Anatomy of a Trade Show

As part of my regular office job, I manage a Trade Show 6 times a year.  We usually have around 80-100 vendors of all kinds, but mainly antiques and collectibles.   I've worked this show for about 9 yrs and I decided to show everyone the 'inner workings' of setting up a Trade Show.  My son Jonathan also works with me on these shows and really works hard to make the show a success!  I set-up the advertising for the show as well as coordinate the booth assignments, review product lines and well, anything else I can do to help the show!  My co-worker Cindy is also a great help organizing and keeping everything straight.  Here is what we do:

 

First we must sweep the entire Expo Hall which is no small job since it is....


  

HUGE!!!!





We must then 'mark' all the booths with numbers which takes a while!



Jonathan hard at work













Then comes the fun part-putting tables in the booths

  

Jonathan does MOST of this work, but I help (a little)

   

And now the booth is ready for the vendor.



The vendors begin their part of the job!



The show opens and in rush the customers



And then the show is over, the vendors pack up and Jonathan and I clean up

Whew!!!  and there you have how we put together a Trade Show---It's time to go home
 and rest now 'cause we will do it all over again next spring!! 
God Bless all and any who read this,  Pat--A Remade Life







Firmly Rooted

I have a hibiscus plant in my front yard--it was there when my son and I bought our house 2yrs ago.  No one had lived in this house for 2yrs and the previous owner was an older lady who couldn't do much, so the yard wasn't tended to as it should have been.  Needless to say, the yard (and the hibiscus) was a mess!  Shortly before we moved in, a hurricane came through our area.  It leveled the poor little hibiscus!  We staked it up and prayed it would recover.  It did.  Our first summer in our 'new-to-us' home was hot and very, very dry.  Our yard and the hibiscus dried-up and turned brown.  We watered the hibiscus as much as possible and prayed it would recover.  It did.  Our 2nd winter in our home was one of the coldest we've known for a while with 4-days of below freezing temps and snow--twice!  This is quite an accomplishment for this part of Texas!  Most plants, including the hibiscus, froze to the ground even though they had been covered.  We cut the sweet little hibiscus back and prayed it would grow back.  It did.  Yesterday as I was leaving for work, I glanced over at my thriving hibiscus and saw that it had bloomed--a beautiful, huge red bloom!!  I'm thinking we could learn a true life lesson from this little plant.  No matter how bad things are or how difficult our situations, all we have to do is to remember to pray and ask our heavenly Father for help.  Not only will we survive but we will eventually bloom right where we are!!  I Peter 5:6 '...casting all your cares on Him for He cares for you.'  God Bless all and any who read this,  Pat  A Remade Life