My booth at the heARTs of Yukon show.
Can you believe that we are a quarter of the way through 2018?? Time is sure flying! I had an extremely light spring craft show season - only two shows! Over all, each of the shows was great in its own way. Here is a breakdown of the shows and their pros & cons.
D.U.C.K Week Junk Show 2018 booth display
D.U.C.K Week Junk Show - I love that Piedmont High School puts on this annual show as part of their D.U.C.K (Doing Unselfish Charity for Kids) Week festivities. Helping to pay for the recipient's medical bills and to take a load off of the family's stress is a great cause! The show is always heavily advertised and therefore, well attended. This year was no different. There was consistent traffic all day ... but hardly anyone was shopping. *sad face* My personal sales were down from the previous two years and after talking to several other vendors, I discovered that they weren't selling as much, either. So it seemed as if everyone was a little short on cash. I can't place any blame on the show for that, but a complaint that I can discuss is how the show was run.The show coordinator and her staff decided how vendors are treated based on personal relationships rather than quality of product. Leading up to the show, they asked for each vendor to upload some pictures of their inventory as well as provide a website link. The event staff spotlighted several vendors on social media but there were many others who provided pictures and links and were not advertised. On the day of the show, I noticed that the majority of the vendors who received social media exposure were also the ones rubbing elbows with the event staff. More pictures of vendor booths were taken throughout the day, and again, the vendors who were highlighted were the same ones who received the previous social media attention. There were many amazing vendors who's products were not photographed or promoted throughout the day. I also think that the arrangement of booths is also decided on a friendly basis. Part of me knows that sometimes you have be to a brown-noser in order to be successful but part of me also thinks its unfair.
Children's book author, Carly Cartmill. I absolutely LOVE participating in craft shows with her!
heARTs of Yukon - I started my craft show career doing small church shows. I've mostly moved away from those but I still do a few here and there. This show was put on by the United Methodist Church as a fundraiser but it was far from small... it was held in several large rooms and in hallways throughout the church building. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of vendors & the variety of items for sale, and I was also pleased that it was not saturated with direct sales/multi-level marketing companies.The show was organized well and, best of all for me, I was placed next to one of my very best craft show pals! Attendance was not as high as a large event but there was a decent amount of customers (maybe 150 people came throughout the entire day). That is to be expected for a smaller show. Many church shows are put on as a fundraiser so they do not have a large budget for advertising. Since booth rent is usually under $50, vendors get what they paid for in terms of event coordination and promotion. I think for a church show, this one was above average.
I have not planned my summer craft show schedule, yet. I need focus on custom orders (I have a few piled up that I must get started on!) While I won't be doing a lot of shows throughout the summer months, I will do at least one or two. I plan to hit the craft show circuit hard this fall and holiday seasons. Bye for now and I'll see all of you in a few months!
