Thursday: Conference Week

Part Four of a Seven Day Series

Wednesday is always hold my breath day.

We spend eleven months making lists, creating floorplans, placing display cases, counting tables, sorting pegboards, ordering signs, and getting ready for the next National Arts and Crafts Conference.

Then comes Wednesday.

And when I walked in yesterday morning, I knew we were going to have a great conference.

The Grove Park Inn’s set-up crew had nearly every table in place by seven o’clock yesterday morning, the pipe and drape crew arrived promptly at eight, and the semi-truck of display cases was ready to back up to the dock and start unloading cases.

Now that’s not to say we didn’t have anything to do yesterday as we had more than a hundred booths to double check and hang signs in, make adjustments, tape boundaries, and in general get ready for today’s exhibitor move in.

And that’s when we got the word:

The glass elevator was broken.

Turns out the motor is shot and the nearest replacement is in Florida, and is hopefully part way to North Carolina today. If all goes well, the new motor will be humming away on Saturday, but between now and then we’ll be loading in up the stairs…..

Which isn’t going to make anyone happy.

But the secret to any success is always having a Plan B, so we have mapped out a route to a nearby elevator and should get everyone settled into their booths long before our opening time of 1:00pm on Friday.

So this morning the exhibitors will start streaming in, we’ll make the needed adjustments, and we’ll get ready for you tomorrow afternoon!

Until then,

Check in tomorrow to see how load-in goes!

Bruce