The TNNA fall NeedleArts Market is coming right up. It’s a wholesale trade show, so it’s open only to wholesale buyers. It will be my first hotel show. I’m in room 713.

To date, all the trade shows I’ve attended have been in convention centers where booths are partitioned off by curtains on metal frames. Hotel shows are in–yeah–hotels. Generally hotels with suites. Exhibitors live in the bedroom part of the suite and set up their wares in the sitting room.

Convention shows can accommodate a greater number of vendors because space is more or less unlimited. Hotel shows, on the other hand, must limit the number of vendors to the number of available suites. That really bothers me. I cringe at the idea of exclusivity. I can’t stand the idea of a would-be participant being turned away. I want to welcome Everyone.

This may be the beginning of a rock kick. Remarkable Rocks, Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

Anywho, I’m going to this one, and I’m contemplating fun things to do in my room; i.e., games to play with customers. (Of course I’ll have games–du-uh.)

I’ve got a magnetic dart board that I may take along–a throw-a-dart-win-a-design kind of thing.

Or maybe I could take an autumn leaf jigsaw puzzle–not that anyone has time to put a puzzle together. If I had an easy kids’ puzzle, I could write prizes on the backs of the pieces and buyers could choose a puzzle piece and see what they’ve won. Kind of like those ducks-on-the-pond games at carnivals.

I have a first-lines-from-famous-books display I could turn into a game.

Or we could make super-simple bookmarks.

What do you think? Let’s brainstorm.