When I first signed up for it, the girl who was arranging it had sent out an email stating that if the weather was crappy (raining) that we would be moved indoors. This got me thinking "we would be moved indoors", so where the heck was she planning on us being set up. I emailed her back asking this exact question, also to see if this would be advertised and was it going to be open to the public. She replied and said that we would be setting up in the parking lot, apparently there was a community garage sale also going on that day and that would be advertised, so there would be many passer bye-rs, also it would be open to the public. I therefore turned around and advertised for it on Kijiji and Facebook.
We were told in the original email that we should be down there at 9:15am to set up, as the show would be starting at 10am and going until 4pm. I arrived down there at 9:15am just to find out that it was not going to be in the parking lot, but instead it was going to be inside the park under a big white tent. We all had to carry our things across the park over to the tent (no one brought carts since we were told it would be in the parking lot). The tent had just been set up the day before and with all the rain we had received the last few days and with all the stomping around inside the tent was a mud puddle!!! We instantly asked for the girl that had arranged it; of course she wasn't there....she was running late! She finally arrived about 20mins later and told us to just set up along the sidewalks instead of in the muck!
It was soooo windy and we came to an agreement that we didn't (couldn't) want to set up outside on the walkway because first off our products would blow away but we also all had papers and pamphlets. I talked with the girl who arranged it and said according to the email that she had sent us we would be moved indoors due to weather (rain) and that this is just as bad as rain...or at least to us it was. She then turned around and said that we had three options - set up on the sidewalks, in the tent or leave!!! She was not friendly at all!! I tried to reiterate to her that the email she sent us said we could be moved indoors...she then told me that there was a private booking for inside the club house that was booked eons ago!! Um...ok, so what if it was raining...retard!!!
Finally someone suggested that they would run home and see if hey had some big tarps that we could lay down under the tent!! Oh...Hmmmm maybe they have some there the girl said. She would go and check; it was now 10am! You have to remember that we were suppose to be there at 9:15am to set up!! Oh and by the way you would think they would have tables and chairs out and ready for us...nope! They then had the audacity to ask us to help bring them outside! Low and behold she came back out with tarps!!
We finally laid down the tarps, got out the tables and chairs and we were able to set up, by only 10:30am! Now anyone who knows anything about organizing a trade show (especially with only 12 business') knows there should only be one of each type of business. Well lets see, there was me with my Graffiti, 2 photographers, Pampered Chef, 3 beauty products (Beauticontrol, Arbonne and Avon), Silpada Jewelry, Investors Group, Stampin' Up, some kind of clothing and a lady whom teaches kids to paint.
Well on to the rest of this UNORGANIZED day; it ended up not being open to the public! People were coming to the gate and not being let in. One lady outside said that she had heard it on the radio...when we asked the girl she said it was not on any radios...hmmmmm strange! As I had mentioned it was rather windy so I think that was deterring people from coming as it wasn't very busy at all. The girl organizing (hahahaha) said we would easily have 100-150 people, we maybe had 30. I was talking to the Silpada girl, she only sold one $5 cleaning cloth, I only sold one $30 piece, and Beauticontrol sold one $50 hand scrub and booked one party. I am not sure of the others, but I am sure it was just as uneventful for them.
At 1pm one of the photographers packed up and left, I guess she had enough. By 2pm Investors Group, Avon and Arbonne were all leaving....at 3pm the girl came and said they needed us to leave because they NEEDED our tables for the function booked indoors. For the love of God, she has no idea what she is doing....I finally packed it in at 3:20pm with the other two who stuck it out - Beauticontrol and Pampered Chef.
Well the only good thing about this entire day was that some people took home my business card, so hopefully they will order, also it didn't cost me anything (other than an entire wasted Saturday), but I can tell you that if I had paid for my table I would be raising hell and getting my money back!! Oh and Makayla got to spend the day with her two Grandmas; so at least they had fun!!
I had pre-ordered a bunch of these for Father's Day, now I am out of pocket almost $200...hopefully I can sell them!
Hey, at least my table looked awesome!
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