2025 SPRING SHOW
We can't wait to see you again at the 2025 Spring Show (March 26 - 30, 2025)! Below you can find some of the basic details of registering to participate this year.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is included in the cost of a booth?
Regardless of the size of your booth, when you sign your contract for your booth, your participation will include the following:
- Contracted booth space to show and sell your work
- 6 exhibitor badges for you and your staff (unless otherwise noted).
- 10 complimentary tickets, plus discount codes and incentives, to help you bring fans and followers to the show.
- A dedicated One Of A Kind Online Artisan Profile with links to your website and social channels.
- Access to show-specific and year-round marketing and PR opportunities.
- Pre-show resources, including Facebook Groups, newsletters, workshops, videos, show experts, and a digital Exhibitor Kit.
- Onsite services, including a lounge with free tea and coffee and other onsite perks throughout the show.
- Exposure to loyal shoppers and craft enthusiasts—including wholesalers, bloggers, media, galleries--and insight from face-to-face feedback and large-scale market research.
- The opportunity to show your work among top-quality makers who share your belief in creativity and small-batch production.
- Expansion of your community—learn from show mentors and small business pros, connect with fellow makers to swap tips and create opportunities for collaborations, and more!
What is the price to participate?
Do you provide utilities (power/parking/shipping) for exhibitors?
No. If accepted into the show you will need to arrange utilities like power, shipping, or decorator services directly with the venue or show decorator at your expense.
Please review the various helpful guides and request forms in the Exhibitor Kit once available.
When will I hear back about my application?
Applications received by the extended Early Bird Deadline (September 10, 2024) can expect to hear back about the status of their application by September 27, 2024.
Applications will remain open until the show has sold out. Typically applicants who apply after the deadline will hear about the status of their application within 4-6 weeks.
Please note that Marketplace deadlines, and responses will follow the timelines and dates in the Marketplace Application.
Am I eligible to submit a VIP application?
We are so grateful to our loyal maker community, who partner with us each year to tell the story of Canadian craft. Your creative voices make us the flagship destination to shop Canadian-made, and we'd love to have you join our chorus again!
If you've done the in-person One Of A Kind Show before, we're making it easier to apply! Just fill out your contact info, booth choices and any changes to your company since we saw you last. We'll pull your on-file application materials, follow up if we need any additional info, and submit everything for jurying. If your application is accepted we will try and match you with available booth space.
Unsure if you should fill out the VIP or New application, use this guide linked below:
Should I Submit a New or VIP Application?
Contracted Items and New Products
FOR REBOOK and VIP APPLICATIONS ONLY: In order to sign up using our Spring Re-Sign or VIP Form, you agree to participate with the same business and product as you did when you last exhibited at your last show. This means that your Spring Show contract will include only those items which you have already been approved to sell.
If you would like to add new products to your contract for The Spring Show, you can do so through our New Products Form, which will be available to registered exhibitors early in the fall. Please be advised that new product submissions are reviewed based on a number of criteria and are not guaranteed to be accepted. Before you fill out your Re-Sign or VIP form, please ensure you are prepared to participate with your current contracted products.
If you would rather wait and reapply with your new business or new product line(s), you can submit a full application.
Can I choose what booth space I get?
Curation and booth placement on the floor plan is at the discretion of One Of A Kind.
In your application, you indicate what booth sizes you are interested in and have the opportunity to submit medical/accessibility concerns that affect booth placement and any special requests.
There are no guarantees these requests can or will be accommodated.
What are the the dimensions of a booth?
Your booth space is a blank space for you to set the stage for your audience and showcase your brand and work.
Unless otherwise stated, your booth space includes 8' high pipe and white drape, and booth number signage.
Exhibitors must provide lighting, signage, and POS equipment. Electrical, hard walls and other services are available for purchase or rental. You are encouraged to add hard walls, a floor, great lighting, and so much more.
We highly recommend you do NOT use the white drape as your background. You may bring fabric to add to the drape (using Velcro, "s" hooks, or pins, or additional pipe ordered from our suppliers) or you may install (or rent) a hard wall system as a backdrop. Note: There is no pipe and drape in the Rising Stars section. Artists in this area must bring or rent their own structures.
You can see examples of past booths on our Pinterest page. Your display must stay within your rented space, and your booth must not be configured in such a way that you must stand in the aisle in front of the booth to conduct business.
Due to the pipe-and-drape construction (1.5” diameter) of the booth, internal dimensions are slightly reduced (as noted below). Consider your actual booth size when making your booth display plans.
Contracted Size Actual Size
- 5 x 10 - 4'-8" deep x 9'-8" wide
- 5 x 15 - 4'-8" deep x 14'-8" wide
- 5 x 20 - 4'-8" deep x 19'-8" wide
- 10 x 10 - 9'-8" deep x 9'-8" wide
- 10 x 15 - 9'-8" deep x 14'-8" wide
- 10 x 20 - 9'-8" deep x 19'-8" wide
NOTE: If you exceed your booth size, you will be asked to adjust. Also, chairs must be placed INSIDE your booth, or you will be asked to move them (stools in the Risings Stars Section excluded from the above note).
Exclusivity Philosophy
The Exclusivity Agreement returns for the 2025 One Of A Kind Spring Show.
What is this?
This clause was present in all contracts for participation at One Of A Kind Events until 2020. The enforcement of this clause was paused, but returned for contracts starting at the 2023 One Of A Kind Winter Show and beyond. Please see the updated clause for 2025 Spring Show below:
- 6. EXCLUSIVITY AGREEMENT: g) “Exhibiting Company” or their craft are not found or sold at any other consumer show (including but not limited to craft shows, garden shows, home shows, decorating shows, women's shows, clothing shows, etc.) within a 30km radius of the Enercare Centre 14 days before, during or 10 days after the One Of A Kind Show (March 26-30, 2025).“Exhibiting Company” can participate in any consumer show with 40 or fewer exhibitors or a duration of 1 calendar day or less, provided it does not occur 7 days before, during or 7 days after the One Of A Kind Show (March 26 -30, 2025). Additionally, products sold by “Exhibiting Company” at One Of A Kind will not be sold under any other brand or company name at the previously mentioned shows during this time. This clause does not apply to participation in any Informa events. Consequence: In the event where this clause (6g) is violated, the exhibitor will not be able to participate at the One Of A Kind Shows for one calendar year and will forfeit any deposit and/or booth fees paid towards the events.
As always, if at any time an exhibitor finds themselves violating any conditions of exhibiting (selling products other than contracted items, selling products not made in Canada, violating the Code of Conduct etc), the One Of A Kind Show reserves the right to revoke participation with or without a refund.
Cultural Appropriation Policy
A NOTE ON CULTURAL APPROPRIATION
In our ongoing attempt to make One Of A Kind a more diverse and inclusive event for everyone, we want to make sure everyone can contribute, be heard and succeed at the Show. One of the areas we want to make sure our community is aware of is the harmful impacts of cultural appropriation.
DEFINITIONS
Before we delve further into this, let’s take some time to define what we mean when it comes to the following terminologies:
- Diverse/Diversity: When we talk about diverse or diversity, we mean what makes everyone involved at OOAK (staff, exhibitors, visitors, sponsors, partners and vendors) different in terms of characteristics including age, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, education and national origin.
- Inclusive/Inclusivity: When we talk about inclusive or inclusivity, we mean behaviours and efforts we all take to make everyone involved at the OOAK Show feel welcome.
- Cultural Appreciation: When someone seeks to understand and learn about another culture in an effort to broaden their perspective and connect with others cross-culturally.
- Cultural Appropriation: “It can be described as the act by a member of a relatively dominant culture of taking a traditional cultural expression and repurposing it in a different context without authorization, acknowledgement and/or compensation, in a way that causes harm to the traditional cultural expression holder(s).” (Source)
OBJECTIVES
The intention of this document is NOT to shame or call out anyone.
Instead, One Of A Kind acknowledges that all of us are not perfect, but we are all working on making diversity and inclusivity a norm in the multifaceted world we live in. We all have the capacity to learn, grow and change.
Through our own research so far, one of the best strategies to understand and avoid cultural appropriation is to put awareness and education at the forefront. For this reason, we have prepared this document so that you can become informed about the topic and reflect critically about your own creative practices. We also included some additional resources below if you wish to learn more.
As an event that celebrates craft, we understand that inspiration can take many guises and can be derived from many different sources. The creative spirit amongst our community is what makes One Of A Kind so exciting! That said, we want to make sure what we create is empowering and not further marginalizing other cultures and groups.
If you create work that uses something from a culture or group other than your own, please consider the following:
- What is the source of the material? It is important to pay homage to artistry and to acknowledge its origin.
- What does this mean to that culture or group?
- Does it hold religious or cultural significance to that culture or group?
- When you are using an artefact from another culture, or you are naming products using words and expressions from another culture, are you aware of their meaning and significance?
This is by no means an exhaustive list, however, many of the following carry symbolic meanings in their own culture: Inukshuks, teepees, dream catchers, totem poles, igloos, bison skulls, smudges, head wraps, kimonos - How may someone from that culture or group feel about your use?
- Are you using this because you have genuine interest in that culture or group, or do you simply like the way it looks? Or you are following a trend?
- Do you benefit from doing this? How?
- Have you consider collaborating, sharing credits and profits with people in this culture or group?
Here are 5 things you can also do to avoid cultural appropriation (From How to Avoid Cultural Appropriation & Promote Cultural Awareness Instead, see link in Resources)
- Research the Culture
- Avoid the Sacred
- Don’t Stereotype
- Promote Diversity
- Engage, Promote & Share Benefits
YOUR HERITAGE & YOUR CRAFT
Building upon this discussion, if your work is inspired by your heritage and culture, we would love for you to share this loudly and proudly with other exhibitors and visitors at One Of A Kind. Please make sure you also let us know so that we can better share your story!
WHAT’S NEXT
It is our hope that we can all work together to build best practice and encourage creative expressions that are authentic, so that our community can continue to thrive and flourish. We want to support one another, share valuable feedback, engage in meaningful discussions, refine their work--all without resorting to shaming and hostility.
We also want to make clear that cultural appropriation is a complex and rapidly changing subject. As One of A Kind, we are committed to doing continuous work on this topic. We do not have all the answers, but internally we have done a lot of research and have involved experts in the field so that we can start the conversation. Since the summer of 2020, our parent company has also established various employee resource groups, as well as a divisional Diversity & Inclusion committee so that we can share and gain insights and work on building events where everyone can feel a sense of belonging. Lastly, we are also working on getting external resources and expertise to provide guidance.
As we look forward to our return to face-to-face events, we expect everyone to take some time to educate themselves about cultural appropriation, and to review and understand this information. As always, we value your feedback, so if you have any questions or other suggestions, please feel free to let us know at apply@oneofakindshow.com.
EXTRA READING
- Think Before You Appropriate: A Guide for Creators and Designers
- Considering Cultural Appropriation: Canadian Crafts Federation
SOURCES
If I am accepted, what is the payment schedule?
Your payment schedule will depend on when you are accepted into the show. More details will be provided in your contract offer.
My question is not listed here. Who can I contact?
For all Exhibitor related enquires please contact our team at apply@oneofakindshow.com
Next Steps:
Still Have Questions?
We can't promise we will be able to answer all of your questions at this time, but you can reach out to our team to discuss further.
2025 Spring Application Information
Read more about the 2025 One Of A Kind Spring Show Here
Ready to Apply?
Submit your application to join us at The 2025 One Of A Kind Spring Show