I've been accepted!

[orangeman]

Iggy/Scott,

As I've said before I've done the show, once in 100F temps! Don't do the show alone. I had my wife and cousin with me and they had to take over because I became distressed because of the heat. Could not make change! Stay hydrated and don't do it alone. As I recall they do not have volunteers to relieve you if you need a break. Good Luck! I remember the show being on the city streets and I'm convinced there were more that 50k attendees! It was wall to wall people on the streets and you couldn't cross the street without merging for about 50'. I'm not familiar with the current set-up but evidently it is not on city streets.

[rjweb]

Scott,

wish you great success with the new show, with your focus on detail, you should have no problems selling out, RJ

[amazingkevin]

On 5/22/2017 at 3:24 PM, Iguanadon said:

Great news!  I’M IN!  … Oh crap… I’m in…   Today was notification day for a huge event coming up August 26 and 27 in Cary, NC.  It’s called Lazy Daze and has been going on for four decades (50,000 attendees each year).  They turned it into a 2 day event last year.  350 vendors will be there.  I did their smaller version of the event (170 vendors) called Spring Daze last month (15,000 attendees), 1 day, and I sold 96 puzzles in 8 hours.  It was insane and I’m trying to wrap my head around what to expect in August.  Other than the fact it always seems to be the hottest weekend of the summer.

I’d appreciate thoughts and feedback on the following… I now display 120 unique various animals and dog breeds at every event.  I enjoy having a little bit of everything on display and yet I get the most unusual requests sometimes like this past Saturday “Do you have an otter?  How about a platypus?”  Really?  LOL  No, sorry, not with me, but I can make them for you, is my response.

Anyway, I have 120 on display and in addition, I have over 200 duplicates of the most popular 25 items with me.  Anywhere from 3 to 12 of various ones.  3 Yellow Labs versus 12 Elephants for example.  But for this major event coming up, that won’t be enough to help guarantee I have what folks will want.  If I sold 96 at the smaller 1 day event (I had 7 Rescue dog puzzles with me and sold them all), I could easily sell 200 at the big show.  My “fear” is that in the first hour of the first day someone comes up asking for and buying a Dalmation for example.  I usually don’t have duplicates of Dalmations, or many of the dog breedsSo, let’s say I sell my one Dalmation in the first hour and then have 2 or 3 people come asking for one over the course of the remaining two days… Missed opportunities.  I always offer to take an order and ship it, but my puzzles are truly impulse buy purchases and if folks can’t walk away with it in their hand they don’t really want to order it.  I make them take one of my cards anyway hoping they’ll decide to order online.

So, should I make 2 or 3 of EVERY SINGLE item that I make?  In addition to the 200 duplicates I already keep on hand?  I’d end up with about 400 duplicates, a total of over 500 puzzles on hand.  That seems a bit insane to me.    But I am insane... Oh and let's see, I have numerous events between now and the end of August, so I also have to be able to make whatever I decide to stock and carry while maintaining inventory for all of the events I'll be attending the next 3 months.

Yes, I know I can’t possibly know and have exactly everything I’ll be asked for, but I want to be as prepared as possible.

Here’s a nice article about the event as well as a link to a video news story prior to last years.
 

http://carycitizen.com/2017/02/03/lazy-daze-permanently-extended-to-two-days/

http://www.wral.com/lazy-daze-festival-expands-to-two-days/15951331/

What am I doing typing when I need to be cutting!  

I need an ant eater ,
You gots,lol.Yes expect the unexpected ,Your doing good but they will try you!

[heppnerguy]

sounds like you will be having one busy couple of days.. those puzzles really took off for you... Keep us posted as to how things go..

 

Dick

heppnerguy

[Iguanadon]

10 hours ago, orangeman said:

Iggy/Scott,

As I've said before I've done the show, once in 100F temps! Don't do the show alone. I had my wife and cousin with me and they had to take over because I became distressed because of the heat. Could not make change! Stay hydrated and don't do it alone. As I recall they do not have volunteers to relieve you if you need a break. Good Luck! I remember the show being on the city streets and I'm convinced there were more that 50k attendees! It was wall to wall people on the streets and you couldn't cross the street without merging for about 50'. I'm not familiar with the current set-up but evidently it is not on city streets.

Thanks Brian, yeah, I've attended it a number of times when I lived in Cary, but never as a vendor.  It's going to be quite the experience.  They moved it just a block over so it surrounds town hall and isn't on the main streets, it's now on side streets that can be closed for the weekend.

At their smaller show, Spring Daze last month they were very well organized and they had booth sitters available, but I didn't take advantage of it.  We'll see if they offer them at this one.  I need to set my expectations in that Saturday is 9 hours long (9am-6pm) and Sunday is only 4 1/2 hours long (12:30pm-4pm).  Just hoping for no rain.