Wednesday, August 19, 2009

A Peek into Trade Show World

I thought it would be fun to show you what it's like to set up for a trade show, so I took mini-videos during different stages of my set up at the Buyer's Market of American Craft. This starts about an hour into set up, after I unloaded all the boxes from the palette, carted the palette out of the way, dragged my tables into position and hung up one curtain. That's about when I remembered that my video camera was in my purse.
This is not the best video, and some of the shots will seem repetitive, but if you look carefully you'll see things have changed. (small changes to you, but a there is lot of work done between each shot.) Setting up a 15 foot booth alone is about a 6-8 hour process. Some artist's set up is simpler and shorter, and some are incredibly elaborate, including the building of walls and other major structures and can take a couple of days.
The last sequence was taken the morning of the show just before it started. I wish could have showed you all the other beautiful booths and interviewed other artists but we are not allowed to have cameras on the show floor during the show. (this is a very good rule, which protects the artists.)
Feel free to ask questions if you have any. Enjoy.

12 comments:

meeshka said...

Thanks for posting that video! It was very interesting to see your set up process. Your booth looked great. Good job! I hope you had a good show. Also, I loved the music.

Pam Corwin, Business of Crafts said...

Thanks! It was a great show for me. And that's Eric Hutchinson - his CD "Eric Hutchinson Sounds Like This" is great fro start to finish.

Molly said...

Love seeing your booth - it looked great! Looks like you must get there a day earlier than most of your neighbors... lots of empty space around you in the beginning.

My booth takes about 6-7 hours for setup as well.

Pam Corwin, Business of Crafts said...

Yup, you're right. I always set up early, for a couple of reasons. it's way easier and less hectic to be done before everyone else starts. And if I get there and something got broken or lost in shipping, I have a day built to figure out what to do about it. This happens now and then and actually happened at this show. You'll notice the magnet displays are empty until the last shots. They were missing from my boxes (I think it was my fault) and I had to have them overnighted!

JLK Jewelry said...

It looks great Pam. And what great music. I agree always better to get set up early and ensure that there is nothing missing. Even in retail shows. Nothing worse than racing to set up, being hot and sweaty and stressed and then all of a sudden some of the lights don't work or you don't have your receipt book or calculator (these haven't happened in a long time, TYG) Great video.

Nicolette Tallmadge said...

This is a great little behind the scenes video. Most people don't realize how much work just setting up a nice display takes. The progression you see in the video as well as the final frame that tells people how long it took illustrated it perfectly. Hope you get to do some more video stuff!

tkmetalarts said...

Wow, all those hours of work but the result is totally worth it. Well organized display. Thanks for sharing this wonderful video.

Loella Medina said...

Thank you Pam for Sharing! The result of your set up looks fantastic! I think it is a good tip getting there a day ahead to have extra time to deal with the things that sometimes go wrong. Great video!

Colleen MacDonald said...

Great video, Pam, thanks for sharing your process! I found this very informative and helpful, actually. I had to laugh a little because you're such a worker bee... I noticed that your booth was practically finished and ready for customers before others around you had even begun!

Colleen MacDonald said...

And now I notice that someone else has already commented about your industrious-ness, and that you've commented back; SHEESH, I should read everyone else's posts before I jump right in!

Eileen The Artful Crafter said...

What a terrific and exciting looking booth. I'm surprised you could do all that in "just" seven hours! TFS.

Joy Raskin said...

Having done both wholesale and retail shows for many years, and thru much trial and error, I finally have a professional booth that was easy to set up, looks very professionial and showcased my work very well. Best of all, it collapses into a small pile when booth is torn down. The only drawback is that no heavy items can be hung on the walls but doing jewelry, I don't need to make heavy objects. You also need to be considerate to yourself as you age and make sure your booth isn't killing you hauling it, setting it up and tearing it down. The third booth makeover is the last booth design. I'm happy using pop-up walls.