Editing The Pen Addict 296/transcript (section)

== Pen Show Recap ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' They were happy to hear about the Kickstarter when I met everyone LA. So we ready to do this pin show recap? Yeah, I want to hear all about it. So, my first pin show of the year, kind of the second on the calendar. Philadelphia was in January. LA, here in mid-February. It's usually on Valentine's weekend, but I guess the calendar changed a little bit this year. So we were on NBA All-Star Game weekend instead. I didn't, I didn't see any superstars. LeBron James did not make it to the pin show this year, unfortunately. But I saw the people I really care about, which is all the readers and listeners and fans of the pin addict and all the, all the vendors that we always see at all these shows. it's really like a family reunion when I haven't seen these people, you know, in six months. It's kind of cool to kind of get back in the saddle, even though I'll see most of them again in two weeks and I'll be sick of them before too long. Not the, not the, the attendees, just the vendors. I'll get sick of them. Just kidding. But it was, it was a great event. You know, this was, I guess it was embroiled on a little bit of controversy before our arrival. The hotel was under construction. The ballroom where we were going to be was not finished. So we were not getting that. So we ended up in the old space that we used to be, which is a great space. It's a huge ballroom and two giant hallways. But the fund started on Thursday when the fire marshal hadn't approved the ballroom. Oh no. So everyone was basically in a holding pattern until that got approved. And then after that, like everything had to get set up and, you know, vendors had to get, you know, their approval packets and checked in. So there was like a huge vendor line Thursday afternoon. So people didn't get in Thursday afternoon, vendors that is, until I think after three o'clock or four o'clock, something like that. So Thursday was kind of, it was just a trader day anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal. But it was scheduled, what does trader day mean though at the LA pen show? Because like,

'''Myke Hurley:''' it seems like pen show to pen show, that changes, what that actually means.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So LA and DC are very similar in that, well, DC changed this year and had two public days. LA only has one public day, which is Sunday. So everything before is considered a trader day. So Thursday, then primarily Friday and Saturday. And what those days are and why people like Van S and many other vendors don't like that is because you don't get your assigned table until Sunday, the one public day. Like, you have an assigned numbered table on Sunday. Before that, you're just getting what you can get. Like, for every table you paid for for Sunday, you were allocated a half table for trader day. And then the people who attended the show, not the vendors, the attendees, who bought the trader passes, which are the Friday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday passes, they were allocated a half table as well. So, you know, Ana was there, so she gave her half table to Van S and Laura Cameron, you know, allocated her half table to Van S. So Van S ended up with three tables, just not in the spot where we're going to be Sunday. So the question on Thursday night and Friday, mostly Friday going into Saturday, was, are we going to have to take these tables down at night? So that was the real kind of cloud hanging over everything, right? Do we have to take everything down at night? Luckily, we didn't. They had security because we were in the outer hallway, which is a fine spot. Like, we liked the spot where we were at, but we were just there Friday and Saturday because there were no assigned tables. So it's kind of, like, there's no need for this, right? I just don't understand why this continues. The trader thing

'''Myke Hurley:''' doesn't make any sense anymore when people are coming, like, and just buying the tickets and they have no intention of selling, they're just coming to buy. Yeah. Right? Because I assume that it's like a big percentage of them now is, you know, listeners of this show who are going to go to a pen show, like, they're not suckers, they're going to buy the trader pass because you get in three days early and you get whatever you want.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right? So it's certainly more general attendees than what you'd consider a traditional trader.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, like, even the idea of assigning tables to everybody is wild, right? Right? It's like, I would go and I'd have my own table, like, what, I'd sit on it when I want, like, it just seems so strange.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it's like, you have to lay these claims and tomorrow, you know, you pick up and tomorrow someone might already have that table, whatever. But I guess it's like,

'''Myke Hurley:''' you know, surprise, surprise, it's not, it's like an old way of doing things, right? Like, surprise, surprise.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so, Saturday night, we did have to move and you know what those displays are like, right? Yeah, that's not good. So we had, we had to move to our real table. So we had a little bit of a long evening, Saturday night, relocating from one end of the hallway to the opposite end of the hallway. So that was a bit of a challenge. Because, you know, like,

'''Myke Hurley:''' Van Ness is basically all ink, by and large. And so, and it's these, like, huge towers that they build, like, these white meshed kind of towers. Where they're, like, six or seven trays high in inks. And it's, like, hundreds and hundreds of bottles, glass bottles, that you're moving backwards and forwards. Like, that is,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' that's a significant job to do. So that was, that was very sketchy. We, we made it through unscathed. But yeah, it's not like we're folding up trays of pens. Or even, like, if it was not stuff. It's like,

'''Myke Hurley:''' those cases don't weigh anything,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' right? Like, yeah, I would just grab the table skirt and tie it up into a big Santa package. Oh my God, that would be incredible. And you could be like, put it on a stick and put it on your back and like, yeah. I'd hobo it down the hallway down to the next table. Yeah. So, but not that with Vaness, you know, we were lifting those shelves off me and Myke Vaness and then putting them down on a cart and somehow we didn't drop anything, which was kind of amazing. it was sketchy. I promise you it was sketchy. Yeah. I promise you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, the other fallout from the hotel not being complete was the restaurant and bar, which is a really good hangout area in LA. It's a very open, very nice bar, good food at the restaurant, things like that, was completely shut down. So, none of it was inside. It was, that place was all under construction. So, what they had and who knows how long they've had this set up. They must have had this set up for a while. They had a tent set up in the parking lot, you know, one of those nice, like, I don't know. I would call it like a wedding tent. it's like a big,

'''Myke Hurley:''' it's not like a camping tent. It's like a big thing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a semi, semi-permanent tent. So, you know, it has electricity and they had like huge refrigerators out there and they had all like a bunch of the, you know, all the bar equipment out there and they would serve you food out there. They didn't cook out there. They cooked in the inside. But, it worked out fine. Like, it was big enough. It was set up well enough and it was never too crowded, right? Because I'm sure some people are like, I don't really want to go sit out in the parking lot.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I can imagine it being quite novel.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed it and everyone who seemed to be there in the evening seemed to really enjoy it because in the end, what we always say about these shows, it's about the people. We're going to make the best of any situation as long as we're around friends and talking about pens, you know, we're going to be happy. Oh, and can get beer. That was important.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Naturally.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah, they had everything set up and it was nice. You know, they had, the tables were large and the chairs were good and it was a little cool in the evening so they had heaters blowing. You know, it was a little loud from the heaters but that was okay but in general, I thought the tent was like completely fine. It was actually kind of cool and we really enjoyed it so we were in there, you know, Friday and Saturday night after dinner and things like that just having drinks and, you know, pen show after dark time and things like that so with the way the schedule is set up for LA, it's a little bit weird from a sales perspective. It's no other shows like this so Friday's busy, right? All the weekend pass holders are really arriving Friday so you get pretty busy on that day from people's first round at the pen show, right? The people are going to be there for two to three days. You know, they buy a lot and, you know, they're looking for things on Friday and, you know, they know some things might not be there on Sunday and they may not want to come back on Sunday so Friday's generally busy. Saturday starts off that way in the morning and then by the afternoon it's like a ghost town. It's really weird Saturday at the LA pen show which no other pen shows like that where you kind of have like, you practically have Saturday afternoon off. I mean, there are two or three hours there where you'd hardly see anyone in the walkways.