Investment: $50 (Early registration fee of $100/2 for 8" shared table) | Returns: Approx. 9x
What sold most: Books, Witchy from Bhutan #3 print, small prints, stickers, keychains
I had a great time at CTN Road trip. Would definitely do again. This was my first convention outside of the work conventions at Dreamworks and it was a lot of fun. I tabled with my friend Michelle Lin, and our booth was next to the Warrior Painters and our friends Angela Li & Jenny Cho. The foot traffic was great, I felt like I was constantly talking to a broad range of people- whether it was students interested in advice, people who were looking to hire artists, or just passerbys admiring art. I loved finally meeting people in person that I only knew online from instagram (shoutout to @heyouhai, @kuriotea, and @rachel_elese!), and also meeting new people and making new art friends.
The highlight of my day was when... I met my biggest fan- Constantine (@awesomegamer_boy). He bought one print, and kept coming back to ask me questions about Shiba Knight and the world they live in. He came back to buy the stickers, and later came back to buy more prints and even the book! He showed me a landscape painting he did too. It was great meeting his family and talking with him. It really inspired me to work harder and was much needed encouragement.
Thanks everybody who stopped by and made the convention a blast :) !
Me and Angela's biggest fans! Thank you @awesomeboy_gamer and @awesomegirl_gamer!
When gold meets teal!
Table buds Jenny and Angela
CTN advert
Warrior Painters Booth
Nathan Fowkes looking over Michelle's work
Pros
- Weather was great, not too windy, not to hot
- We had good placement near San Fernando and E. Angeleno
- Responsive team - the event was small enough where we could email the organizers directly
- Easy Burbank and California Seller's permit sign-up
- Great audience range- all ages, both art and non-art crowd
- Got several freelance offers from the event, one from a legitimate company, and several others from people that probably wanted to underpay me for my services.
Cons
- Complicated online CTN portfolio website interface for the event, but luckily it was only an additional optional thing you could, not required to table.
- Avoid having a table near the life drawing- the drawing horses expand past their table parameters and it's hard to get customers over with the crowd in front of the table. Luckily we did not have that, but our table buds did.
Things I learned
- To sign into Square, you need an internet connection, but you can use it offline after that
- Buy a barstool so I don't have to stand the whole time (standing helps engage customers better)
- You will tire yourself out if you try to engage each person who visits your table in actual conversation. After a while I was able to tell if people were interested in buying something or just wanted to pick up a free business card.
- Pack lunch
- Shower curtains can make great tablecloths
- Get a banner (have to figure out which image to put on it)