There has been a lot going on here, so the blog was the one thing that had to be cut back on. We are reaching the end of this topic, so if you have any questions that I might answer, I can add a couple of entries. I have to start turning some bowls to get ready for next summers shows.
We touched on promoters in the last entry. Most promoters are frustrated artists that know they can put on a better show than the promoter they are currently with. I work a lot with one of these. But she came to this conclusion 25 years ago. The dynamics of this economy have changed so drastically since she started this, It’s left her kind of thinking in the dust. She thinks if she puts up a sign, they will come. That’s after a bypass was put in routing traffic away from the event. This used to be one of her best shows. She is going to lose her artists. The fee for this show has been going up every year, but sales have been going down. Five years ago it was $200.00 for Memorial Day Weekend. It is now $275.00 for the same weekend with less people and sales. She used to have a waiting list for her 70 booths. Now she is lucky if she can draw 30 booths.
A couple of years ago I suggested we move the event. We would team up with the home show at the high school. There is three times the traffic and a double draw. I was told I didn’t know what I was talking about. Time is passing her by, and she doesn’t know it. Someone will probably take over her shows in a couple of years.
There is another promoter up here that is one class act. She has very strict rules and gathers the greatest talent I have ever seen in one place. Three times during the summer she puts us in a ski area parking lot on the west shore of Lake Tahoe. She charges us $150.00 for three days, but she adds a 10% commission on top of this. At first I said I would never do a show that charges a commission. Now I realize that if I don’t do well, she doesn’t do well. If I have a great weekend, so does she.
These three shows are so much fun to do. We take our motor home to the event and turn it into a mini-vacation. A lot of people think this is silly because we live a half hour away. I just tell them the motor home cost a lot of money and it seems silly to leave it in the driveway.
So, anyway, here are two very different promoters. I could write a book on all the different promoters. Like so many different groups that we will discuss, they all would like to get rich off of OUR hard work.
Here is another Arts and Crafts Show publication.
And don’t forget : http://www.dustnlint.com
-- Odie, Confucius say, "He who laughs at one's self is BUTT of joke".
3 comments so far
MsDebbieP
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10974 posts in 547 days
posted 171 days ago
again – a lovely blog with lots of information.
Thank you
-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
Paul
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575 posts in 479 days
posted 171 days ago
The days of putting things in print or on a sign, and leaving it at that, are long gone.
You can’t even call a meeting of five people that way anymore, much less draw together an event.
Transferring from my current experience of working with people, one of the biggest hesitations I have of approaching even a part-time vocational life in woodworking, is what I believe would be the critically necessary promotional, advertsing and personal contact work outside of the shop to go along with excellence in the craft.
The corallary in my present full-time church life is the astounding assertion I heard recently that 80% of the churches in this country are in decline. You can’t tell me that excellence and life-value is not present in 80% of the churches in this country. Granted, some of those churches are in decline for obvious reasons. Yet, at least a contributing factor is the mistaken notion in the declining churches of quality is that people are “looking” for church. They’re not. Someone has to go tell them and show them the life-value in an authentic way from their personal life experience .
Likewise, people are not “looking for” the quality crafter. The quality crafter (or outside promoter of quality crafting), I believe, has to understand this. If it ever did, just hanging out a shingle won’t cut it anymore.
-- Paul, Texas
rpmurphy509
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284 posts in 241 days
posted 171 days ago
One could probably write an entire sociology thesis on this.
People are so used to getting a ‘hard sell’ these days that they walk right past
the store with regular, non-blinking, non-intrusive signs and sales techniques.
It’s almost sad to say, but in order to succeed these days you need to sell hard
and be intrusive while you’re doing it, otherwise they will pass you by.
-- Still learning everything