Every once in a while a crafts-person or artisan has the opportunity to do a show that is a real learning experience or at least a really good reminder of a lot of things that we forget and take for granted when we are working with certain show promoters and organizers that we have come to trust and we have the chance to work with someone new.
We forget to double-check whether or not the organizers are genuinely interested in helping the artist or just themselves. I know that realistically we are all in it to make a living, including the organizers when they are a commercial entity too.
When you, as an artisan, rent a booth, you have obligations to fulfill. You are expected to show up on time, have adequate wares for sale, treat the clientele with respect, have a nice looking presentation that should meet the standards set in the show guidelines which are in place to help the image of the show, help your own image and promote a good appearance to other crafters and the visitors to the venue.
As artisans, it is our expectation that the organizers are fulfilling their end of the deal by providing us with what they have detailed in the show promotional material that elicits the sale or rental of booth space to us. We expect that they will have reached out to the local art/craft community and promoted the event to local artisans, who should be able to book space. We expect that they will be familiar with local businesses that can be of assistance to the attending artisans, such as locations for the hardware store, stationary store, grocery store, good restaurants, nearest bank, etc. These are services that are sometimes needed at the last minute as it is inevitable that someone will forget something. We also expect this very important thing: ADVERTISING. We expect that they will have adequately promoted the show to the community and surrounding areas in which the show is being held.
I'm not saying that you should ask to see the contracts with the various media outlets that the promoter should be using, but it may be of benefit to directly ask them to tell you what kind of advertising they are doing, and where and how much of it they are doing. If you don't think it's enough then you likely shouldn't book the show.
I bring this up because we had the fortune to work with a new-to-us show organizer this past weekend. We have heard both good and bad things about them from other artisans in the past few years, which is not unusual, as not all shows work for everyone, but decided to give this particular event a shot as the marketing materials that were sent to us were terrific and sounded really positive about this 'established event'. Turns out the the fall fair in this community was indeed well established, but the show was not. It was a first year event and thankfully, for our egos, we were not the only seasoned craftspeople that attended. There were many others with as much, if not many more years of experience in the crafts industry. They were not amused at this turn of phraseology as well.
The lesson here is that if you have not attended the event yourself in the past, or have not heard of the event before, ASK questions, lots of questions. Do not depend on every promoter to be brutally honest in saying it a first year event in the promotional paperwork if they can find a way to word it otherwise.
I don't like picking on first year events, even the best shows had to have a first year, but a new show in the hands of less than aggressive promoters will almost always fall flat.
The fall, or autumn season, is not all that active for craft show in this region so when there is one, there are a lot of us that are willing to go. We know that fall is an in between time of year, tourism has slowed and the Christmas spirit isn't quite upon us yet. Sales can fall or drop off this time of year, so for those of us who are trying to keep business up and are working full time, we are willing to consider new opportunities to fill in the fall calendar.
There are obviously those of us who will fall for a good line when we hear one. Since there is a fool born every minute, there is a lot of us that will get got by someone at some point in time. It's not a good feeling to know that you have fallen for a good pitch that has little substance regardless of what it is that you fell for.
To get to the point for those of you who book shows is that you do need to know your promoter.
Ask you colleagues what they know about them, if they have any experience with them as they can tell about the quality of their jury system, the crafters that they attract and the leniency that they permit in regards to show booths. Some promoters say they jury and then permit obvious commercial resale enterprises, ask for pipe and drape and never enforce it so that you can't really tell where one booth stops and another begins.
Ask the promoter about the show, how long have they been running it, how many years has the event been operating as a volunteer board for a community event may have been organizing it for the past number of years, has the "door" or attendance been rising or falling and how many have attended the event, you want to ask if this is the maximum number ever or if it is last year's numbers. That is another line that we are sometimes given as show attendance might have peaked eight years ago and has been in steady decline ever since.
You want to ask about the scope, type and frequency of advertising. You want to know who they are targeting with their ads and how far afield they are advertising. If you paint fine art and the ads aren't running in places where the purchasers of your type of work might see them, then it likely isn't going to work for you.
You should know if they are familiar with the area, both in terms of demographics and supporting businesses that you will need to use, whether a restaurant or hotel or stationary store. They should also be able to tell you something as seemingly unimportant as whether or not this is a pay-week for the majority of the industries, businesses or institutions in the area. We all know that a show that is not on a pay-week can be a poorer show than one that is.
They are all things, that because this show provided ample social time for all the exhibitors, that we were all able to remind ourselves of once again.
And sometimes there is a promoter with a consistent reputation. As an artisan it is your job to find out what it is before you book.
You never want to be in the shoes of the gentleman who remarked, "I told my wife last year that that was the last show that we would ever do by these people, and stupidly we're here. This time I told her to just shoot me if I ever booked another one of theirs so that she could put me out of my misery sooner..."
Thankfully it's Monday,
Cynthia
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