From Vendor to Host

In the Fall I had the wonderful opportunity of co-coordinating an Artisans market. At the time I was working for a local publication. Each month we featured an artist in the publication. We wanted to host an event where we could showcase some of the wonderful talents in the Willamette Valley. We were also very fortunate to have someone with a venue who was interested in hosting. After our first planning meeting it became clear to me that I was going to be a lot more involved that I thought and I couldn't have been happier about it!

At this time I had only been a vendor at one craft fair. I thought this event would be a good way to gain more experience as a vendor.  It was just a bonus that I was the jury and the host so I didnt have to submit an application or pay the fee! The planning process was very extensive but the day of the event wasn't too demanding and I was able to me at my booth most of the day.

The first step in creating the event was creating the poster. Another perk to working on this event was that it was a great opportunity to put myself out there as a graphic designer. I was very pleased with how the poster turned out and so was my co-host! As a small business owner and member of a two person planning committee I knew that it would be me who hit the pavement to put up the posters. It may seem odd, but I actually enjoyed it!

Now that the word was out I needed to make another push to get all the vendors we needed. (I ended up booking over 2/3 of our vendors BTW, go me!). This part was tricky and it took a lot of time. I felt, in a silly way, kinda creepy spending so much time online talking with tons of people LOL! I used Craigslist and Etsy a lot and they were a great resource. I would say getting the vendors had to be the hardest part.

On top of booking vendors I also booked musicians. Luckily I had a number of music connections back from being in choir in High School. I was also able to get Blue Light Special, the men's a capella group at LBCC. Another lovely musician played for us and even went outside to get people off the streets to come in!

The event turned out really great. There seemed to be a lot of shoppers and the vendors seemed happy. It was right before Christmas, so people had gift ideas in mind. Lucky for me my craft is all about gift giving. I also got to enjoy the experience with my sister who had a Pampered Chef booth right next to mine.

I learned so much from the experience and I would love to host an event again. 

Things I learned:

• Start planning sooner!
• Pack the car the night before.
• Make it as easy as possible for vendors to apply and pay their fee.

Perks of being a host:

• Getting to assign the table. (My booth right in front of the door and my sister right next to me)
• Getting to know all the vendors.
• Satisfaction from seeing all the vendors make money!

Special thanks to:

• My brother and boyfriend for helping set up and take down all the tables and chairs.
• My wonderful co-host and venue manager.
• My mom for bringing my lunch and watching my booth while I chatted with other vendors and helped organize the musicians.

One more thing I learned: My family rocks :)