Wizard World Day -1

Setup day!

It's Thursday afternoon and time to do an initial setup at our table.  We chose to take the car instead of the metro (cheaper) and parked close to the convention center.  Was able to haul everything in one trip, so success!

Inside, we went straight away to the registration table and got our wrist bands that allow full access to the floor for the next three days.  Only bother is that we have to keep the wrist band on throughout the entire event (which means sleeping and bathing with it).  It's very unobtrusive so no biggy.

As can be expected, the convention floor was a construction zone.  As you can see below, this is what we started with once we found our table:

Of course, I'm dressing for the occasion (frumpy but comfortable).  You can see that our table has yet to even be covered.  That was quickly remedied.  The big suitcase I'm resting against is full of books.  We needed a sturdy hard shell case to avoid damaging the paperbacks over time.  There's foam on the inside to make sure the products stay put as well.  Take a close look at that black backpack on the table.  My entire display grid is packed inside that thing.

So, we took roughly an hour and a half to get everything straightened out.  To stand out from the crowd, we put our own cover on the table (sprinkled with stars).  All in all, we ended up taking three hours, with the waiting and chatting and resting.  Saw someone drive in a Delorian all decked out like the car in Back To The Future.  Chatted some with a famous sword maker (Dragon Song Forge) who was setting up his impressive wares.  The young lady next to us will be selling t-shirts, and they do look nice.

Below is our finished table for the evening, complete with the nice name tag provided by Wizard World.  Note that we didn't do everything - the books are still not displayed, nor are the various pamphlets and such.  We'll do that Friday morning before opening while latecomers are scrambling to throw their stuff up before the show starts.  Still deciding if we will dress out in steam punk Friday or wait until the weekend.  I will provide a picture with us in full operation tomorrow.  You can see the box grid and how we set it up to display the books.  The "shelves" (peg board tool holders) are hard to see, however a copy of Waiting Weapon can be seen on one (used for spacing).  Also shown is the Vista Print banner behind us.  Looking forward to the show tomorrow!  Tonight the iPad and phones will get a full charge.