Here are the pictures I promised you last week.

As you can see, the booth set up is pretty simple. I have one 4′ work table and one 4′ presentation table. The banner in the back of the booth has all of the tat designs for the customer to choose from. The table for the tat artist is located near the front of the booth. Tats are a demonstration product. People like to watch them being applied and see the end result. Often someone who never wanted to get a tat will decide to get one after watching them being applied. This is why I like to place the work table near the front of the booth.

In this booth photo, the presentation table is located in the front of the booth. Normally I like to position the table along the side of the booth. This gives the customer a clear path so they can walk into the booth to select their tat. The presentation table holds a photo book with pictures of tats that have been applied to previous customers. This book lets the customer see examples of my work and different color options for their tats. Customers looking through the presentation book will help create a “buzz” in the booth which will draw attention. Unlike the booth photo, I like to have the picture with the Swarovski crystals on the work table where I apply the tats. When I am applying the tat I ask the customer if they want me to add a crystal for a dollar and I can point to the crystal picture with the samples.

Hidden under the presentation table are all my extra personal items, such as my necessity box, sweater, water, food, hat, rain gear, extra sun glasses etc.

The work table has my stencils, cotton pads and balls, spray bottle with alcohol, powder, mirrors, airbrush gun and cleaning tubs sitting on the table. Under the table, hidden by the skirting is my Power Palette, tool kit, and extra tat supplies.

I choose to use black for the table cloth and skirting in my booth. With all the colors of the banners and all the tats displayed on the banners, the booth has a busy look to it. The solid black adds simplicity to the booth. Black does not show the dirt and the solid black color gives the booth a professional look. The table cloth and skirting are plastic, which will clean up easily and are available from a party supply store. I use a staple gun to attach the table cloth and skirting to the side of the table. After the show I simply rip the table covering off and throw it away.

The banners in the booth are attached by bungees.

The furniture is limited to two stools, one for the customer and one for the tatist and a foot stool for applying ankle tats. I do have one folding chair to sit in when I am not busy. When I am busy I fold the chair up and hide it behind the presentation table. I only have one waste basket per tatist.

One final note on the wind. It does not take much wind to take any canopy air borne. Canopies need to be weighted down with weights. On the Easy Up the legs can have a strong cord looped through each leg and then tied to a weight. To be safe, I think you need to have at least one 20# weight at each leg. In most cases this will work to hold the canopy down. I have done shows where I have had to hold on to the canopy even though I had the weights. I just hoped I was not going to become another Mary Poppins.

While creating the booth photos for you I did discover one problem. I wanted to have my banners be color coordinated. This was an impossible task for me since our banners are not color coordinated. I spoke with our graphic artist about this issue and we are creating banners that are color coordinated. I hope to be able to show them to show you by next week.

I plan on having more booth photos for you next week. I feel this is such an important part of our business and I want to give you as many helpful tips as possible to give your booth a dynamite appearance and functionality. Since it is nearing the end of the season for 2008, you will have some new ideas to think about and hopefully implement for your 2009 season.