Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The show from HELL

I wake up Saturday morning, nervous and excited for my big show at South Towne Expo.
The drive over is great, got the kids in the car, and Britney Spears blasting for me and Brax to sing along to.
We arrive and I head into the expo. Got the tune " On my radar" going through my head.....
It is 7:30, and my event manager is supposed to be here to let me in my rooms so we can start mapping it out, and taping it off, for the booths....
Well, he isn't.
I find someone, who let's me in my rooms, when I then realize that my 3 rooms, are only 2 rooms.
Joe peaks into the 3rd room to find a billion chairs set up for some sort of conference, and the wall divider still in place.
We don't panic, instead we start taping off what we can.
Finally at about 8 ish, my manager shows up, and drops the BOMB!!!!
2 out of 4 shows going on today have been cancelled, and you know what? Those 2 were the big ones!!!!
I don't panic again, since I had placed that AWESOME ad in the trib and deseret news. Hello, my show is just fine!!!
So I decide to pull a vendor meeting to notify them of this, and give them the option of not working Sunday if it is slow.
Well, this is where it all starts hitting the fan.....
I have 1 vendor set up and immediately tear down ( forgetting to pay me the booth fee) then about 2 hrs. later, the seated massage people are outta there! Oh yeah, at about 2 a jewelry vendor decides to leave, starting a whole ricochet effect with vendors. They are all tearing down, and the show is supposed to go til 6. Well, 7 out of my 25 or so vendors decide to stay with me, and try again for Sunday.
You know, if is hard when you feel as if you let other people down, but you know what? I will be damned if I blame myself for this. It was outta my hands, and I NEED TO MAKE THE BEST OF THIS CRAPPY SITUATION! So I did!
Sunday, I found out we had 123 people walk through our show on Sat. and Sunday, I was able to get to know my vendors, get work done, network a little, and even visit with my uncle Lonnie for a few......
The day turned out to be one of the best, as I learned how much DRIVE I have. I am determined to do this! I am committed, and I will ride out the storm! I also have a few others that are willing to do it with me, I couldn't be more lucky!

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