This is the biggest show that I have been in yet. I was a lot less stressed than I am for shows, learned a lot for setup, and had a blast with how busy it was.

Most of my stress for shows comes from the worst habit called procrastination that I picked up in high school/college and seem to have carried to my life out of school. For past shows, I would seriously start most projects that I had planned the night before and stay up all night to race against the clock to finish before the show setup begins. Halfway was slightly different, I still stayed up all night but had everything started and mostly finished weeks prior. The night before halfway I just did the final touches and double, triple-checked that I had everything prepared for the show. With all that being done I was just more nervous, excited than nervous, stressed and it felt amazing. When the 7am setup time came by we were ready and was able to get there with plenty of time to set everything up and rearrange a couple of times too.

We probably rearranged our table 10 times before these pictures were taken and a few more times throughout the show when items sold and left an empty spot. I learned a lot from people’s reactions to how things were set up. For example, the 3D prints and pins were not seen by a lot of people so I ended up having to point them out. The stickers were the complete opposite, they caught a lot of people’s eyes and encouraged them to look at more items. With this knowledge, I know to have a few dedicated spots for the smaller items that may be lost in the background. There was so much to take in that I won’t bore you with all the little things.

The previous shows that I have been in were quite different, foot traffic-wise, compared to halfway. What I am used to is, extra time to finalize setup in the beginning, grab some food and walk around the event in the middle, and clean up 30 minutes before the official end of show. This show provided an extra-long setup time which I am grateful for because five minutes in the show was packed and did not calm down until a half hour to close. It was fast-paced, exciting, and just a great time that I hope to be a part of again soon.

Overall this was an amazing show that has prepared me for future events and excites me to continue on selling my art at shows.