Home & Garden Shows

[tthomass]

If you have done one.........got a picture of your setup? For curiosity, what was the pricing in your area? I'm looking at $1,700 for a 10x10.

[mrusk]

Going rate in the nj/ny metro area is 1000-1300 for a 10x10.

[Team-Green L&L]

We usually try to get with a distributor if possible because our budget isn't quite right for it.

Here's the bottom line. As long as you can afford to pay $1500-2500 for the booth, $5000 in product, and lose 2-3 guys for 3 weeks (1 wk. for setup, 1 wk. for show, 1 wk. tear down and organizing) then it will keep you busy for 6-8 weeks afterwards. But if you can't afford that, which we only can every other year, then I would look into other avenues.

[Captains Landscape]

What the hell are you building in a 10x10 area that takes you 7 days to put together? A model skyscraper out of SRW blocks?

[kootoomootoo]

Eiffel tower. :)


I just got back from Cleveland show (biggest in the country)
10x10 is $1700 with electricity. Product is free (all I want) 2 days max to build 1 to tear down. All in all was disappointed in this years show.
I pulled out because am doing main display for another show in 6 weeks.

[tthomass]

Land one job and the $1700 is recovered. After material I'd be looking at $2500. Few plants and stone work......mostly pictures, logo nice and BIG, lap top going with a slide show and my beautiful face to talk to.

Few large pictures for attention.......plants: Deodora Cedar, Boxwoods, Nandina......stone work: some sort of wall......banner in the back with logo.......sounds like it will work. I think keep it simple but catches the eye and talk to people......there's about 25 landscape companies there.

1 day prep
3 days show (33,000 people on average)
-tear down last day

[tthomass]

I would also convienently have Blue all shined up with the T190 loaded and parked outside somewhere visible. As well as both Chevy's. Put on a little show outside while I'm inside.

[kootoomootoo]

Cleveland is 9 days ........I think about 250,000

[AceFinish]

If you have done one.........got a picture of your setup? For curiosity, what was the pricing in your area? I'm looking at $1,700 for a 10x10.
our area runs $700 for 10x10 sorry I don't have any pictures up right now but we normally do a patio some seat walls and outdoor kitchen and have a computer running a loop of our jobs for people to see. We also buy 4-6 booth spaces though depending on what we want to do though.

[Team-Green L&L]

What the hell are you building in a 10x10 area that takes you 7 days to put together? A model skyscraper out of SRW blocks?

Wow, you're a little edgy...

It takes 5 days (which by my standards is a week) and we don't put ourselves in a "cell" for a booth. If we don't get 2 side by side or a 20 x 20, or we just use that budget elsewhere.

Secondly, setting up the booth doesn't end all. You have to spend time designing, printing, and prepping the promos, cards, handouts, etc.

You have to build the booth with your materials staged 1/4 mi. away in the garage (normally)

Plus, there's parking fees and meals and you should have, at the least, 3 guys in there at all times to be effective.

This will probably get some arguments, but I can only speak from our experiences in Cincinnati.

[Tom B.]

Wow, you're a little edgy...

It takes 5 days (which by my standards is a week) and we don't put ourselves in a "cell" for a booth. If we don't get 2 side by side or a 20 x 20, or we just use that budget elsewhere.

If you have two 10' x 10' booths side by side, that would be 200sq. ft. One 20' x 20' is 400sq. ft. So, which one is taking your crew of 3 a week to setup. I believe Thomas was asking about a 10' x 10.' :dancing:

[Team-Green L&L]

If you have two 10' x 10' booths side by side, that would be 200sq. ft. One 20' x 20' is 400sq. ft. So, which one is taking your crew of 3 a week to setup. I believe Thomas was asking about a 10' x 10.' :dancing:

I'm sorry, my answer was quite vague. Large material distributors get 20 x 20' every year in prime locations in the hall, so it is nice to work something out to have a guy in their booth if you can. That booth takes 5 days to setup with 4 guys and 2 trucks.

Mind you that our HGS is inside a Convention Center (which leads to staging issues).

If we our "footing the bill" we will budget $10,000 for the show. $3000 in materials, $2000 in printing, $3,000 for the booth, and $2000 in promos and ad space. The guys actually volunteer for the labor to keep them busy throughout the season. They know where the paycheck comes from...the sale. This budget pays for 2 10 x 10's, 5000 postcards, 5000 business card sized ads, 5000 small promo gifts, 3000 medium promo gifts, and a bowl stocked full of candy at all times! (ALWAYS HAVE CANDY).

[kootoomootoo]

I'm sorry, my answer was quite vague. Large material distributors get 20 x 20' every year in prime locations in the hall, so it is nice to work something out to have a guy in their booth if you can. That booth takes 5 days to setup with 4 guys and 2 trucks.

Mind you that our HGS is inside a Convention Center (which leads to staging issues).

If we our "footing the bill" we will budget $10,000 for the show. $3000 in materials, $2000 in printing, $3,000 for the booth, and $2000 in promos and ad space. The guys actually volunteer for the labor to keep them busy throughout the season. They know where the paycheck comes from...the sale. This budget pays for 2 10 x 10's, 5000 postcards, 5000 business card sized ads, 5000 small promo gifts, 3000 medium promo gifts, and a stock full of candy (ALWAYS HAVE CANDY).


Staright answer ...have you bought and paid for your own booth ...ever.
Not interested in what manufacturer does.

[mrusk]

With all those giveaways and candy sounds almost like halloween!


In my area you get 2 to 1.5 days to set up. Some shows you need to be cleaned up within 5 hours of the end of the show. Some will let you clean up the next day.



Who in the world would buy materials just for a home show? Get your manufacture or dealer to loan them to you. Hell, just buy whatever material you need for the next job and use it for the booth.

[kootoomootoo]

The "product costs $3000"

1. If your home show experience is manning a manufacturers booth for 3 hours you wouldnt know product costs.

2. Why would manufacturer have product costs ...they own product...little fyi

3. Manufacturers lend product to "reputable" contractors .....hence why it costs you $3000.

[treemover]

Heres my .02 cents

Been in business 8 years done shows 7 of the 8. The shows work out, not a ton of work but you more than pay for the booth. In wichita ks we are paying 700 for 10 x 10 booth. We have had 10 x 20 in the past just more work setting up nothing more.
My Tips: Get a green outdoor carpet for the bottom of your booth. If you have a live B&B Tree take straw bales or something to build up around the tree and behind you edging(usually some type of rock wall) so you dont have to add so much mulch. Be simple in your design its only 10 x 10 you need room for yourself and a table, we usually have 1- 2-3" tree,couple 5gallon shrubs and maybe a small evergreen tree. Have candy its cheap, and works dont ask me how, i never would have believed it. Make a stand for your banner, our banner is 4.5 x 10, we made a 1" square tubing frame for it and made it 12' tall to the bottom of the banner and it comes apart in about 5 minutes. It is for sure a timesaver, and is very visble. Also get some 4x5 business cards as well as the standard business cards people seem to like the bigger cards .

We have I believe somewhere around 75,000 through the door at the show, I think we went through around 500-700 cards. When you set up go at off times, less people to work around so you get done faster, time is money. 2-3 guys that are efficent 3-4 hours setup time max maybe less depends if you have everything you need. 1 hour tear downtime and go at off times again or it will take longer. one last thing for this long winded post, be specfic and make sure you have a sign that tells everything you do, people are dumb and they dont assume! Be ready for stupid questions and a lot of them:hammerhead: . good luck!

[roknh20]

In Northeastern Oklahoma the H&G show is in March when people are really interested in projects. We do a large booth and 2 of us usually work the show from start to finish. A crew of 3-4 set up in 3-4 days. Tear down is easy, we're only allowed one day for tear out. Being the owners, I don't think anyone else can sell our place better than us. I really think it's money well spent. Make sure you have something of interest with your info on it, a newsletter or plenty of business cards.