Not many of you know I recently had a brief performance in Las Vegas on the strip… at the convention center… as a booth assistant… at the ACRE show.  Yea, okay, it isn’t broadway or anything, but it was still pretty cool!

I went as slave labor with my dear friend Colleen of Turtles Wings Art wages payable in cocktails.  This was both of our first experience at a wholesale trade show.  Colleen, obviously made of sterner stuff than I opted to actually have a booth, whilst I just went along to watch.

Here is the view from our hotel room on the 10th floor of the Las Vegas Hilton.  Crazy blue sky like a giant inverted bowl.

and the other direction:

And here I am, off the plane barely 15 minutes and she’s already got me working:

The set up wasn’t nearly as hot as we had been led to believe.  It may have something to do with the fact that Salt Lake City is pretty darn hot in and of itself.  We’re tough girls, used to this kind of hardship!

Here is our across the aisle neighbor, Kent Eppler of Laughing Boy Art, wearing his lucky shirt.  He let us touch one of the cacti so the luck would rub off.

Beautiful glass at the booth next door.  Really lovely blown and sand-carved pieces with added metal.
Other swanky booths (photographed with permission, of course):

The jewelry people really go all out on their booth displays.

What we learned:  A wholesale show can be a great tool, but it isn’t a magic bullet in and of itself.  You have to integrate it with all of your other art marketing tools!

 






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