nss recap

where do i even begin?

i managed to make it out of the house last friday without a cold.

my flight to new york was delayed 4 hours! it was blamed on weather and the amount of traffic coming into new york. once i was on the plane, the flight was uneventful and we arrived in ny at about 5:30 or so. after a long shuttle ride, i finally made it to the hotel and met up with my friend t from high school who now lives in south carolina. it was wonderful to see her again. we picked right up where we left off last year and started gabbing and laughing non-stop.

saturday was spent setting up the booth. we got there around 8:30 a.m. and i think we left by about 7:30 p.m. or so. it was a long day, but i was happy with how the booth turned out. the moron that i am forgot to take a picture of the final project. i have several picture of "along the way", but none of the final booth. t took a photo with her camera, so we're going to see if she can get it to me. promise to post it if i can get it.

being that it was my fourth year this year, i thought i had an idea of what to expect. traffic patterns of the last three years seemed to be really consistent, so i imagined this year would be the same. i couldn't have been more wrong.

sunday was the first official day of the show....usually my biggest day for sales. by noon this year, i thought i was going to jump off the building. sales were HORRIBLE. traffic was non-existent. i called the hubby at lunch and was ready to break down. this was completely unlike my previous years at the show. i could always count on sunday being a big day.

after returning from lunch things started to pick up. traffic got a lot busier and sales increased. i began to feel a lot better. we heard a lot of ,“we’re just looking today, but we’re going to come back tomorrow to place orders.” this isn’t unusual, but seemed to be happening more this year than most. maybe people were keeping a closer eye on their budget than past years.

monday and tuesday were a lot more of the same. very, very slow in the mornings and busy, busy, busy in the afternoons. this is one of the traffic patterns I mentioned that was completely different this year. typically mornings have been busy and afternoons; dead as a doornail. very interesting change. I’m not sure what the reasoning is for this, but my only suspicion is that it’s related to the floor plan change this year.

wednesday is the last day of the show. in all honesty, over the past three years, sales have been pretty non-existent on wednesdays. i wasn’t expecting much. once again, the traffic boggled my mind! wednesday was a very, very solid day for me. about the same as sunday, which is unheard of for me. i have no solid explanation of why the traffic patterns were so different this year. i was so completely petrified on sunday, but by wednesday, it all seemed to even out.

overall, i was a little shy of my goal at the show, but the way faxes have been coming in since being home, i expect to meet it with no problem. plus i have gotten a bunch of requests for catalogs from people who weren’t able to make it to the show that have already been mailed.

my only real complaint about the show is that they stuck another line that is WAY too similar to mine right across the isle from me. so similar, in fact, that one of my reps (someone who works with my line on a daily basis) said that she nearly entered their booth; mistaking it for mine! i’m obviously going to have a discussion about this with the show managers. (one of which came by my booth and immediately apologized for putting us so close together — blaming it on the internet and saying she had no idea we were so similar) we’ll see what they have to say when i talk with them over the next week or so. other than that, my neighbors were AWESOME this year. we had so much fun and were laughing non-stop. i can’t wait to go back and see them next year.

we did have one really great experience while at the show that is worth mentioning. one of our neighboring booths just happens to live in a penthouse suite on the upper west side, and invited a few of us up for cocktails after the show on tuesday. lucky me! the view was amazing from their wrap around rooftop balcony. plus they offered the use of their penthouse anytime we wanted….all we need to do is pay $60 for the housekeeper to come clean when we’re done! pretty sweet deal! (their primary home is in California, so they’re only in the penthouse two weeks out of every month!) rough life! i just may need to take them up on that sometime!

oh, and i almost forgot to mention all the wonderful paper people i met while at the show. i had talked to some of them online for nearly a year but had never met them in person. it was so nice to finally put some faces with the names and to see their products in person. too much fun!