms.
Numbers of attendance a little dissapointing but it will grow, and it takes 5 years to establish something like this.
I am sure next year there will be more exhibitors and more visitors.

A criticism:
The continual seminars didnt give people a chance to breathe in between, let alone walk around the trade stands.
If I had been a trade supplier and paid for a stand I would have been a little dissapointed, and lets face it, they pay for the event by hiring stalls.
There was so much information there, it was a shame a lot of people never saw it.
Maybe next year arrange the layout so everyone has to walk past the stands to get to the seminars?
Well done again
All the best
Neil

So sorry, I was a no show. I was looking forward to it,I've worked the last three weekends, and lot of 10 hour days,after a slow Jan/Feb my three best customers bought in work to be framed for exhibitions, Will be there next year !