Birchwood Manor 11th Annual Holiday Arts & Crafts Extravaganza

I attended the Birchwood Manor show (in Whippany, NJ) on Dec 4, 2013.  The show is held every year the Wednesday after Christmas, and this is the 11th annual show.  It was rather expensive to register ($120), but 2500 attendees according to this site: http://www.craftlister.com/E1502149/Holiday+Arts+%26+Crafts+Extravaganza+-+Whippany%2C+NJ
Being new to all this, that seemed like a high number, but I've since learned you want closer to 10,000 for a busy show.

I have at least mastered booth set up (although not photography!):

It seemed to grab attention.  The show opened at 10 am, and I had a sale at about 10:15!  Two women bought one for a friend who had just had surgery.  Then another woman was interested, and after playing the game she bought one also!  2 sales before 11 am, was very hopeful.  One other pair of women played the game, but didn't buy it (they did sign up for mailing list).  But then nothing...

My sister joined me around 1 pm, and we played together.  This attracted one more buyer, probably around 1:30 pm.  By this time traffic had slowed considerably.  Some people were interested, amused, thought it was a good idea, but couldn't even get anyone to stop and play.  There were a few with back pain that did not want any reminders of it, but they seemed to be the minority.

The show lasted until 8 pm, and never got busier.  I have no idea how to estimate the number of people.  It could have been 2500 as predicted.

Registration was ridiculous.  The woman wants you to send a self-addressed stamped envelope so she can let you know if you will be in the show (e-mail anyone?).  Otherwise you just have to look for a canceled check.  This should have been a tip off.

When I arrived I was not on the list (despite getting a canceled check and also an e-mail about changes to event set up time), but think I scored a pretty good location.  The other annoying part of the show was that they had a raffle every hour, and had to talk for about 3-4 minutes each time about the rooms, food, when the next show was going to take place, etc.  If you were in the middle of speaking with a customer, it was very disruptive.

So bottom line, I would not do this show again.  Most of the vendors seemed unhappy with results.  I'm not sure organizer advertised at all, relying solely on lawn signs, word of mouth and people returning every year (this was 11th annual).

Holding steady at 50% sales for people who play the game, so that was good.  But need to find a venue where I can get more people to play and buy!