25th Michigan DEER & Turkey Spectacular, Lansing

[Castle Mountain]

25th Michigan Deer & Turkey Spectacular, Lansing

Well come on what happened?  How was it where it the after action report of your Michigan Deer & Turkey Classic
or were youse guys out looking for the missing Wisconsin Democrates. Would sure love to hear how it went for
your folks. Any pics to go?


Best regards,

Castle Mountain

[ITB]

2/18-2/20, Lasing Michigan

Instructors: Intheburbs (show boss), Miki

IIT's: Sprocket58, Superheat

Special thanks to Larry Skelding of Centerline of Calhoun for helping to set up and manning the booth with us all day Friday.

Instructor Promotions: I wish I could, our two orange hats were outstanding!!!

Total Booth Attendance: Friday: 250  Saturday:400 Sunday:200 

Weather: indoors, but heavy snow (Winter storm warning) hampered teardown and departure

Good: Money VERY well-spent.  What can I say?  All expectations were exceeded.  Great people in the booth, lots of interested attendees

We had lots of interest, we had a good group of instructors going out into the aisle and making contact with people.  Nobody was sitting back waiting for folks to come into the booth.  We particularly focused on families and couples.  85-90% of contacts were positive and interested in Appleseed.  Numbers above are based on the numbers of tri-folds we handed out.  Almost every one handed out was to a person that was personally engaged by one of us. 

Attendance was very good both Friday and Saturday.  I hesitate to guess, but I'd say between 15,000-20,000 for the three days.  The snowstorm that started around noon Sunday very likely kept attendance down that day.

As a seasoned veteran of 20+ tradeshows (Manufacturing week, semicon, OTC, etc), I have held a generally low opinion of these types of shows.  The sheer volume of positive responses to our Appleseed message was stunning.  This will be a HUGE shot in the arm for our attendance numbers this year.  We would set people up with the tri-fold, and the "buy signal" was virtually automatic - "where are you guys located?"  We'd whip out our schedule insert and show them where we'll be this year, and tell them to go to the website for more info and to register.

Sprocket58 was our "Jack Russell Terrier."  She was tireless in going out into the aisle and engaging people and telling them the Appleseed story.  Superheat engaged the kids on Sunday, encouraging them to sling up to see what we teach.  Miki was also great with the families, engaging the kids and challenging the dads to come out and shoot.

Thanks to Miki and Sprocket58 for putting in 10 hours at the booth on Saturday.  That's a long day.  Thanks to Superheat for the teardown help on Sunday.

Bottom line:  Lots of good kharma, and extroverted/gregarious personalities work the best.  I think we had the most success when we had both men and women in the booth together.  Seeing how this is our first organized show, I'd say it was almost a home run that bounced off the top of the wall for a standup triple. 

Bad:  Not much.  Some little stuff that we can improve upon.  Need to have a bigger table at the front of the booth to display AQT's and Red Coats.  Going higher tech with a flat screen and laptop will get even more folks into the booth.  Should have had some signup sheets to get contact info for the folks that were REALLY interested and excited - for follow-up email/letter.

Safety issues: Coffee spill on my brand new white tablecloth  Who left that half-full coffee cup in the bag?  You know who you are.   

Other factors / influences SB believes may have impacted attendance (If any):  Weather probably dampened attendance on Sunday.

Pics after setup: