Las Vegas Licensing Expo 2014 - by Special Correspondent and Artist Ming Platt

While I was off for a few weeks taking care of some family business and getting some R&R, our fabulous editor and fellow artist Ming Platt attended the LIMA trade show in Las Vegas. She provided us a summary of the show below. Be sure to also check out an additional great article about the show on her own blog!

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Las Vegas Licensing Expo 2014
by Special Correspondent and Artist Ming Platt

Last month I had the opportunity to visit Las Vegas during the annual International Licensing Expo. It was a fun and educational experience learning more about licensing and branding. I am really excited that Alex has invited me to share some of my discoveries with you!

The Expo is grouped into 5 industry categories: Art + Design, Brands + Agents, Fashion + Lifestyle, Sourcing + Production, and Characters + Entertainment. I focused mainly on Art + Design as it is the most relevant to my interests. But, I have to admit that I had lots of fun visiting the other areas as well - there were so many fun and iconic characters present in the entertainment area, my kids would have been in heaven seeing all of their favorite television personalities!

It seemed to me that the Expo is where you want to show if you have reached that point where you have experienced a lot of success in licensing and are ready to take yourself to the next level and establish your art as a brand. It may not be the best venue for a newer artist to debut but it could bring a great deal of attention and success to an established artist who is poised to expand and really go big.

I got the feeling that an unknown artist at the expo could easily get lost in the sea of celebrity status brands, agents and artists and from what I understand it is also quite a bit more expensive to show at the expo than at some of the other industry shows. The most successful Licensing Expo booths really took it to the next level and were extremely well designed - I loved seeing all of the amazing booth designs that went way beyond the standard set up. Exhibitors created memorable and impactful environments to really draw attendees in and experience their brands in a big way.

Despite feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of the greatness, it was a wonderful opportunity to visit booths of art agents and talk with exhibiting artists. There were quite a few exciting new brands debuting at this years expo and they received a lot of positive attention. I think the show was an exciting peek into what is possible if that is where you want your business to go. Or, if you are simply looking for an agent, then attending the licensing expo could be a great way to see some of the successful agents that are out there and possibly find one that could be a good fit for you.

I hope that this information is helpful to anyone thinking about attending or exhibiting at next year's Licensing Expo. It sure was a lot of fun and very inspiring to attend!

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To find out more about Ming Platt and her art,
see her website at: mingplatt.com!