Journey of hope and discovery
30th January, 09
Dear Diary, sorry for being MIA the last week. CGTA started on the 25th and it’s been crazy busy busy before, during and now after the show. I had the best intentions to keep in touch during the event but really I found myself too exhausted to even turn the computer on at nights when I got home. Let’s catch up by talking about my booth set up. Or as I like to call it, my “journey of discovery, hope and transformation” (very made-for-TV movie I know).
Journey of Discovery
Day 1 - The journey started bright and early the day of set up. We awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed to the sounds of birds chirping outside our window and rays of sunshine warming our rosy cheeks. Ahh yes, it’s going to be a great day…
We had planned to get going with our usual routine of packing up our car with displays. But two minutes into that we DISCOVERED we couldn’t get inside our shed. No no you don’t understand, ALL MY DISPLAYS are kept inside our shed! It seems that our trusty flower pot/shed door stopper (which keeps the shed door shut) has been frozen and fused hard into the ground, no thanks to the crazy amount of snow we’ve gotten this winter!
We literally spent two hours chipping away at this solid block of ice, boiling kettles of water, pouring it on top, then chipping away at it with a knife again. Rinse and repeat that about 10 times and still the damn flower pot was not budging!
Tired of being an ice sculptor, the now frustrated boy says “Hey why don’t we take the hinges off the door instead of fighting with the flower pot??” Smart! We rescued our displays from the evil shed and was soon on our way to the show (three hours behind schedule).
We finally arrived at the show. Feeling not so well rested anymore I DISCOVERED right away that I had forgotten to bring a few of my displays, most notably my main tabletop display. Doh! And it’s not like I can just wizz home to pick it up. This show isn’t close to home like the One Of A Kind Show, it’s all the way north by the airport. With rush hour and bad weather it takes us 2 hours to get here.
I also quickly DISCOVERED that, for a show that so adamantly states that “pipe and drape systems are prohibited”, there sure were a lot of exhibitors with pipe and drape systems! Was I just a chump to worry in the first place? Should I have spent the last 2 days sunning in Cuba instead of building and wallpapering faux walls for my booth? Hmmmm…
Journey of Hope and Transformation
Soon after we dropped off our gear at the site the boy had to scoot off to work and I was left to fend for myself. No biggie, that’s usually how it goes. I hunkered down, put on my tool belt and was ready to rock!
All week I had HOPED to God that the walls were going to go up smoothly, and now that I’m actually putting them up, I realised that little unforeseen variances make a huge impact on hard walls. No biggie, I brought all my tools so I could build new walls from belly lint if I had to. The booth walls took about 6 hours (and two trips to Home Depot) to set up. Yup you read it right. Walls – 6 hours! I have to say though, the TRANSFORMATION was awesome. The walls looked great and was well worth my time. Woohoo!
It was close to 10p.m. by the time the walls went up. I had HOPED to finish my walls, lighting and flooring in day 1, leaving product setup for day 2. I worried that I was behind schedule and decided to keep going and install my flooring. What a mistake. I over-exerted my muscles and really wrecked my shoulder while installing my floor. Biggie! The sleep that night was terrible. My arm was so sore I couldn’t fall asleep, and during the night I kept waking up.
Day 2 - With the tiredness I had TRANSFORMED into a total nincompoop for day 2 of set up. I forgot to bring my main tabletop display again for the second day in a row. Doh x 2! I knew I was sleep deprived, and worried that with carelessness I might fall off the ladder of cut my finger with the box cutter or something (Charming but could happen). I made a conscious effort to move very slowly that day. From a distance it might’ve looked quite comical. This girl who’s moving in slow-mo, counting the steps of the ladder as she went up and down like she had OCD or something. Still I managed to pretty much finish everything I needed to get done.
Day 2.5 - Had a much better sleep last night knowing that I’m almost finished with set-up. I rushed to the show with my missing tabletop and put finishing touches on my displays. No time to fuss really, I had to rush rush to the post office to mail out retail orders… and I still had to stuff all my catalogues… print my signage… go over my order forms… Oh and I had wanted to polish my shoes and give myself a mini manicure. It’s not about being a total girly girl but it’s my firm (though unproven) belief that buyers don’t buy from exhibitors with getto looking nails.
Alright more about the actual show next time…
Categories: show review.
Tags: booth display, CGTA Gift Show, set up, Toronto.
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August 21st, 2009 at 10:33 am
[...] the big no-no was pipe and drape walls and like I had pointed out on my January blog post about set up at the last CGTA, for a show with a no pipe and drape rule there sure were a LOT of pipe and drape [...]