For two years I have followed all the events that Julie Fairweather owner of In Full Force was behind www.infullforce.com, waiting for the right one to participate in. I was so excited when I learned that In Full Force would be doing another Fabulous North of Boston event. It was held under a tent located at the Harbor Marina in Newburyport. This event was meant to showcase everything that is cosmopolitan on the North Shore and I knew it would be the perfect place to showcase my work. When I first arrived I found my table and began to set up, within a few minutes I was approach by two different individuals offering to help me unload my car and seeing if I needed anything......so nice! An added bonus for me was finding out my friend Natasha of Natasha Bansfield Events www.natashabansfieldevents.com was one of my neighbors...YEAH!
I have done shows before but this was my first really big one, so I really wasn't sure what to expect. June 10th arrived and so did the rain, but that didn't stop the incredible turn out of people. Just as the event kicked off I looked outside and it was down pouring but the harder it poured the more people filled the tent.....which totally amazed me. One of the genius ideas of In Full Force was having the fashion show in the tent with all the displaying vendors this is important because as a participating vendor you are there to showcase your product and network, having it separated would clearly make it impossible for vendors to keep people at their tables.
After doing so many small shows over the last two years I've learned what you need to keep people interested. I had a full display of my cash and carry line as well as a lot of my custom samples. I decided to do a free raffle and because it was June I thought a teacher gift would be smart. The bucket contained a paper weight, melamine plate, bookmark and note cards all from my "teachers give a hoot" line. Liz White of Mason & Madison www.masonandmadison.com put together all my glittered goodies in the perfect bucket. Congrats to Helen Santos of Beverly she was the lucky winner of my raffle.
If you read my blog often you know that a lot of my designs are glittered by hand, with so many vendors in one area I felt the need to stand out therefore handing out my regular business cards would not do. I decided to get candy bars and make a custom wrapper with my hot pink glittered B on the front and my info on the back.....hoping it would leave a lasting impression. Liz was kind enough to brave the rain to come out and help at my table that night, standing in the middle of the tent passing out my candy bars and directing people to my display.
The main host for the evening was Billy Costa, and yes I am a HUGE FAN so it was a really big moment for me when I got to meet him and show him my designs, Liz of course gave him my candy bar and later when he was on stage speaking he gave a little shout out to my table......OMG that totally made the 3 hours I spent glittering and assembling 72 candy bars.....well worth it! So to Julie of In Full Force and all her peeps thank you, despite the rain, I had a great time and met a lot of nice people.
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