One Of A Kind Show Part 3
18th December, 08
To wrap up the saga of the OOAK show trilogy. I wanted to talk about the move-out on the last day of the show. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the behind-the-scenes fiasco that happens at the OOAK show, here’s a little insight…
When the 6p.m. show closing announcement comes, all us vendors let out a giant cheer! For shoppers, this marks the end of another fun One Of A Kind show. You gather your purchases, finish your glass of wine and walk leisurely to your car. “Oh wouldn’t little Sarah just LOVE the booties I bought her!” or “Mum’s going to be so happy with this, that or the other we purchased”.
For us vendors, the 6p.m. cheer serves as a war cry for the start of the great amazing move-out. Keep in mind that we’ve been couped up in this hall for 11 hours for the last 11 days. We’re all a little stir crazy and all we want to do is GO HOME! We tie a rag around our foreheads Rambo style, mark our faces with war paint and LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
Stage one: Tear down and pack up your booth completely. All products, fixtures, lights, backdrop and flooring have to be boxed up into stacks. It’s every man for himself! Dropped a light bulb? Leave it! Little Billy snipped his finger off with the wire clippers? Leave him! GO! GO! GO!
Stage Two: Split your team into two, run around the show floor and look for a staff member wearing an orange t-shirt. Once you locate said staff member, harpoon her into submission to come inspect your disassembled booth. After some humming and hahing they hand you the precious piece of paper that says you’re now authorized to get in line to move your vehicle to the loading area.
Stage Three: Exit the hall to get to your vheicle. Watch out the show floor is an obstacle course! Leap over the rolled up carpets and swerve around other vendors’ disassembled booths. Watch out for loading vehicles, teamsters, movers, and other vendors trying to slow you down with “Hey where did you get that piece of paper?” and “Hey how did the show go?” questions. Don’t get distracted! You wizz by with “I’ll catch up with you lateeeeeer…” Finally you made it outside! Now RUN (in slow mo Chariots Of Fire manner) to your vehicle.
Stage Four: Sit in your vehicle and wait in line to get into the load-in area. This is a no brainer stage. Though many vendors have gone insane with the looooong wait. Make sure you have a magazine or a book to keep you company. Here’s the math: 750 vendors + small load-in area = This could take HOURS.
Stage Five: Now that you have parked you vehicle in the load-in area and have secured yourself a dolly, you can FINALLY start wheeling your crap to your car (Extra points for loading as many things on a dolly as humanly possible). Watch out for EVERYONE ELSE with crap balanced precariously on their dollys! A head on collision can only mean that both teams have to move back three squares on the game board.
Stage Six (final stage): This is the thinking man’s stage. Cram your products, fixtures, lights, backdrop and flooring into one tiny little car while still leaving room for yourself and passenger to get into said little car. It was a close call this year. The boy almost didn’t make it in (with spears of metal and ladder jutting over his head). In the end he pulled his knees up to his chin to fit into the front passenger seat. We’ll pay for chiropractic bills later.
Ah yes the magic of the OOAK show. This year we managed to get out of there three hours after the show closed, which I think is our personal best. We’ll see you next year in Spring. Looking forward to it!
Categories: show review.
Tags: One Of A Kind Show, Toronto.
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April 7th, 2009 at 11:41 am
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