MELBURN #4. THE BUFFET FORUMS.
March 3, 2010

By far one of the most interesting aspects of the inaugural Buffet trade show were the discussion forums. I'll be the first to admit that when I was first contacted by Andrew Montell to participate in Buffet I was a bit apprehensive - "another trade show?" was the thought that went through my mind. However, as time went on, and as Andrew slowly shared with me his idea of having certain industry individuals speak to share their knowledge and experience with attendees it dawned on me that this could be something different.

I'm not sure if anything could've prepared me for the final outcome of the discussion forums, which genuinely and truly exceeded every expectation I had of the event.

The great part was that unlike other forums/lectures/talks I have attended as a participant, there wasn't a feeling of disconnect between the speaker and the attendees, all the way down to the language that was being thrown about. There was very honest talk, and some very honest advice from very honest people - much less guarded than a lot of speakers that I've met in my travels. Unlike those who like to guard the secrets to their kingdoms, a lot of these speakers spoke quite candidly about the industry and the business, and put forward very straightforward and helpful advice. Cashflow. Accounts management. Buying. Selling. Protecting your design. How much to charge a design client. All quite simple truths but just subjects that are rarely shared in this competitive dog-eat dog world.

If you were at the forums, know that you were all treated to a rare experience. I've never heard this many people stating some pretty blatant facts from this side of the curtain. It's not information that is easy to come by and I wish I had known a lot of the facts shared before I started out.

With the forums at a 80-strong full house capacity throughout the entire weekend and with the type of questions being asked from the audience, it was evident that Melbournites were hungry for real information and knowledge, and were asking well thought out questions that challenged all of us as speakers. A very sobering and humbling experience.

Here's a quick rundown for those who weren't able to make it, and some thoughts.

FORUM #1 - STARTING OUT. THE BUSINESS OF STREET FASHION. PART 1.

Speakers: Raph Boogie (BLANKTM/BEATBOX KITCHEN), Steele Saunders (Spire Distribution), Jimmy Bliggs (GRAND SCHEME/Triple Beam), Nick Denton (FRESHIN/Second Family).

In the first forum Melbourne street icon Raph Boogie spoke on the harsh reality of starting out his own brand, BLANK, an iconic streetwear apparel label in the 90's in Australia. Raph was accompanied by Steele and Nick, who all run distribution companies and retail outlets in this arena, along with Jimmy and his brand Grand Scheme. All independent owner/operators, these gentlemen laid out some pretty harsh truths - having to do a lot of the work yourself, to be prepared for cashflow shortages, how not to 'overload' a store for the long run, and to look out for bad stores and retailers and to not expect too much in your formative years of growth. All very sound advice, including talking about some local government grants and funding options you can apply for to help you out with starting up your own enterprise. Nick's "douchebag list" made me laugh, and shocked me on how honest he was about it, and Jimmy and Raph's stories of having to print teeshirts by themselves and the challenge of trying to present a good brand image when you're just a one man band was a great story to listen to. I thought this was a pretty great presentation as you could see that all four gentlemen up there on the panel looked like they were in the same position as a lot of the people in the audience were at some point in time, giving them a real connection between the audience.

FORUM #2 - THE NEXT LEVEL. THE BUSINESS OF STREET FASHION. PART 2.

Speakers: Keynote presentation by Jeff Staple (Staple Design)
Panellists - Woody (SneakerFreaker), Jake Pyne (LOWER).

This was the first of the solo keynote presentations, and Jeff's main presentation at Buffet. Naturally, this was probably the highlight for a lot of people in the room, who wanted to hear Jeff share his story from his screenprinting course days 13 years ago to the Staple Design collective we know today. Although it was a pretty generic rundown of his organization and what they stand for as a business and a design firm, the true effect of his words was apparent as I stared around at the faces in the audience as he was speaking - I've rarely seen a more attentive audience, who were clearly motivated by the inspirational power of his story, from breaking into Parsons School of Design to print teeshirts to working with an enviable portfolio of international brand names today. In a way I believe this was the first time a lot of the viewers thought about what the possibility for someone in this industry on a global level - something that can be quite hard to see if you're removed geographically like we are and don't get the chance to travel. The Q&A session brought on a host of challenging questions for the speakers, and it was personally great to see someone like Jake Pyne sit up there and hold his own alongside Woody and Jeff. Woody provided a lot of insightful information on how special design projects can come to be, the challenges he faces dealing with marketing spend and local offices vs head offices and how he overcame them, which I can personally completely relate to. Jake also provided great insight into running a successful brand in our region, which was a great story to listen to and perhaps something for the crowd to relate to as someone from our neck of the woods. The look on people's faces when he said how many stores they were stocked in New Zealand was priceless. I sometimes forget the different paths that our scene & industry took compared to Australia's path. I felt proud to be a kiwi for a minute there. Thanks Jake.

FORUM #3 - RETAIL & EFFECTIVE MARKETING IDEAS.

Speakers: Keynote presentation by Frank Liew (QUBIC/QUARTERS)
Panellists - Jacky Chia (SUP), Kym Purtell (FAT), Caine Cherubin (HEIST STORE)

The third forum was my turn to give the second keynote solo presentation. After battling a monster cold/flu working on a last minute design brief, I was a little nervous about presenting my ideas to everyone, as it was a jumble of thoughts that I was trying to mould into a clear and concise message. After introducing our organization and giving people a rare peak into all of the things we are involved in aside from being a retail store, I wanted to get across a message to challenge the existing paradigms of retail. I focused on the changing behaviour of people in general, and tried to work it into a formula where I encouraged retailers to become activators, rather than the traditional facilitators in the supply chain. In a way, I tried to get across the message that a retailer's role is changing in the marketplace, and that we have to be prepared to assume these new responsibilities, and that to ignore these new changes or to continually adopt a reactive approach would mean dangerous times ahead. I also touched on a concept that I read about a week or so beforehand, outlining the "Speed of Culture" and how that is relevant to our market. In the end, I also shared some views on where I think the consumer attitude and marketplace is headed to, and the growing resurgence of the 'OCD' consumer.

The Q&A was shared by Caine Cherubin of Heist Store (congratulations on the new location!), Kym Purtell of the established and wellknown Melbourne retailer FAT, and Jacky Chia, who had come all the way from Singapore to partake in the tradeshow for his brand as well as the discussion forums. It was a pleasure listening to them talk about the same challenges that we face but rarely talk to others outside the industry about - buying, stock levels, location, and the importance of your own store as a brand and staying relevant to the marketplace. I learnt a lot from someone like Kym, who has been successfully running her stores (four of them) over the past 11 years. A very long time to be in retail, and inspiring. It's also good seeing people like Caine and Jacky trying to drive new concepts into their respective markets and to move the scene forwards... and how honest Caine was about some of the mistakes he's made in the past. I would've liked to have heard Jacky speak a bit more though, as he has been operating his business for four years now, and is pioneering a creative movement in a city like Singapore, which in my experience has not been very conducive to this type of behaviour. Pleasure to have shared a panel with you all, and I took a lot from it.

FORUM #4 - THE ART OF CONTEMPORARY FASHION & PROTECTING YOUR BRAND.

Speakers: Jeff Staple (Staple Design), Luca Ionescu (Like Minded Studio), Chey Ataria (ABC), Trevor Choy (Choy Lawyers), Eddie Zammit (T-WORLD Magazine)

The final forum was probably the most comprehensive, covering a very wide range of topics from design work, dealing with clients, to the legality of your design and how to protect your intellectual property. Once again Jeff returned to the panel, but was joined this time by infamous Sydney creative and founder of Like Minded Studio, Luca Ionescu. Luca, aside from being a supreme M.C. and S.C., has worked with a truly impressive portfolio of clients from his Sydney based design firm, which stemmed from his love of street culture, art, and design and broadened into more commercial jobs. It was great listening to how he managed to bring Futura down to Australia in 2002, by just taking a punt and cold-calling him out of nowhere, and once again, a pleasure listening to Jeff and him speak on where they derive their inspirations from as creatives working on a global level. Chey Ataria from ABC was also part of the panel, but to be very honest, I felt sometimes during the talk he was almost 'overshadowed' by his other two counterparts, and wished the moderator would've sent some more questions his way. Chey, for those who didn't know, is also a figurehead in our New Zealand street and skate culture. I've never really said this to him but I used to look up to him immensely when I was a young kid rolling around town in the mid 90's. Chey was one of the first locals to make a living out of skating back then, travelling the world with a plank and four wheels, and I wished there was a bit more focus on him to share this story.

The second part of this forum then turned to T-WORLD founder/editor Eddie Zammit, and acclaimed IP lawyer Trevor Choy as they dissected the legalities of design work. I never thought of it before but after listening to some case studies and some examples that Eddie (the walking encyclopaedia of teeshirt & graphic design) presented on his slides it was clear that this was a very critical aspect of a budding designer. It was interesting watching Eddie and Trevor go back and forth questioning each other on subjects such as defining Parody vs Copy, fair use, and just how far you can go before you need to bring action against someone (or vice versa). I probably learnt the most, fact wise, from this presentation, as I only have a very basic understanding of IP law outside of trademarks and copyrights. It was also good to hear them dispel some traditional myths - ie, "if you change someone's logo 20% you'll be fine", or "that it's OK to use someone's image as long as they're dead". Very insightful indeed, and good value too - Trevor charges out at $750 p/hour as the lead partner of his firm, so I think a lot of people got some great advice for the price of the forum ticket.

Apologies for the long post - it's taken me a while to put this together. Thanks again to Andrew for putting something like this together, it truly made the entire Buffet experience unique compared to all the other tradeshows/events I've been to across the world. The right combination of speakers and a sold-out crowd eager to learn... it's produced better results than some lectures and seminars I've attended.

In anycase, on behalf of myself, it was an honour and extremely humbling to be able to speak and share my thoughts and views with you all, and I'm sure that's the same feeling amongst the other speakers.

If you were at the forums, please do feel free to comment on this blog post and give some feedback on what you thought was good, and even what you thought could've been improved on. I'm sure the organizers are looking forward to hearing some feedback from both the speakers and the attendees, and it would be great to see what the rest of you guys felt about it.

*Photo credit for images 3, 5, 7, 8 - Michael Danischewski/Acclaim Magazine.