I shared all of the nitty gritty details of booth design in my last post. In this post, I wanted to share a quick list of "can't live without them" show essentials.
The Hand Truck
When I got to NYC, I dropped my bags at my hotel and quickly went to pick up a hand truck that would soon become my new best friend. It was the best $20 I could have spent! I was extremely fortunate to have a dear friend who lives conveniently close to the Javits let me ship four boxes of stuff to her apartment, so off I went with my handy hand truck to haul boxes to my hotel and the Javits. This small piece of equipment saw a lot of use over the seven days I was in NYC.
The Comfy Shoes
I was really nervous about how I would deal with standing up for 9+ hours straight each day (the show ran from 9am to 6pm three days and from 9am to noon the last day). While I would take short breaks to "perch" on my stool, I spent a lot of time on my feet. The foam tiles definitely helped, but the biggest lifesaver was having comfy shoes and bringing an extra pair or two to mix things up in the middle of the day and try to trick my feet into not being so tired. One of my best pre-show finds was this pair of Reef Bella Costa flats.
These shoes have "mattress-inspired quilted PU foam footbed with anatomical arch support" - essentially the whole footbed is made of air pockets which my feet were so thankful for!
The Bottle of Advil
I was told by veterans to pack Advil, and I'm so happy I did! The key to making it both pre-show and during the show was a steady stream of Advil. You can't imagine how achy the back/shoulders/knees/legs/everything become by the end of the day!
The Neighbors
I really lucked out and ended up having amazing neighbors on my aisle. You don't realize until you get there how much of a difference it makes to have wonderful people around you. I really enjoyed getting to know the other companies on my aisle - From Frank, CityScapes by Stephanie Hessler, From You to Me, Tilia Press, Greetings from Crazyville, May Day Studio, and Jake & Meta. Everyone was so helpful and kind, and since it was my first year, it was really great to be able to talk to veterans of the show!
