Showcase 2015
May. 4th, 2015 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrI had all the best intentions. I'd brought my computer along, and my camera. I was going to live-blog Ceramic Showcase 2015 in our new location at Memorial Coliseum.
Yeah, right.
I took two pictures. The first is from the top of the ladder, hanging lights as we set up the booth. The second's the next afternoon, once the booth is completely finished and filled. The rest of the weekend is kind of a blur.
Some things I remember:
Loading in was surprisingly painless. I was concerned about the bottleneck, a narrow ramp and restricted parking space once inside the building, but with help from the Coliseum staff, getting in and unloaded went really smoothly. We timed our drive up to arrive a little after 2 pm, were in the building just after 2:30, unloaded and out again by 3 pm. They had a queue of vehicles waiting alongside the driveway, with overflow parked in order of arrival in the one-hour free spaces. You could tell these guys were professionals, and they were happy to teach our parking crew the ropes.
The show looked really good. I was concerned with the pillars and low ceiling when we toured the hall, but Charlie Piatt, our building chair, did a really creative job of arranging the layout to hide pillars between rows of booths (giving booth holders an extra couple feet of storage), and once the show was set-up, your attention was drawn to the pottery on display, away from the ceiling.
That said, the layout was certainly different. Saw a lot of people trying to figure out which rows they'd been down and which they hadn't, and I think a couple of the longer aisles could have benefited from a cross-corridor or two. We chose our space to be analogous to our usual spot in the old Convention Center layout: right turn a the entrance, down to the corner and turn left along the wall and Hi There! You found us! Had a number of returning customers comment on the fact that we were right where they'd expected us, so that worked. Another nice thing is that one of the cross-streets led right into our booth, so you could see us all the way down from the gallery. (Of course that meant we were dazzled by gallery lights all weekend as well, but you know, win some lose some.)
The approach to the show was was attractive and welcoming--a wide, well-lit hall with room for benches to one side, Plates of Plenty display all along the other, and a carpet runner connecting the main hall with the Georgia Pacific Room where the visiting artists exhibit, high school gallery and demonstrations were. Since that room was carpeted, we moved the Adult and Kids Clay spaces out into the hall on either side of the central axis, and they seemed spacious and well-lit.
They both down-sized and increased the demonstrations this year. No huge stage with sound and video, rather two intimate spaces at floor level with seats close-up so the viewers got to see the fine details and ask questions. I did a brush-making and decorating demo Friday afternoon and had a very good response, even made a few sales afterward from my audience. They also down-sized the hours, closing at 7 pm instead of 9 Friday and Saturday, which may have been the most brilliant innovation of the entire show.
I kinda miss the other guilds--woodworkers, glass, metal, fiber arts. I'm not sure whether they affected our sales (though I suspect we affected theirs), but it's nice to escape our show every now and again, and once you'd been through the Mashiko Potters gallery, there really wasn't anywhere else to go. The Coliseum is in the middle of a complex of parking lots and sports arenas, with a stiffish hike to anywhere offsite, so we basically stayed put all weekend.
Speaking of parking, they set us up with a weekend, in/out anytime pass in the structure closest to our back door for $24, which was a great deal as far as Denise and I were concerned.
I don't have any sense of overall sales for the show, though I saw my numbers for Friday and Saturday, and I think they were pretty similar to last year's. I'll know more in a week or so when I get my check. I do know I sold a ton of plates, twelve (six dinner, six dessert) to one customer alone. And two teapots.
Load-out was a little frantic; I was on a sales work shift until 20 minutes after the show closed, so Denise had to start without me. In addition, they wanted our row packed and gone first, so they could open up more parking spaces for vendor vehicles. Fortunately, they gave priority load-out to the U-Hauls that carry gallery, group booth and holding area hardware to the OPA storage units, and Denise and I were packed and dismantled when they pulled out the big trucks at 6:30. Being in the reserve parking lot meant I was third in the door, backed up right to my booth, and we were loaded and out again by 7 pm. After a leisurely supper at an exclusive restaurant (okay, Burgerville. Because the Red Robin's parking lot was full, I couldn't face Dennys, and we were too tired to go looking for anything better) we were on the road by 8 pm, home with the plaintive kitties (Where were you? Where were you?) by 10, and in bed not long afterwards.
Yeah, right.
I took two pictures. The first is from the top of the ladder, hanging lights as we set up the booth. The second's the next afternoon, once the booth is completely finished and filled. The rest of the weekend is kind of a blur.
Some things I remember:
Loading in was surprisingly painless. I was concerned about the bottleneck, a narrow ramp and restricted parking space once inside the building, but with help from the Coliseum staff, getting in and unloaded went really smoothly. We timed our drive up to arrive a little after 2 pm, were in the building just after 2:30, unloaded and out again by 3 pm. They had a queue of vehicles waiting alongside the driveway, with overflow parked in order of arrival in the one-hour free spaces. You could tell these guys were professionals, and they were happy to teach our parking crew the ropes.
The show looked really good. I was concerned with the pillars and low ceiling when we toured the hall, but Charlie Piatt, our building chair, did a really creative job of arranging the layout to hide pillars between rows of booths (giving booth holders an extra couple feet of storage), and once the show was set-up, your attention was drawn to the pottery on display, away from the ceiling.
That said, the layout was certainly different. Saw a lot of people trying to figure out which rows they'd been down and which they hadn't, and I think a couple of the longer aisles could have benefited from a cross-corridor or two. We chose our space to be analogous to our usual spot in the old Convention Center layout: right turn a the entrance, down to the corner and turn left along the wall and Hi There! You found us! Had a number of returning customers comment on the fact that we were right where they'd expected us, so that worked. Another nice thing is that one of the cross-streets led right into our booth, so you could see us all the way down from the gallery. (Of course that meant we were dazzled by gallery lights all weekend as well, but you know, win some lose some.)
The approach to the show was was attractive and welcoming--a wide, well-lit hall with room for benches to one side, Plates of Plenty display all along the other, and a carpet runner connecting the main hall with the Georgia Pacific Room where the visiting artists exhibit, high school gallery and demonstrations were. Since that room was carpeted, we moved the Adult and Kids Clay spaces out into the hall on either side of the central axis, and they seemed spacious and well-lit.
They both down-sized and increased the demonstrations this year. No huge stage with sound and video, rather two intimate spaces at floor level with seats close-up so the viewers got to see the fine details and ask questions. I did a brush-making and decorating demo Friday afternoon and had a very good response, even made a few sales afterward from my audience. They also down-sized the hours, closing at 7 pm instead of 9 Friday and Saturday, which may have been the most brilliant innovation of the entire show.
I kinda miss the other guilds--woodworkers, glass, metal, fiber arts. I'm not sure whether they affected our sales (though I suspect we affected theirs), but it's nice to escape our show every now and again, and once you'd been through the Mashiko Potters gallery, there really wasn't anywhere else to go. The Coliseum is in the middle of a complex of parking lots and sports arenas, with a stiffish hike to anywhere offsite, so we basically stayed put all weekend.
Speaking of parking, they set us up with a weekend, in/out anytime pass in the structure closest to our back door for $24, which was a great deal as far as Denise and I were concerned.
I don't have any sense of overall sales for the show, though I saw my numbers for Friday and Saturday, and I think they were pretty similar to last year's. I'll know more in a week or so when I get my check. I do know I sold a ton of plates, twelve (six dinner, six dessert) to one customer alone. And two teapots.
Load-out was a little frantic; I was on a sales work shift until 20 minutes after the show closed, so Denise had to start without me. In addition, they wanted our row packed and gone first, so they could open up more parking spaces for vendor vehicles. Fortunately, they gave priority load-out to the U-Hauls that carry gallery, group booth and holding area hardware to the OPA storage units, and Denise and I were packed and dismantled when they pulled out the big trucks at 6:30. Being in the reserve parking lot meant I was third in the door, backed up right to my booth, and we were loaded and out again by 7 pm. After a leisurely supper at an exclusive restaurant (okay, Burgerville. Because the Red Robin's parking lot was full, I couldn't face Dennys, and we were too tired to go looking for anything better) we were on the road by 8 pm, home with the plaintive kitties (Where were you? Where were you?) by 10, and in bed not long afterwards.