Renegade: Part I

I've staffed a lot of job fairs.  The most insanely busy of which left me voiceless for several days.  I used to work booths at the California State Fair, which I never particularly enjoyed, but didn't scare me either.  I worked retail for years, so holiday crowds were to be dreaded, but certainly weren't frightening.  I wasn't scared about Renegade at any point given those comparative experiences.  But I was worried or nervous on a semiregular basis about having enough of the right stuff or that I could handle my booth alone or that I'd sleep through my alarms.  :)  I wasn't scared about talking with people, but was a little worried about losing my energy (I'm pretty introverted - crowds drain me and a few minutes alone recharges me).

So the reality, in a nutshell, is this:

• I totally miscalculated what to stock up on.
• The real time feedback, even just watching and analyzing what people gravitated to and what they passed over, was absolutely invaluable.
• My credit card imprinter refused to work after the first credit card - so I just went old skool and wrote out credit card slips.
• Candy definitely brings traffic into your booth ... and a lot of that traffic immediately leaves after getting their free tootsie pop.
• If you have three hours pre-show to set up - use them!  I was there before 8 on day one and minutes after 8 on day two.  I was never freaked out about set up or felt short of time.
  
• I had ordered a banner for my booth - but it didn't arrive.  Sigh.
• I forgot most of my props at home.  On BOTH days. Sigh.
• Your most comfortable shoes may not be enough for 12 hours on your feet, on concrete.  Mine weren't!
  

My set up wasn't the one I dreamed about, but it was functional (most important!).  And I learned a lot in two days about how I would do things differently the next time around.  In fact, I completely changed my day one set up (which you can see above) on day two, which I'll share later this week!

More tomorrow!!!