Orlando Home Show

Alrighty ladies and gentlemen... let's give the rundown of what we know so far:

Theme: Handmade Black Saturday

Date: November 15th

Time: 6 pm for customers... you guys might want to get there earlier to set up

Definite Attendees:

RedMarionette
Theophany
RixiePixie

Maybe Attendees:

NoraKaren
Coquicito
MelaniesOriginals

Anyone else?

Food: I was thinking a simple spread of both hot and cold appetizers and desserts. I was thinking of handling the desserts -- I would make a tiramisu cake, pumpkin cheesecake, cranberry and orange twists and cookies.

What would you guys like to bring?

Advertising/Guests: Who are we inviting? How many? Advertising? Should we send out postcards to our local clients? Should we send out an email blast to our email lists? I don't want to invite complete strangers -- I'd prefer people we've dealt with before and can reasonably trust. I'll be inviting my family and our mom's group, and I"ll have my mom's group pass along the word of other interested people like their friends and family.

Specials: Ok, so we'll be offering free gift wrapping services for gifts bought... Would you guys want to donate a small item for a gift basket that we can raffle off at the end of the evening? We could give out a ticket at the door and play small games throughout the evening for extra raffle tickets (obviously this depends on the size of the group, really). Would you guys want to offer a discount promotion for the event?

I'd like to put this information on the advertising -- anything that would attract more people coming. Let's get a good discussion going so we can turn this into a 100% success!

Jen

i am a definite.

i am open for making food...i am a vegetarian, though, so i would -prefer- to cook something without meat, if that is acceptable...i make a great seven layer bean dip..but i don't know if we are leaning towards fancy or casual.
??

i had mentioned on the etsy forum....there is a website called pingg.com that does beautiful e-vites, and also gives the option to have them printed and mailed. if we were to do something like that, we would have an on-line database of rsvp's....which might be helpful?
either way, i only intend to invite friends and customers that i know in the real world, if that makes sense..

i am good with donating something for a giveaway...and offering discounts for multiple purchases.

Ok well for the vegans and others i can make some sundried tomato hummus! and concerning the guests, unfortunatly i don't have many friends and no family in the orlando area so i don't really have anyone i can invite, i mean i can see if anyone at my work is interested but i'm not sure how many would be interested.

Vegetarian and Vegan are fine! We can label everything so people know what's in it. Unfortunately, I don't think any of my desserts are vegetarian or vegan-friendly since they have eggs, cream, cheese and milk.

Rixie -- I'd invite people at work. My philosophy is that you never know who wants to find something fun and handmade for a gift -- you never know who has to buy for a baby or a teenager.

I'm going to send a shout-out to my mom's group to send feelers to their friends and family to see if anyone would want to come.

Ok, so I'm only at three confirmed yes votes right now and we're all in the room. Red wants to come but she might have a prior commitment, so we might lose her... and I haven't heard from anyone else.

Rixie -- Are you active in the Central Florida Etsy group? Could you send feelers out there to see if any of them are interested? I don't want this to go bust if we can't get enough vendors. I'm definitely thinking we need six to really make this work.

Let me know,

Jen

OMG i completely forgot about the Orlando Team! yeh I'll send an email out to them and see who wants to participate! So far you have

Me - Upcycled creations
Who else is vending and what kinda of merchandise will we have? we don't want TOO many jewelry makers but a few is good, jewelry is a BIG hit with christmas.

hi, my name is amber, i live in plant city and i just joined the group a couple of days ago.

if this is open to new members, i would be interested in participating. is that possible? id love to meet yall.

all of my family and friends live in the lakeland, plant city, tampa area, so if im able to participate, im not sure who would come, but i would invite as many as yall would like. i could also bring some food and stuff.

so just let me know if im able to participate and whatever details i need to know.

thanks so much,
amber

Amber,

Absolutely! What do you create?

Take care

Jen