8 of the 9 participating local artists met 2 days ago to present Elbra Wedgeworth(President/Chair of the Executive Committee of the Host Committee) with a $2,000 check. This was 10% of total sales and was a wonderful opportunity to toast to many contributions.
As the chapter of Dems Do Denver ends, I would like to take this opportunity to thank a few of the folks who helped me with this endeavor.
I could not consider this crazy adventure without their help – and each playing to their strengths. My brother JB(John) managed the fulfillment/operations side, with excellent order accuracy(can’t say that on the few I filled!). He also offered many good marketing suggestions and we tried many directions. My sister Janet is the marketing brains who developed the plan and spearheaded the SEO/SEM efforts and online PR postings.
There are many others to thank publicly.
The Artists. Duh. The success is directly due to their inspired, beautiful creations. I’m thrilled with the range and interpretation. I’m so grateful for them taking a chance and being open to possibilities and a little adventure. These talented artists are in the above picture in the following order(L to R):
Sharon Brown
Eric Zimmer
Sharon Feder
Bill Amundson
Matt Holman
Katie Taft
Tracy Weil
Hadley Hooper
The Honorable Elbra Wedgeworth
Lauri Lynnxe Murphy was out of town for an art program, yet she was there in spirit!
Special thanks to the early advisory team whose encouragement led to a sleepless summer!
Rachelle Erickson. Graphic Artist Extraordinaire. She designed the logo, button cards, point of sale counter cards, biz cards and more. She’s also an amazing photographer.
By the way, you can link to most of the artists and Rachelle’s sites on the website.
www.demsdodenver.com/artists
Here’s a toast to the city leadership and Elbra Wedgeworth for pursuing the wild idea over 2 years ago to host this historic convention. And, thanks for Mayor Hick for the lovely thank you note for the buttons I sent. Framed it
Many toasts to the local retailers who embraced the buttons and displayed them prominently. Their sales staffs were also really enthusiastic! We had “A” quality merch everywhere - always close to registers and lots of space. Tattered Cover and DAM did large displays at all locations. I am so very grateful.
I’m so very grateful for the Tattered Cover and Denver Art Museum for taking an early chance - and they started selling even before any press hit. Their support really validated the business early on.
I’m grateful to the team at Buttonworks near Sacramento CA who were so great to work with. Mirinda runs the art department and delivers the best service!
More sips and gratitude to Julie Rubsam and Tina Eyre of Denvercrat for getting Dems Do Denver buttons into the NY Times on Sunday, August 17th, and for their peddling partnership. www.denvercrat.us
Patty Calhoun of Westword – I think you win the best button model! Thanks for showcasing the collection around town for 2 months!
Thanks to all the local press for presenting the buttons and capturing their uniqueness.
I’m lucky to be working with experts in several areas.
- Kristin Kramer (Kramer Publishing Interactive) – Web Developer – launched the site and store and taught this technophobe how to post changes to the site (yes, you can blame me for the typos!)
- Kirsten Chapman – PR Pro. She secured broad placement across the local media. We got noticed!
Friends – for their on-call response to affix buttons onto cards in order to meet quick order turnaround. Predicting volume was hard, so we were hand to mouth on buttons in the days leading up to the big C.
There are others to thank as well, but this note cannot go on forever. Thanks to so many of you who offered all sorts of support in the past 3 months.
Finally, I recently recalled one of the original inspirations - the crocs gibbits in RWB of the donkey and elephant. I picked these up at the Denver Airport store en route the original Biz Babes weekend in April, where it served as the inspiration for the original idea.
