This should be the mantra of every crafts person and artisan out there because you never know what you are gonna get. lets take my last show, Mayfair Festival of the Arts as an example...
1) The show has been moved to a new venue. I brought a roll cart so I wouldn't have to lug each box individually into the venue. When I got there I thought I was lucky and could back right up to the roll door and started to unload. Then the electrician with the large forklift asked me to move. So I happily did. He pulled away, and before I could move back, someone else took my spot. How nice. So that roll cart got some good use as I pushed everything uphill into the building.
2) What kind of space do I have? I got there and had a corner space that I didn't expect. This gave me a minute of pause, and then I figured out how to maximize my display for the best performance and I set up at an angle. If I had set up like usual I would have had a less visually pleasing display for sure.
3) Know your technology. The very first day I had an artisan who I had never met before come ask me to show her how to use her phone to accept credit cards (10 minutes after the show had opened to the public). I explained I use Square and she was using PayPal and I don't know her system. Waiving her hands in the air and huffing away she explained "Well how to you expect me to make any money if I can't use this thing?"...because it was obviously all my fault that she was not prepared.
4) Tearing down early is a bad, bad thing. OK now I have torn down and left shows early, I will admit it, but I try so hard not too. I will do it when the weather is scary bad. I will do it when leaving can save me a night's hotel cost. I will do it when I am the last person standing anyway. But...we had at least two artisans leave on Sunday night after the show ended. I don't understand why...we were inside: warm and dry, the weather for Monday was supposed to be the best, the show ran to a "normal" hour so we could load out in the daylight.
What I am saying is to be prepared for a bad show, be prepared to stick it out too. You loose the respect of the promoter, your fellow artisans, and the public when they come look for you and your neighbors tell them you left early (I had it happen yesterday). A couple came up to me and asked me where a neighbor had gone, that they spoke to them on Saturday and went home to measure some things and decide on what to buy. Life got in the way and they didn't make it back Sunday, so they were now here to buy. I had to tell them that they left after the close of business Sunday and that honestly I wasn't sure why. The husband turned to the wife and said "Glad we didn't buy from them Saturday, who knows if we would have ever gotten this order we were going to place". I am sure if they ever see them again, they will not be placing that order.
5) Expect load out to be a dog-eat-dog world. I parked almost exactly where I did during load in. I figured it gave lots of space when so many people were trying to get out the same door at the same time. I also figured it was easier to roll my cart downhill full than it was to roll it in full at the beginning, let everyone with the heavy displays have a closer spot. I also did what I was told, I completely tore down my booth, then pulled in to load out. Yes, a big van pulled in right in front of the door, at an angle, blocking the whole thing, and then went and tore down his booth piece by piece. The rest of us had to go around. It sucked. But at least I knew I wasn't the jerk who did that first. Being nice at load out doesn't make it physically easier, but you can go home feeling good about yourself. I pretend my mom is with me every load out and never do or say anything I wouldn't do in front of her.
So there you have it...hope you are enjoying these posts if you are a fellow artisan, or a customer learning a little more about what goes on in our little world :)
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