SF Pen Show 2024
I am late on posting this. Life…
At the end of August, I once again traveled to San Francisco for the SF Pen Show. While not the largest show in the country, it is one of the best organized, and this translates to fun and exciting.
Last year was the first at the new hotel, and there were some growing pains. One was the circulation into the show down a narrow, often bottlenecked hallway. This year, that was resolved by moving day-of registration out into the lobby area. However, a new issue arose - when two different vendors have large followings and release show-only specials… and are situated across the isle from each other. Let’s just say we traded one bottlenecked hallway for one overcrowded mass of people inside the show. It was not pretty. Many other vendors were “blocked” by the line waiting. Needless to say, there were many vendors upset about this, and many sales were lost because people simply couldn’t get to a table they wanted to see. The show organizers, along with the two vendors, did try to corral the line into an organized mess that limited the overcrowding, but by the time they realized there was an issue, it was almost too late to do much about it. Hopefully they learn and don’t put these two vendors together next year.
All of that said, if that was the only drama of the show - and I am pretty sure it was - then the show was fantastic. I do know that the number of vendors was up this year compared to last, and a few “side rooms” were utilized to hold extra vendors. The show organizers did something different - but kind of cool - by putting similar vendors into these side rooms. For example, one room had 5 vendors all selling stickers, stamps, planner supplies, and such. It made the room have a theme, if you will.
Overall, the show was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to go back next year. Here are some pics of the weekend. Enjoy.
Until next time, remember to always Spin the Compass.
