My new craft skill
Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2021 7:30 pm
Last time I checked in, I told y'all that I was busy with craft fair planning, and since that event was Saturday, I feel like "Host a Craft Fair" is now a new craft related skill that I can now add to my crafty resume. LOL. Well, maybe that's not so much a crafty skill as a project manager skill, but either way - I DID IT!!!! I had help, of course. But most of the organizing was all done by me. And I am exhausted. In the 24 hours that went from Friday night setup to Saturday night tear-down, our volunteers logged 700 hours of work. Prior to the event, I logged about 250 hours of planning and organizing.
The good news is that my 100+ vendors all mostly seemed happy and 40 of them have already committed to coming back next year (as in, submitted payment already and everything). So I feel pretty good about that. One of our long time repeat vendors told me that he had never had as good of a sales day as he was having on that day. I have to believe that part of it was the sheer luck we had with our weather - clear and 45 in December? You don't get better than that! But I also have to believe that some of it had to do with the bazillion hours I spent marketing the damn thing.
The coolest part of the day was getting to go around and visit with all of the crafters about the stuff they make, and their process. Since I dabble in jewelry, sewing, embroidery, vinyl, etc, there were lots of types of crafts I recognized, but some were utterly new to me. We had a few people who were doing absolute MAGIC with 3D printers, for example. And we had lots of people doing crafts with sublimation techniques, which is something I hadn't really heard much about. I wish I had had more time to just walk around and LOOK. But part of my job for the day was hanging out in the lobby where I could easily be found if something needed addressing. Next year, I'm going to invest in some sort of radio intercom type of thing so that I can move around more freely among the noise without worrying about missing something due to not hearing my phone.
Anyway... now I just need to have some down time and try not to get too wound up about the holiday shopping I have to start.
The good news is that my 100+ vendors all mostly seemed happy and 40 of them have already committed to coming back next year (as in, submitted payment already and everything). So I feel pretty good about that. One of our long time repeat vendors told me that he had never had as good of a sales day as he was having on that day. I have to believe that part of it was the sheer luck we had with our weather - clear and 45 in December? You don't get better than that! But I also have to believe that some of it had to do with the bazillion hours I spent marketing the damn thing.
The coolest part of the day was getting to go around and visit with all of the crafters about the stuff they make, and their process. Since I dabble in jewelry, sewing, embroidery, vinyl, etc, there were lots of types of crafts I recognized, but some were utterly new to me. We had a few people who were doing absolute MAGIC with 3D printers, for example. And we had lots of people doing crafts with sublimation techniques, which is something I hadn't really heard much about. I wish I had had more time to just walk around and LOOK. But part of my job for the day was hanging out in the lobby where I could easily be found if something needed addressing. Next year, I'm going to invest in some sort of radio intercom type of thing so that I can move around more freely among the noise without worrying about missing something due to not hearing my phone.
Anyway... now I just need to have some down time and try not to get too wound up about the holiday shopping I have to start.
