Hey there everyone. As most things go, the first bridal show that Omega Image Photography was involved in was a new experience for me both as a photographer and a business owner. The initial thought was that I was going to run a 3 wall booth that gave me exclusivity and inclusion at the same time. BUT upon arrival at the venue the plan immediately had to change as the venue had only one other vendor that needed a wall system (the other photographer(s) With the placement of my booth I had to rethink the setup as it would have not worked in the position I was placed. So I immediately was down to a 2 wall booth at this point I was thrilled that my expansion wall had shipped in the day before the show and I was familiar with its operation. So I went into my bags of tricks and was immediately disappointed that the wall was not going to be usable in the space that I had as the back of the booth was not 8ft clearance to the ceiling. This meant an immediate retool on the booth, on the fly while trying to setup. Since the wall was a fundamental part of the booth it became a challenge. I wound up with only one wall as by the time I got things sorted and had the photos hung the show was opening the doors. The wall did not have a covering like I had envisioned and the new shiny banner was used as a tabletop for the booth table. So all the modification was done on the fly and as a result I was not even in the same zip code as the booth I had in mind in my head in the planning stages. 

The attendance at the show was about what I expected for a show that is in its' first year and did not do a large amount of advertising beforehand to bring in potential customers to the event. But the attendees I did speak with were all very positive and most were looking for a photographer. I did learn that my best investment in the "show pieces" was the acrylic block. I know from personal experience that they make an excellent show piece and something to draw folks in that most people don't have out. I was a little down that due to all my changes on the day of I was not able to put my aluminum or large acrylic prints up for display. I was mistaken about bringing candy in and thinking that people might grab a piece and chat for a moment. The booth itself got them to stop and only a very small amount of people grabbed a piece. So in the future while I might still use a candy dish I am only going to have one instead of three. The lessons learned are going to prove invaluable as I am pretty well dead set on signing up for both of the shows in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre region this fall and see if that might bring in the level of business I know I need to make this whole big experiment a success. I learned that the amount of time I need to prep and build a booth is far more than I thought I would need but part of that process was the initial build on the Xposer print wall. 

So as for reviews and thoughts on the pieces that I did and did not use. Let me be clear here that while I did not use all of these pieces in the building of the booth for the show I did test and use all of the pieces beforehand. So let's start of with the meat and potatoes of the walls...the walls! I got in two of the walls with small weighted steel feet. The feet are much more heavy than I thought that they would be but from there the praise is going to slow off....the extensions on the pieces do not look like they are going to hold up for very long as they are a twist tension system and all the pieces are ABS plastic. I like that I can choose exactly how wide I want to make it and how high I want to go but if these friction fits fail it could cause an entire wall failure with products hanging on the them. The third wall and the one I was so very anxious to meet is a standard expo expansion wall that is flat and uses a velcro system to cover it. I did not have the time to sew on the velcro to the fabric I had before the show but now that I have the time before another outing with the booth I am going to make it a priority to get that finished and ready to go. At that point it might even be possible to run wall with the fabric still on it into the bag. Now all my experience with this wall comes from checking it out here at home the day before the show. I like how it works but again I am a little worried about longevity as the stress points are again plastic. This is because of my choice (I believe) in a wall that was a little less expensive, the more expensive options look like that are predominately held together with magnets instead of plastic clips. BUT I think I can increase the amount of time I get before any major component failure by assembling the wall on its' back and then simply tipping it up and positioning it. It should relieve some of the worst stresses on the clips. I also did not use sandbags for holding the walls at the show but in the future I will be using them on every wall. They simply are not stable enough to my liking so I need to address that issue. Ok, so that is the walls...lets take a look at the printed materials for handout. I had all of the printing I was using done from VistaPrint and could not be happier with their service yet again. The only thing I am going to ding them on here and it is because I am a perfectionist on stuff like this...I downloaded the template for the exact thing I wanted printed on a folded brochure and then when they got here the folds were not actually on the spot that they were supposed to be making the colored panels on them appear a little odd due to where the folds were. Not a big thing...but hey, I already said perfectionist! All of the rest of the printed materials were business cards I had in stock already for a previous VP order. The other item was a simply entry from for a contest I chose not to run due to the low turnout of the show. Those also were very nice and would have looked great on the table. From there we move on to the frames and holders that I bought for the show for the photos and literature. Since I was trying to go for as unified a look as possible most of my table was about see through objects. The card holder, and literature holders are both clear plastic and I thought worked out very nicely not expensive and looked good on the table. The candy dishes were customized with glitter and then clear coated to prevent flaking. That worked out excellent as well and I really like the look of them. The frames were all bought at Micheal's and all were the same overall style which was the floating picture look as that is a more modern feel and that is the look I am trying to present to folks. The frames that are a little more money are certainly worth it in this area. The other frames while good just don't inspire me with confidence on durability long term. (At least for my uses for them!!!) Ok, so on to the product of the hour...the Xposer system. I am sure you can find lots of reviews on them out there and they will pretty much all say the same thing about how awesome they are and how easy they work. Yup...I agree 125% THAT being said....I will give you the one MAJOR flaw in the system for anyone using these prints for temp booths at shows. The packaging is really....really........REALLY bad! Now when they came in I thought, "damn that is cool as hell!" After using them at one show though, that way of moving them is going right out the window. It takes too damn long to open and fuss with each box for each print and then since they are a triangle you cannot stack the boxes anywhere. Plus putting them on a cart with anything else is impossible. SO!!! I am going to design and building my own transport system for the prints and hardware eliminating all that extra stuff. Plus it will still allow me to know where each of the prints are so I know what one I need next to hang while I am on location at the event. Like I said....all that opening and fussing with boxes cost me a bunch of time on the setup and teardown. So much time that I only chose to display 1/2 of the images I had printed! So when you cut your hanging display by half that kind of makes you a little cranky. But other than that and the occasional bump by me causing a print to unseat itself and scare you that something bad is going to happen I really like them. They are super light and easy to hang and once the system is assembled it should hang in a faction of the time at the next show. This was also something I had not built into the calculations and cost me time. But I had multiple compliments on the booth appearance from other vendors and a bunch of the potential customers so I am happy about that even though inside at the time I was extremely disappointed I was not able to put the booth in that I wanted. 

So all this being said the show was a success but only a limited one in that I have not pulled a signed contract from the show as of yet. But it has served a very important purpose in teaching me things I need to address and change for my next go at the bridal show type of event. Which barring anything crazy should be this fall with one or both of the shows. Things like this take time and I don't know anyone who does it right the first time out there!