I was surprised when I received a call from the manager of the Antique Mall where I peddle my records. He asked my if I wanted to share a booth with a few other vendors at the Indianapolis Home Show. For those of you not in the know, The Indy Home Show is a big, BIG deal. It attracts 30-40,000 people, and is hosted by big stars like Ty Pennington (Extreme Home Makeover), Kathy Ireland (Clothing designer and former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model) and many other great stars from HGTV, etc.
I was honored and quickly accepted. I went to work compiling an idea for my spot in the booth. Of the 100's of vendors at the Antique Mall, I was one of 4 chosen to have space in the Home Show booth. The space would be paid for by the Mall, and they also graciously agreed to work the booth for the entire 3 days. All I had to do was set up, and tear down. What a great deal!
I set up shop in the basement, pulling box after box of records I deemed "Show Worthy." I've never done a show before, but I wanted to do it BIG. 800-1000 records, a giveaway, uniformed crates...the whole nine yards!
(The early stages...what a mess!)
I decided to go old school and put all the records in the old Peach Crates as opposed to boxes. I thought it would give it that "Antiquey" feel, and would make for a nice display. I made up some fronts for each of the crates to help promote my "Business."
(Crate Fronts...Pretty nice!)
I was alloted 2 six foot tables to be placed in the corner of the booth in an "L" shape. I measured the crates and found that 5 would fit perfectly on one table. So, I set my goal for 9 total crates to leave some room for CDs, the giveaway, etc.
As I worked on the records, I decided to sort them for better organization. Beatles, Solo Fabs, Zappa, Beach Boys, and a few others had their own spots. The rest I went 60's, 70's, 80's etc. Becky printed out some new business cards and bookmark flyers to stuff in the records...I wanted to do a lot of advertising of the website and Booth (btw...www.facebook.com/gillespierecords if you are interested!!)
After a week and a half of being knee deep in records, I was finally ready. I stayed up til 2 am the night before I was to set up, just making sure everything was perfect.
It wasn't. At the zero hour, I changed the categories from 60's, 70's etc to musical genres. Rock/Pop, R&B/Soul, Jazz/Blues, Folk, etc...I liked that a lot better!
I borrowed dad's van, and was set. At 7 am I was up and loading the 9 crates of records and 2 tables. Then:
STRIKE ONE: It was then I realized I had TEN crates. Crap! Oh well, I would deal with it when I got there.
STRIKE TWO: I left my GPS in my car, which dad had! CRAP! I suck at directions. I quickly Google Mapped it, and hoped for the best.
I triple checked everything so there wouldn't be a strike three. I had the records, the tables, the giveaway prize, the ballots, the business cards, tape...I was set!
I made it to the Fairgrounds but couldn't find the building. I drove around for 15 minutes searching, made phone calls, asked people...finally I found it. I helped unload a neighbors truck, and pulled in to unload the van.
Smooth! It took less time to set up than it did to find the right building. With a little organizational help, this is what the set up looked like:
I did have to sit the tenth crate on the ground, but I'm not overly concerned about that. The Home Show is Friday the 20th of January - Sunday the 22nd of January. If you love records, go check my set up out for yourself. South Pavillion, Hall B.
Hopefully, I'll make a little money...worst case scenario, i'll at least get some good exposure!
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