Midland Entomological Fayre — April 2024
Last week we attended and exhibited at our first show of the year, the Midland Entomological Fayre. This was also the first show my partner Claire has come with me to to help with the table on the day.
The Saturday Night Panic
Me and Alfie packed up the isopods on Saturday night, constantly second-guessing if we were taking too many or too few of the right things. We wanted to make sure we could bring the classic favourites as well as a few things that would be unique to the show.
Several litres of moss later — and after helping the label printer through a meltdown when it started to struggle to spool off the labels towards the end of the run — we finally had everything finished. At around 11:30 pm that night, it was time to go to sleep before getting up in the morning to drive down to the show.
Show Day
The show started a little later than some others we've attended previously, and it was only an hour away, so it felt like we didn't have to get up early. Claire actually said she felt like she'd slept in and missed it because of the late start combined with the night-before preparation paying off.
On the way I made sure to grab some liquid energy (coffee) for me and Tom over at Exotic Empire. As soon as I saw him, the standard "arrghhh I'm panicking" set in — which I think he noticed right away.
Luckily the setup was quick and the day went over super fast. Almost too fast, but during the day — thanks to Claire and Alfie helping out — I was afforded a lot of time to speak to people who were attending the show.
Meeting Customers and Friends
It was amazing to see so many people already knew who we were and commented about coming onto our site previously and having made purchases. A few customers even commented on how the care we take when packaging isopods and springtails really showed how much we cared for them. That was great feedback — getting the postage right took me a long time to start doing because I wanted to ensure our pods had the best possible transit from our home to their new one.
We also got to see a few old faces who we met at the last show, which was truly great. That included the owners of Unusual Pets and Spa Spiders — properly nice to catch up with them again.
What I Didn't Manage
Due to the panic I always have when doing things like this, I didn't afford myself a proper look at other tables during the day. So I came home with a lot of isopods — but all of which I had taken myself! No new additions to the collection this time.
Would I Go Back?
This is a great show to do and we'll be booking on for December too. It's run well, the venue is great, and there's even a great vending machine with protein bars and strong energy drinks. The essentials, honestly.
Thank you to everyone we spoke to last weekend. We hope if you purchased anything the little guys are doing great. For those we haven't yet met — we hope to do so at one of the shows coming up.
We were unable to do Capital the weekend after this, but we hope to attend quite a few during the year. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for updates on which shows we'll be at next.
Until next time!
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