InConJunction XXXVIII
InConJunction is an old-school science fiction convention that's held every year in Indianapolis, and is one of the Midwest's longest-running science fiction conventions. This year it was held over the weekend of July 6-8, 2018 at the Indianapolis Marriott East, which is just down the road from us. We're so close we could actually walk to it, if only the neighborhood were walkable.
Because of the extreme heat, and because we wanted to have the van in a good position to load in, we went over to the hotel right after lunch on Thursday. We sat around waiting, and I did a little more writing.
Then we got word that the dealers' room was open for load-in, so we hurried in to find our booths and start hauling everything in. As would be our luck, it started raining right about time we were loading stuff in, which meant having to wrestle with tarps to protect our merchandise, especially the books. We did get everything in reasonably quickly, and then we started setting up our structures. However, with the larger setup we were doing, we had more to put together, so we weren't anywhere near ready when they shooed us out for the night.
Then we headed over to the con suite to see what might be available. After munching a little, we headed back home, where I did a couple of writing challenges on LiveJournal before turning in for the night.
On Friday we had to get up early to get back to the hotel and finish setting up as soon as the dealers' room doors opened. At least this year we didn't forget a whole bunch of stuff, but we managed to have some other problems because we were hurrying so hard. However, we did manage to get everything set up in time, although we didn't have any time left over to look around the dealers' room.
When the doors opened and the general membership started flowing in, we did get some sales. However, traffic was relatively slow, enough that I had some time to get some reading done on my phone while I was waiting between customers. Still, Fridays are always slow.
After the dealers' room closed for the evening, we headed over to the con suite to get some munchies. Then we headed back home for a real supper. We had a scary moment when a slip and fall accident came very close to being a "call 911" accident. However, the family member was able to get back up on his feet with some assistance and didn't seem to have done himself any serious harm, so we decided not to worry overmuch about it. All the same, we rearranged some stuff in the front room to reduce the risk of similar falls in the future.
On Saturday we headed back to the hotel and dropped in at the con suite to grab some breakfast. Then we headed over to the dealers' room and got our tables opened for business. Once we were ready to go, I did some walking around and met an old dealers' room neighbor from MidAmericon II, the 2015 Worldcon. We visited for a few minutes, but the doors were about to open, so I had to cut it short and hurry back to our shop.
Sales continued to be slow, although this is a small convention, so we have to adjust our expectations accordingly. However, I was beginning to have some serious second thoughts about whether to continue to buy the 10X30 setup, as opposed to the 10x20 space we'd been using in previous years. We simply weren't seeing the increased level of sales to justify the additional space.
On the other hand, our emoji masks were selling quite well for us. In fact, we were running low enough that I decided we really needed to buy a lot more of them if we were going to have enough for our August conventions.
After the dealers' room closed for the evening, we went over to sit at the Royal Manticorian Navy table for two hours. Since it was so late in the evening, we didn't get much traffic, so I spent a good bit of the time working on my writing.
Afterward we headed home and I made our actual supper. Then I went up to the storage unit to retrieve some merchandise, and I put in an order for those emoji masks.
On Sunday we headed back to the hotel for our last day of the convention, wanting to make it a strong finish. Since the dealers' room didn't open until an hour later, we were able to take a little more time having breakfast in the con suite, and could actually enjoy the food and visit with friends.
Then we got our tables uncovered and ready for sales. I did a little looking around before we actually opened, visiting with the other dealers and comparing notes on sales. When the doors did open, sales remained obstinately slow, cementing my decision to go back to the smaller space for the next year and be more selective in what merchandise to bring.
In the afternoon we started packing the figurines so we'd be ready to haul things out as soon as the big rollup door opened. However, with the extreme heat and so much unsold merchandise, I ended up having a lot of trouble keeping up the pace of load out, and it seemed like we were taking forever. We finally managed to get some help, which did speed up the process enough that we were able to get done in time to catch a little of the dead dog party in the con suite.
Then we drove the van back home, knowing I was going to have a bunch of stuff to unload into the storage unit. Because we hadn't sold all that much, we decided not to celebrate by going out to eat. Instead, I fixed a supper for us, and then sat down with the ledger to do the bookwork for the con.
Copyright 2019 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated June 21, 2019.