TAG CON 2

Ding, ding, ding! Round 2! The amount we were able to learn from our first show was astronomical. We changed the hours, figured out what advertising worked, and understood, on a much higher level, what it would take to make the show a success. Our first show laid a foundation of expectation and planted a seed in our community. Now it was time to water it and watch it grow. We re-invested everything into the second show, doubled the number of vendor tables, and drastically changed our advertising strategy. And guess what. We found out very quickly that our service-based business model would be successful by way of the vendors. We had a 100% vendor return rate from the first show, and those vendors brought more with them! When I opened the tables up to the vendors from the first show, I was only left with about 20 tables to fill. We had gone from 50 tables to 100 with no extra foot work to find good vendors. That fact alone proved our business model successful.

So there we were, 8am on Friday July 25th rolling tables in, setting them up, sweeping, getting everything ready. We counted the minutes after set up was done, eager to see if our excitement extended to the show-goers. People started showing up 2 hours early! We had a 50-person line, waiting on the doors to open! On a Friday night! The doors opened and people flooded in. I couldn't leave the check-in table for the first two hours because we had a constant stream of people coming in. It was beautiful sight of smiles and excitement. The show continued into Saturday as well. We had hourly raffles, t shirt giveaways, and kids 12 and under got in free. It turned into and amazing weekend of family fun. From our first little show, only having 100 people come, to the second, which had shorter hours, but almost 2,000 people show up! We 20 times our visitor count! 

We saw the increase of vendors and show-goers as an overwhelming success. But never take it for granted. We went around and spoke to all the vendors and every person that was able to come out and enjoy it. The vendors were over the moon at the fact that we had listened to them at the first convention and made any changes they requested. They were not used to being catered to by an event organizer. You know what the main question we received at that show was? 

"When are you going to open a shop out here?"

Little did they know, it was already in the works.