One must say: Hello Etsy 2012 was in many ways very different to the HelloEtsy conference last year – but really great! Berlin felt grand and big, whereas the event in Eindhoven on 26.10.2012 felt like a meeting in the living room of a good friend! We soon were to meet this friend because the venue was the event location from Piet Hein Eek – the famous Dutch furniture designer. As Marta, organiser of the event, very truly remarked: It felt like Etsy.

Event Room Piet Hein Eek (Press Picture www.pietheineek.nl/en)

Our journey & hotel
My journey started on Friday when I flew with Ashley (I know, we spent so much time together, we start finishing each other’s sentences ;)) from Tegel to Eindhoven. In town we met up with Anne from Prêt à Voyager (travel blogger, author and designer).

Hotel Nijver in Geldrop

We stayed in a small design hotel called “Hotel Nijver” a little outside of Eindhoven in Geldrop. We hadn’t expected much and since there were only a few emails going back and forth we were even a little afraid, it didn’t exist! It did and we fell in love right away.

Hotel Nijver in Geldrop – Entrance with lots of sweets and yarn spools

Hotel Nijver lets you experience a taste of the atmosphere and rich history of the textile industry of Geldrop. The design of the rooms plays a big role in that: there are rolls of fabric on the wall, the walls are covered with photos of the factories and little spools of yarn greet you at the entrance. You might know how much I enjoy consistant branding and in Hotel Nijver even the lamp cords were embellished with long yarn spools!!!

Hotel Nijver takes on the rich textile industry of the town.

We loved our room despite little inconveniences like a flooded bathroom and my air mattress, which I had to pump up 3times a night. Sorry girls for waking you up several times a night :)

A room in Hotel Nijver (Press Picture – Source: kaffeepeijnenburg.nl)

The hotel is located on a little marketplace with many restaurants and very near to St. Brigida Church. The Roman Catholic Church was built between 1889 and 1891, designed by architect Carl Weber, a 19th-century German architect who worked on many churches in the Netherlands.

St. Brigida Church in Geldrop

We ended up eating at their café/bar every night, because it was a really cool spot with good food and nice service. After Hello Etsy we “stuffed” ourselves with pumpkin soup, frites and bread! The breakfast was also really good (more on that at Neu4bauer tomorrow).

Ashley & Anne on a stroll through Geldrop.

The event & speakers
The three of us have a history of coming too late to events (Blog’nhagen – have you ever seen this video with me lost on Copenhagen’s main street!!!). That’s why we really made sure to catch the right train to “Beukenlaan” this time. The event space from Piet Hein Eek was situated in an old factory building from the company Philipps. With an eclectic mix of furniture and old granny lampshades hanging from the ceiling, it felt very cozy and nice.

The schedule was very tight – maybe one of my few criticisms – because there were only three breaks to talk and mingle. After a few words from Matt (Etsy), there was a variety of different speakers. I really enjoyed listening to Janine Vangool – founder and designer of UPPERCASE Magazine (Canada), Diana Van Ewijk who talked about DIYmarketing or Satish Kumar, Editor-in-Chief of Resurgence Magazine. I especially enjoyed the down-to-earth talk from Piet Hein Eek himself, who talked about the beginning of his story and told personal anecdotes from the last years of his working.

Mingling
However – for me – the talks and discussions on the side are always a little bit more important than the presentations themselves. I was really happy to see two very good friends, I met at “Hello Etsy 2011″ in Berlin: Max & Janan.

You might remember Janan (Casa Di Culture) from our third issue, where she modeled for us in the “1 pattern – 5 summer skirts” spread. It was so good to talk, laugh and see what’s going on in each other’s life.

Stylish Janan from Casa Di Culture.

I was also really happy to finally meet Anne from magalerie_etsy in person. We’ve been in contact before because we featured her carousel picture in sisterMAG N°2 in the section of “Pic & Sounds”. She is such a lovely lady, working as a journalist and I am sure you will read of her in our magazine in the future :)
Same with Judith from joelix. We briefly met at “The Hive” but could finally talk a little more at the end of Saturday night. I love her blog and images, plus Anne told me about the “Sneak Peek” of Judith’s house on Design Sponge and that just blew me away! So colourful and chic.
(btw: Judith has the best pink glasses I’ve ever seen)

I was also lucky to get to talk to Matt from Etsy about living in Berlin and Brooklyn and I was able to show sisterMAG to him. When we talked the last time (one year ago) sisterMAG was still only an idea and there was nothing to show :).

Randy (Creative Director of Etsy) preparing for his panel at Hello Etsy 2012.

I also found another friend in spirit about glasses & specs in Randy, who is the Creative Director of Etsy. It was really great to get to meet him and he was the moderator of an interesting panel about the Sharing Community with the founder of Gidsy (one of them ;), an interesting site which does crowdfunding pitches for big brands: Boomerang Create and the CTO of Etsy.

I’ve probably forgotten half the people I got to talk to and I apologise for that :)! We’ve had a wonderful time! The next Hello Etsy will take place in Brooklyn. Another reason to go to New York City soon :)!

Links & more

1. Official photos from Hello-Etsy-Event on Facebook on Etsy-NL Site
2. Instagram- and Twitter-Feed for the event
3. At Neu4bauer you’ll find another “Breakfast Meeting” at Kaffee Peijnenburg with Ashley & Anne

Yours, Thea