The Northern Michigan Gift & Souvenir Show is a wholesale trade market. Its exhibitors are gift and souvenir manufacturers, their representatives and other independent reps. Visitors to the show are retail store owners or their buyers placing orders in quantity on the wholesale level to be shipped at a later date.

The show's first home was the Park Place Hotel in downtown Traverse City from 1953 to 1963. In that period of time, it grew out of this facility and moved to Boyne Mountain Resort in 1964 and 1965 while the Mountain's sister resort, Boyne Highlands was being built. Once completed and on line the beautiful Boyne Highlands golf and ski resort in Harbor Springs became the show's home from 1966 until 2022, when it moved to The Ellison Place in Gaylord.

The show enjoys a reputation of mixing business with pleasure. Most buyers do not merely visit the show, do their buying and just leave. Most of these reps and retailers have known each other for many years and treat one another like family more than business acquaintances. As new generations come in to the industry this infectious tradition continues to steep - on a "first name" basis.