Brooksville RV Show, visit to Venice, etc.

Estero, Florida - Thursday, February 11, 2010

We arrived here in Estero this afternoon. The weather was/is very nice for the trip and after we arrived. We spent the past three days visiting with Uncle Rich and Auntie Elaine in Venice. We got a chance to see their new (to them) condo, which just happens to be in the same complex as Terry and Wenke Holmes' condo. Their condo is very nice and in a beautiful location. Unfortunately, their furniture did not arrive as promised, so they are sitting on folding chairs in their living room. They do have bedroom furniture, though. I spoke with Uncle Rich this afternoon, and they found another furniture store and hope to have their living room furniture by next Wednesday!!

As the title mentions, we just finished doing another RV show, this one in Brooksville, Florida. Of all the shows we have done, we were most favorably impressed with the Brooksville show. Our motorhome was parked within 100 yards of the vendor tent, so once we got set up, taking care of the dogs during the show was a piece of cake. We could walk back to the motorhome in less than two minutes. We truly enjoyed doing this show, as the people who attended were motorhomers, like us, and they appreciated all the vendors and bought lots of products. Also, the people who run the show were very attentive and caring to the vendors. As they explained, if not for the vendors, there would be no RV show. It was nice to feel appreciated!

For this show, since we could not get a corner booth, I came up with a booth design which makes any booth location a "corner" booth. The new set-up worked out very well, and people were very appreciative that they could get closer to the items we had for sale. Unfortunately for us, we ran out of wicker coolers, and only had ceramic one to sell. We had purchased some new ceramic coolers, which we had shipped to Brooksville, and we displayed them for the first time at this show. They were well accepted, and we sold half of them during the show.

Tomorrow, we will finish setting up our booth here in Estero, at the "Big Boy Expo". We got a head-start on it this afternoon, but decided to wait until tomorrow to finish it up, since the show doesn't open until Saturday morning at 10:00. This will be the shortest duration show we have done, 2 days. The show opens Saturday morning and will close at 5 PM. It will open again on Sunday morning at 10 AM and will close at 5 PM. We will pack up the booth and load everything into the motorhome and car after 5PM on Sunday, then head back to Port St. Lucie on Monday morning. Keep your fingers crossed that this will be a good show for us. This is a showcase for "big boy toys"!!

Here are the links to the photo albums for today:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/IPhone2010?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BrooksvilleFMCARVRally23To72010?feat=directlink

Catching Up from Brooksville, FL

Tuesday, Feb. 2 (Groundhog Day) - Hernando County Airport, Brooksville, FL

We arrived in Brooksville yesterday morning in the rain. The drive down from Ocala was short and uneventful, and we arrived in good spirits, despite the rain. After checking in, we were led to our site for the duration of the show. We are parked in a grassy field, directly across from the entrance to the Vendor Tent, about 100 yards away.

After getting the motorhome set up, we made our way over to the tent and began to set up our booth. The booth configuration we are using is something I thought up before we arrived here. I came up with a configuration which provides us with a "corner booth", even though we do not have a corner.
This is new for us, and we will try it out to see how it goes. Stay tuned for a final critique of this setup.

Looking back over the last couple of shows, Fort Myers was a good show for us. We will certainly keep that show on our schedule. Ocala, on the other hand, was not so good for any of the vendors (that we spoke to, anyway). That show (Ocala) opened last Thursday, 1/28. Traffic was pretty good, but nobody came to buy anything, so we had a "slow" day. In the end, we covered our booth and camping expenses, but nothing else. The rest of the show went downhill from there! In fact, on Saturday, a day when every vendor expected things to improve, the rains came. By early afternoon, it was raining so hard that they closed the gate and people who came in were allowed to enter for free. The show coordinator came to each vendor and told us that we could close down our booths if we so desired. Since water was dripping on our products from a couple of holes in the tent, we decided to close up. We were out of there by 2PM. We hoped that Sunday would get better, but it was soooo cold that not that many people came out, and those that did were not spending. Bust!!! As a result, we will not do the Ocala show again.

So, now we are in Brooksville, FL, at the FMCA Southeast Area Rally. We have decided that we really like doing the FMCA rallies. We went to a "pot luck" supper last night, sponsored by the Family Vendors Chapter of FMCA (of which we are new members, since Fort Myers). That was a great time. We met lots of other vendors and got lots of valuable feedback on other shows, in addition to having some good "comfort food". Tonight, we were invited to another dinner meeting with the Professional RV Vendors Chapter of FMCA (of which we have been members since Farmington, NM, last October). After a short meeting, we were treated to some very tasty sandwiches, potato salad, cole slaw, chips, etc. Again, we met more vendors who imparted more information about shows. As a result, we are now considering changing our show schedule for the coming months so that we can do more FMCA rallies.

Please be sure to check out the photo albums below. I have included photos not yet seen from Fort Myers, and from Ocala and our set-up here in Brooksville. I certainly hope you enjoy the photos.

Here are the links to the web albums:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/FortMyersRVShow118242010?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/OcalaRVShow128312010?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BrooksvilleFMCARally2372010?feat=directlink