Editing The Pen Addict 583/transcript (section)

== Classes and Seminars at Pen Shows ==


'''Myke Madison:''' I want to see more classes and seminars. Yeah, that's definitely on my list. There are always some. And there's, you know, there's paid classes, which are cool. Like if I'm learning a skill or something like that, totally into it. But yeah, like you said, I would like to see more of the fountain pen 101 type stuff there. I kind of want to see. And when I went to DC, they asked me to do a seminar. I could do whatever I want. So I just talked about bags for two hours or whatever. Might have been longer than that. I don't know. People stuck around for a while because that's another thing that pen people are into. And so, like ancillary stuff like that, where you have, you know, nerds like us who are really into a thing that's not necessarily pen stuff, but it's like right on the fringe. I think those are great too. But yeah, I want to see more of that kind of thing. I know that there were some really popular seminars on just, you know, how to journal or like, you know, ideas for journaling or correspondence and these kinds of things. Which, you know, it was like, oh, just write a letter. But if you're not a letter writer, that's kind of intimidating. Just write a letter. Oh, just stare at this blank page and make it be amazing. Oh, super easy, right? I'd like to have somebody tell me how to do that or tell me about journaling or tell me about, I don't know, plannering or whatever the thing is. Like there are a million things that I can't even, you know, think of that would be great seminars. And just, you know, fill that time. There shouldn't be. There shouldn't be a time when a seminar is not happening or two not happening, you know, I think. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Um, probably my, I don't know if it's my last thing, uh, just in the general context of current shows, but it piggybacks on the space thing. I think there needs to be either, well, maybe, maybe it's a two-parter. One, a quiet space and two, two, an activities room. Like one or both of those things. One, there needs to be a chill space that's away, but that is set aside for pen people to just recoup, relax. Like we all need that. Like it's a busy, overwhelming, just, you're just, it's loud, noisy, hot, cold, a place to chill for a second. And then secondly, a place that's kind of the opposite of that, where you can just throw down your journals on a table, throw down your pens and sit there with five other people at a table and journal and just take a break from the show. So some type of break room format, either a quiet room or an activities room or both, something like that. But, um, again, like in the broader picture, it's like, like everything we're saying, it's like, Hey, maybe that's going to cost them a little bit more money. But like, you know, I think these are not the, we're not, my idea is not to turn these into like conventions, which is like a different category of experience than what we get for pen shows. But it's to make these just marginally better because I think in general, I think you, you'll probably agree. They're, they're pretty good. They're pretty good, but there, there's definitely some improvements we could see.

'''Myke Madison:''' Yeah. I think a lot of the things we've mentioned really like don't take a whole lot of, might not even take any money. You know, some of them are space dependent. Like not every hotel is going to have a place for like a chill place. A lot of hotels have like a good lobby or they have a good restaurant-y sort of area that you can just go to and kind of get away from the crowd. But some places just don't have that available and I get it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Those tend to be my favorite shows where you have that little extra space.

'''Myke Madison:''' Yeah. Because I mean, you've said it and I say it all the time. And the best thing about pen shows is pen people. And so if you're just going there and just like buying a pen and an ink and then going home, you're missing out on the best part of pen shows. Because even if you're kind of shy, like make an effort to meet a pen person because it's, it's great. It is. It is literally the best. Yeah. You got to have a space to do that. And like after our stuff is important too, but. It is.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It is. Yeah. So like, I don't, I don't think, you know, like you're saying that this isn't rocket science here. It's like little marginal things that if they all come together, it's kind of like, oh, wow, that was easy. Right. Like when you and I show up, like it's, if it's easy, like that is the hugest win in everything. It's like, I don't care. Like if I see, like if I don't, you know, find the pen that I want or the ink that I want, that's like secondary. It's like, did I have like a very easy experience at the show? Was it comfortable? Was it fun? You know, did I have plenty to do? Like if I'm there for two days. So yeah, like it's good stuff.

'''Myke Madison:''' I did want to emphasize it. When you say it's easy, you don't mean it's easy to put on a show. You mean you want it to be easy to go to a show? Yeah. No, I want to recognize the showrunners out there and those people who might not know running a show is a, is a, is a wildly difficult task. And it's usually, uh, you know, a very small group of people that are putting these things on. And so all these little details are things like, yeah, that'd be cool. But also I have to deal with 200 vendors and like all the things that they need and their individual needs and the things that go wrong. And it's like, no, it's very difficult to run a show. And so please have grace toward your showrunners. Those of you who are going to shows like be kind to a showrunner and the people that are helping them out. Cause they are juggling so many plates.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. You are so right. And I don't want any showrunners yelling at me for saying that this is an easy because it is not. And it is, it is like, if it was easy, I would do it. You know, it's like, I don't want to do it because I know how much of a nightmare it is. So I always try to shout out the showrunners. I always try to treat them with grace when like, when, you know, the HVAC is blowing up and they can't get the hotel to do anything. I was like, okay, well, thank you for trying. Right. And it's like, that's just what you want. Like that communication and that, that ability that the showrunners care that they're not just like propping up an event and vanishing, which I think we're pretty fortunate that we're in good shape with that, with all the showrunners in, in our business right now. Like it's, it's there in a pretty good space to do and they're doing a great job in a really, really difficult situation.

'''Myke Madison:''' So, oh, and wifi, before we get off this wifi, please have wifi in the room.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' How is that not on my list? Yeah.

'''Myke Madison:''' Oh, I got to have the wifi y'all. Like some of these places, just a black hole of, I don't know what it is. Just a Faraday cage of a hotel. Give me some wifi. Yeah. Give me some wifi.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. Well, I'm going to get us out of here on that. I think like, oh yeah, literally we could have a, uh, an entire, I don't know, two hour discussion on pen shows and like what we would do and, and all those things like that. So, uh, before we do just want to give, uh, one more shout out to, uh, what we have going on for relay.fm and St. Jude. So head over to relay.fm slash St. Jude. We have raised an enormous amount of money this year and we just, um, thank everyone in the community. Uh, thank everyone for that, that participated in the pen attic raffle, uh, that just wrapped up earlier this week. Um, and there's still time to give to, to help out, uh, the kids at St. Jude for, uh, childhood cancer awareness month. So I wanted to be sure to point you to relay.fm slash St. Jude. And, uh, let's see what the total is while we're doing this. We're like, we're a long way from done. We have crossed, we have crossed my, the $500,000, um, threshold for what we've raised in the month of September to, uh, for, uh, everyone at St. Jude. So I know Myke and Steven had a great time, uh, at Memphis, um, doing the, uh, podcast a thon, uh, just this past week, which is why you're filling in this week. Myke has been a little bit busy raising all this money, right? It's, it's hard. Like he's got to have big pockets to carry all this money around until he hands it off to St. Jude, right? He's been a busy man. So I appreciate you hanging in here. Where can people find you, uh, on the internet? I'll have all the links in the show notes, but you want to give, uh, anything a shout out before we hit on?

'''Myke Madison:''' Yeah, sure. You can find me on Instagram as at ink dependence. You can find me on YouTube at youtube.com slash at ink dependence. And you can find me at ink dependence.com. Uh, we mentioned earlier that I hit 10,000 subs on YouTube and I've been running a giveaway that will be ending just before this, uh, podcast airs. But I mean, go and take a look at that video and check out the amazing vendors and makers who chipped in stuff just for like my little giveaway. I know I'm in conflict, like direct competition kind of for St. Jude stuff. I mean, I'm, I donate to St. Jude for sure, but also like go say hi to these vendors who have like been donating stuff and these makers and the folks that have gone and like given stuff for Brad, uh, St. Jude, uh, raffle, which is just a mind blowing array of generosity from all these folks. And, uh, like when we say the Pen community is amazing, like it's, this is kind of, this is just sort of evidence, you know, if you're like, Hey, I've got a bunch of subscribers kind of do a giveaway and be like, yes, Hey, I want to raise money to destroy cancer for children. Yes, absolutely. Like people are just like willing to, to pony up for that stuff. And it really is awesome. And I love it. So thanks to everybody who's given to both of our raffles and giveaways. It's fantastic.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And thank you for your time. Uh, I'll try not, I'll try to do it, uh, sooner than four years or whatever we decided it was. It's been too long, obviously. But it's like, I will literally talk to Myke tomorrow, probably or Monday. And it's like, yeah, we don't need a podcast. Well, like I'm going to talk to you like every day next week. So anyway, thank you for being here. Um, and yeah, we will, uh, we'll be back next time with a different Myke. So until then say goodbye, Myke.

'''Myke Madison:''' Cheerio water bus, Brad.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]