Monday, February 9, 2009

The Northeastern Sports Show


Ashleigh & Me, working at the Oswego County Booth at the show.

Today I’m going to blog about something outside of Oswego County; I’m going to blog about the great Northeastern Sports Show, held in Syracuse, NY. Oswego County signs up anually as a vendor, giving me the opportunity to rub elbows with outdoorsmen and women of the area. The annual show is something I look forward to every year!

My coworker, Mel, and I, were assigned the task of setting up for the annual show. We arrived to the New York State Fairgrounds around 10 a.m. We had to wait behind a guy who decided washing his truck right in front of the building entrance was an awesome idea. We waited patiently (well, Mel waited patiently; I threatened the guy under my breath). Finally, Mr. Clean moved his truck and we proceeded to Row H, where our booth is always assigned.

Our display is simple: There is one huge wire contraption that pulls apart and stands up tall, and then there are long black panels that cover the wire contraption that serve as the backdrop of our display. Photos are then placed on the panels. We finished setting up the wire contraption when we realized that the panels had been put away in the wrong carrier. This didn’t seem like an issue, until we tried to pull them out.

They were stuck, I mean really stuck. Mel grabbed the carrier and I grabbed the panels and we just began to pull. It was like watching two young kids play tug-o-war, except we aren’t exactly young and our stamina isn’t what is used to be. After 20 minutes of switching sides, angles and technique, a nice young gentleman (who had been watching and laughing the whole time) offered his assistance. We declined (we didn’t want to look weak – we were at a sports show after all) and kept on pulling. FINALLY, after slightly tearing one of the panels, we got it! The panels were free!

The panels need to be hung up much higher than we can reach, and normally we remember to bring a foot stool with us. Not this time. Mel and I contorted our bodies and found ways to hang up the panels without a fuss… until one fell down and smacked me in the head.

Surely after my new brain injury, nothing else would go wrong. We went to pull out the photos and alas,

THEY WERE MISSING!

I frantically called my co-workers back at the office and had them search high and low for the photos. It turns out they were being used at another show and hadn’t arrived back at our office yet.

We had two choices: A. Just keep our black panels up and hope that our tourism staff is cute enough to draw attention to our booth, or B. figure out a way to order new posters within a day!
We went with plan B, although I think we could have pulled off plan A!

Our friends at StepOne Creative in Oswego, and Walmart in Granby, both offered to print our posters in one day! Jan sent photos over to StepOne and I drove a CD of photos to Walmart. I arrived back at the office with half an hour to spare! My coworkers rushed to laminate all of the posters - something that couldn’t possibly go wrong.

Guess again.

Laurie handed Mel two posters a time, which Mel didn’t realize so she accidentally laminated them together! After some serious brainstorming, these genius women figured out how to save both posters without as much as a scratch!

I finally left the office an hour and a half after work, after finishing the posters and creating a separate promotional display for our blogs (I’m shamelessly promoting myself, I know).

Luckily, the fiasco of a day turned out in our favor! We finally made new posters and our display looked awesome. The show was a blast too! My partner-in-crime, Ashleigh, volunteered to work our booth with me on Friday night. We both wore our burlys to feel like real outdoorswomen!

I am leaving you with photos from all of the activities at the sports show. If you didn’t check it out this year, make sure you come next year and visit our booth. We’re always in Row H!


Wearing our burlys.


Fellow blogger, Spider, signing his books!


Spider's display


People checking out all of the vendors

Kyle, Ashleigh's husband, trying out some of the bows.


Matt, Kyle's brother, also trying out a bow


They had a shooting game!

Jake, Ashleigh's son, is already in training to be a great hunter!


Boys and their toys!


Birds of prey!


Trout fishing


Matt caught a trout and won a prize!


Jake and a friendly hunting dog


The main attraction: the Grizzly Bear!

1 comment:

christyzee said...

Very nice blog...and I'm the jealous one! I've always wanted to hunt but I come from a family of non-sportsman type people--not a fisherman or hunter in sight. So even though you may feel unfortunate at times, remember, there are some gals out here that can't even get out of the house :o) keep up the great work!
blessings...