I was all set to talk about the fabulous three shows I just completed back to back, when I changed my focus on how I wanted to cover those shows - not as a vendor, but as part of the management team.
I'm not sure how many of you are into the art/craft show scene. It's a wonderful way to interface with the public and come away from the virtual office and "hawk your wares". You also get the chance to talk, face to face, with fellow vendors/artists, trade ideas and even, sometimes, products. Many of these shows are produced by local development authorities, community programs, civic centers, arts organizations. Some are produced by companies that specifically look to create these type of events. I am part of one of those type of companies.
As an event coordinator, your staff's job is two-fold. One part is to get the show up and running, keep it running and then take it all apart afterwards. Sounds so simple, doesn't it? It's not. The other part is to keep the vendors and artist happy during the set-up, run and tear down of their individual booths. Sounds so simple, doesn't it? It's not.
Let's say you have decided to do an outdoor spring event over a three day weekend. You apply, get accepted (Yea!) and receive all your important documents in the mail - load in schedule, parking passes, booth sign, name badges, show hours, pertinent phone numbers, etc. According to the schedule, you may arrive as early as 11:00am to start setting up your tent. You arrive at 11:30am, running behind because you forgot to pick up receipt books and had to stop by the Five and Dime (yes, I said it!) to pick up a few. You stop by the check in desk, and are greeted by a smiling individual who welcomes you to the show, hands you a few last minute instructions and points you in the direction of your booth. Off you go. On the way, you pass two people carting around a wagon full of extension cords and carrying a ladder. They smile and greet you. There is another person distributing trash cans throughout the site. Another smile, perhaps a wave instead of the verbal hello. You note that you are near a food trailer, (great no long walks for food), and next to an artist who's work compliments yours wonderfully (mmm, maybe some display collaboration or vendor to vendor trading). Happy? Good.
Let's cut back to those smiling, greeting and waving people. They have been on site since 6:00am. They have marked out the booth spaces, accepted deliveries of equipment (generators for the electricity, barricades to close the streets, port-a-potties, tents, tables, and chairs, oh my! They have collated paperwork, reviewed site plans, directed traffic, answered questions (where do I catch the bus, what's going on here, how long is this going to be here, why is that tent set up outside my store, are you all supposed to be here, I forgot my tent, do you have an extra one, can someone help me unload my car, can you ask the driver of that van to move so I can drive up to my booth, on and on and on). These same people are there when you can't get your electric outlet to work, when the booth across from you needs a potty break, when your neighbor needs trash bags. They are emptying garbage cans, directing customer traffic, finding lost children, removing unauthorized vendors from the site and more. At the end of the day, there they are, helping to close artist and vendor tents, cleaning up the site, powering down generators, directing walking and driving traffic for vendors who just have to get the car onsite to take some things home for the night. When you leave, they're still there. When you arrive the next morning, there they are already, smiling and greeting you.
I'm not rambling, I promise. I say all this to say, consider the background folks when you do or decide to do your next event. When something isn't quite the way you expected, don't bite off the head of the first event person you see - explain your issue and listen to the answers and/or reasons why things are the way they are. Also, don't expect instantaneous results. Remember that you are not the only person in the show.
For any weekend show, with Friday, Saturday and Sunday hours, you can bet the show crew has put in at least 40 hours of work that weekend, per person.That's a week's worth of hours in three days.Not to mention what has occurred prior to the event.
As you prepare for your 2012 show season, I just want you to be aware of the other side of the picture. I'll be touching on various aspects in Tuesday's Getting To Know Who posts. I'll include "Show Do's and Don'ts", "Being Prepared", "What To Do When There's Weather", "Finding Accommodations When Staying Out Of Town" and other show type topics.
See you tomorrow for Wednesday's Anything Can Happen Day!
Showing posts with label carnival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carnival. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
November 11, 2011
reprinted from www.mlive.com
Motown and mistletoe: New festival seeks to re-create Detroit Christmas past
Published: Sunday, October 30, 2011, 3:31 AM Updated: Monday, October 31, 2011, 11:13 AM
From the time he was 7 or 8 years old, Loeb, 51, remembers where Christmas magic happened — and it was not the North Pole for his Ann Arbor-based family. It was downtown Detroit. As for many families at the time, the holiday tradition was an excursion to Hudson’s Department store, the Christmas mecca of its day.
“It was a completely overwhelming feeling, the lights everywhere, moving mechanical figures, trains running around,” Loeb said. “Everywhere you looked, there was motion and lights and everybody was having a good time.”
He hopes the new festival becomes part of Detroit Christmas future for each family that visits today.
“I want people to feel astounded, even people in their 50s to feel 7 again,” he said.
The new festival spans the period between the ceremonial lighting of the city’s Christmas tree in Campus Martius Park, and America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade weekend. The main feature will be the European-style Christmas markets featuring gifts from around the globe.
Those booths will be supplemented by live music, food and a “Motor City Market,” featuring Detroit-centric gifts. A giant Ferris wheel will dwarf Campus Martius park, home to the city’s official Christmas tree and an ice skating rink. A carousel and a “magic” elevator will transport children straight to the North Pole with special effects.
Magic for adults will come in the form of a traditional German beer garden where brews will be served in traditional boot-shaped mugs. There also will be mulled wine and roasted chestnuts. A Michigan twist on the European traditions will be the addition of a giant heated tent, Loeb said.
“In Christmas markets all over the world, the event is outdoors and people stay outdoors,” he said. “In Michigan, I’m not feeling the love for that yet.”
Organizers are working with the International Institute of Detroit to spotlight many countries with Christmas booths, food and gifts and to weave traditions of those countries in with the holiday traditions of the United States and the Midwest. While keeping “Christmas” in the name might be somewhat controversial, Loeb said, organizers wanted to establish a link to some 800 years of Christmas markets in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
The establishment of such markets as a way to help spark a renaissance of downtown shopping was part of the plan when Campus Martius Park was created nearly a decade ago, Loeb said, but other improvements kept taking precedence. This seemed to be the year to make it happen, partly because several prominent businesses moved back to downtown, bringing back 200 stores spread across many buildings throughout downtown. This also seems to be the year of Detroit, Loeb believes, thanks in part to the feel-good Chrysler commercial that aired during the Super Bowl and the winning seasons of the city's sports teams.
Those who want to identify with Detroit will have their chance through the festival and available gifts. The Motor City Marketplace will give people a chance to “really show their colors,” Loeb said, through merchandise provided by a variety of city institutions, including the Henry Ford museum, Motown Museum, Pewabic Pottery, the Charles W. Wright Museum of African American History and the Detroit Historical Museum.
“For years, Detroit events were about bringing people downtown to show them they might want to come back,” Loeb said. “Now that they’re willing to go downtown, let’s get them exploring a little more, making them Detroiters again.”
The commercial and sports aren’t the only reasons for the downtown renaissance, said Renee Monforton, communications director of the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau. There’s been a transformation of the riverfront with a new five-mile pedestrian walkway and, over the past few years, the addition of 2,000 new hotel rooms, three casinos and several new restaurants.
She’s excited about the timing of this festival, she said, because she, too, remembers the magic of Christmas in Detroit. As a young girl, she would get dressed up to go to Hudson’s with her family, then to Sanders for a hot fudge cream puff.
It’s great to kick the event off with the lighting of a tree she thinks will come to rival the one in Rockefeller Center and go through the America’s Thanksgiving Parade, this year themed “So Much to Believe In.”
“I think there’ll be a lot of people who remember how great it was to be here,” she said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
Email Kim Schneider: kimschneider@chartermi.net
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