On With The Show...

Last Friday evening, I attempted the impossible. After six hours of rigorous move in and set up of our Retreat booth for an antique show (the second one in a week for us) I stepped onstage to present a seminar to the other vendors. The show promoters wrote it up this way:

"Debi Ward Kennedy will be presenting a seminar on Friday evening, during the setup for our show, and will be sharing some fabulous info with the show vendors. Her goal is to inspire them to amp up their merchandise presentation in their booths at shows - like The Funky Junk Sisters, and others to come. Her seminar will include lots of insider tips, stylist tricks, and retail secrets to arm them with helpful information that they can use immediately to make a big visual impact FAST.

Many years of working & speaking and creating award-winning designs for vendors at international gift shows and industry trade shows have given Debi an incredible wealth of information that can help 'the little guys' compete in a big marketplace. We are so excited to be able to share this with our vendors and we will be there taking notes ourselves!
Dixie & Linda, 'The Funky Junk Sisters' "

What they forgot to mention was that since my presentation was taking place mid-evening in the rush of final preparations for the show the next day, everyone in the audience would be a bit distracted. Somehow, I managed to fit the contents of a regular 2 hour seminar into a forty five minute segment. To say I touched on many topics and condensed them for time restraints is a massive understatement - it was fast-forward all the way. My handout (four full pages) was loaded with every retail tip and stylist's trick I could think of, because when Deb gets talking that fast, there is no way anyone can keep up with taking notes!

The thing is, all of the vendors sitting in front of that stage were tired, hot, sweaty, hungry, rushed, worried, and focused on setting up their booths for the show. They had only a few more hours to go that night, and I was one of them! A few of them kept working in their spaces, listening as they went....and I had no problem with that at all. Bless their hearts for taking time out of their very busy evening to sit and honor me with their attention. To honor their time and effort, rather than expand on topics and go into heavy detail, I hit on the basics and info that they may not get anywhere else, then handed them a novel of notes to read later - when their minds were able to focus on the content, instead of on the clock.

I heard from more than a few of them later that they had rushed back to their booths to make a few changes based on what I had shared with them. A few retailers with booths shared that they had been reminded of a few visual principles - things they used to do in their stores but forgot about, and that they hadn't realized the differences between displays in a store and in a booth at a show. So it seems that most of them actually DID hear what I was saying! Amazing people, these vendors. I honestly said to them, 'A lot of what I was going to share with you, you already know - I see you doing it in your booths!'

It was an absolute pleasure to meet them, see their visual presentation, help them improve & maximize it, and watch them succeed at this show. Helping them build better businesses was my goal, and they let me know that I achieved it - and for the opportunity to do that, I am extremely grateful to the 'Funky Junk Sisters', Linda & Dixie. Thank you for inviting me to participate in what I am sure will be the first of many successful shows for everyone involved.

The only thing I regret is that the high overhead florescent lighting and an exhausted Deb led to photos of my seminar that I quite simply refuse to share,(the photo shown above was snapped Saturday morning after some sleep and a shower!), and the warehouse's echo prevented us from shooting the video we had planned. I do, however, have the notes that I provided to the vendors in attendance, and will soon be offering them to you here. They need a bit of revision to be applicable to a larger audience. Stay tuned for an announcement about how you can get your own copy of them....