Here we are, and IWF is only four days away. There's a lot of water under the bridge and sweat behind us now. I found it fairly amusing (we won't mention stressful!) getting ready for our first exhibit at IWF!
A few weeks ago, it really started getting down to crunch time. It involved chasing up suppliers, redoing faulty graphics, hounding my good-natured co-workers and making time to check every item as it came in. So fast-forward to the week of August 8th. Monday found the US marketing team putting decals on chairs and tables. (Ooooh! FUN!) That looked cool and made a nice break from the daily grind.
Tuesday brought a company lunch, which we served off of the curved counter we'll be using at the show. This was freshly finished by a member of our sales team and decorated by...yep...me! Wednesday brought the completion of the crates for shipping, which meant Thursday was gonna be loading day.
As I went around checking on all the pieces, I carried with me an aerosol can of our trusty old TensorGrip P300 high temp contact adhesive. Good thing too... I found out that the hook and loop I was using to fix the drape onto the back of the counter was tougher than the adhesive backing. P300 to the rescue! Seems to be ok now, thankfully!
Back to loading the crates. The round counters weren't really fitting in....(grooooan!) While about five of us were standing in mourning silence, our most senior team member walked in from tending his garden out back. "Why don't you just flip it upside down?"
Awe. Shock. A moment of revelation. And then instant action as we realized that putting the beastly casters at the top of the crate would let us slide the counters in on a smooth laminate surface. (Smooth, thanks to our lay-flat TensorGrip L10N adhesive for standard laminate) Those counters went in like a dream on their tops.
Until about 5:30 that happy Thursday evening, there was a flurry of activity while we all ran around collecting the pieces that needed to be included in the crates. Then, like a puzzle, we fit every item in with not one spare inch. Friday saw the ominous closing of the crate doors...hope we didn't forget anything...
Friday afternoon, a few of us went to inspect the final display at our customer and supplier, Renze Display. Breathtaking. Check out the sneak preview below.
The crates left Monday. So this week has been utter bliss...with a few last-minute rushes to get other things done. And here it is Friday...I'm biting my fingernails, anxiously waiting for Tuesday's early-morning flight to Atlanta!
See you there!
A true experience by Amy Mornan
