Ideas for Interactive Fair or Festival Booth

[genburk]

I will be at a County Fair booth for up to 8 days. I would like to have a few things that people coming by can do or try. I would like to have ideas that will show them the tools, but be easy to do at any kind of booth.

Some booths are outside and don't have access to fresh water (to use or wash hands frequently) or electricity, so I thought I would try to get ideas with those thoughts in mind. Also consider that there may be a lot of heat at some booths, so unless someone also wants to cart around a big cooler, it would be better to have something that won't sour or go bad (or turn brown as in apples and potatoes or stink like garlic and onion) in a day's time.
Also please consider space available and lugging all the supplies.

Here are some that I know of:

Quick-Stir pitcher - Mix glitter and water to see how it works
Forged Knives - Cut bigger carrots into smaller ones for the chopper
Food Chopper - carrots (something that is hard to cut, won't brown, not stink like onions)

Do you have any other ideas?

Thanks so much for your thoughts and time.

 

[Kitchen2u]

Personally I would stay away of letting them use the Forged knives...liability issue. I'd be afraid they just came from the Beer Bar (if they have one) or just plain clumsy and accidents happen...not to mention the kids that come around.

What about having:

~ an ice chest full of ice...do the ice cube demo in the Saute pan or ice cream dipper.

~ have some water on hand for Easy Adjustable Measuring Cup & spoon, Easy Read Measuring cups

~ Salad Spinner

~ BBQ tools are a great display for the summer fairs!

Good luck!

Ginny

 

[genburk]

I did think about the liability with the knives after I wrote that. Thanks for confirming that thought, and thanks for the other ideas also.

 

[muffetts]

Bring the Microplane Adjustable Grater and lots of lemons, chocolate and/or limes. Bring the ultimate Mandoline, too. People LOVE the smell of lemons and limes and showing off the grater with them is amazing. Frankly, that's what sold me mine!

Salad Spinner for sure and maybe then the tongs, and Measure Mix n' Pour. Try and cross-sell as much as possible.

Bring the garlic press, but press ginger or strawberries instead.

If you have it, show off the BBQ tools - and the bag, if you have it. Show off the spices and oils - let people smell them.

Bring SA items too - maybe have samples of fresh strawberries - people always hang around where there's food.

Put your draw slips in the Trifle Bowl and have a draw for some some PC items - do up a basket after the show, winner gets it and a $5 coupon (that increases to $10 when they book and hold a show).

Make a punch with lemonade and gingerale and show off the QuikStir Pitcher with that.

Do something using the Deluxe Mini Muffin Pan (maybe have the shells pre-made but demo how you did them) and have samples. Fill wonton skins with a vegetable mix or something like that. Something that doesn't need to be kept cool. I did a fundraising table once where I brought the Amaretto Strawberry Pastries, made them smaller (bite-sized) and this let me show off the knives and Zester/Scorer etc. You could do something similar - keep a cooler with the whipped topping. Or make simple strawberry shortcakes.

DO NOT KEEP THE SEASON'S BEST COOKBOOKS ON DISPLAY! People think they are free and walk away with them! I lost a few that are no longer available that way! Do have on hand the mini-catalogues with the new product in them.

 

[bethsbiz]

Demo at a Fair: Ideas...I often do day long events and bring food do demo tools. It keeps me busy, if nothing else. I have learned over the years that the interaction I have with the visitors is more important than demoing an item. Get their attention FIRST by asking if they've heard of PC, when were they at a show last, what is their favorite product, etc...and then moving to a demo of a product has more value.

These are key pieces I like to show when I can:

Microplane: take a big bin of cheap peanuts and show how they come out "like a cloud" and impress that this is how the nuts come out like a cloud! (and p cheese, chocolate, zest will do the same!) I do this demo at EVERY show because you only need a few nuts to show it!

Microplane: If you have a Coscto nearby (or a store with bulk product) buy a bag of lemons or limes and then zest the fruit with the microplane. You can also then cut it with a knife and use the citrus press to show how much juice OR the mandoline to show how you can slice thin citrus slices as well.

Salad Chopper: If you can afford it, make salsa! The chopper is easily sold when people see it in action.

Salad Spinner: Buy a bag of lettuce and spin it all day! For this, I would take a container that you can pour water into and out of so the demo is a real demo of its features. Make sure people see how ez it is to use the spinner and have them use the brake!

In regards to potatoes....they are cheap and show a lot of tools. Even though they do brown, I take a bag or 2 to big events like this. I do a lot of chopping and slicing and then move the waste to a paper sack that I've lined with plastic garbage sack. I take a bottle of spray sanitzier with me and a roll of paper towels.

Hopefully you'll have someone assisting you cause if I do an event like this I do try to be "making demo noise" as often as possible. That will get them to stop. It's also a good idea to have clearly marked "test stations" ....like 3 cutting boards with food and a PC tool on it, etc.

Hey, I love the glitter in the quick stir idea....can't believe I've not heard of that before but I'm so using that ideas at a evening event next week!

Good luck...

 

[genburk]

Has anyone ever tried a

"DEMO AT NOON AND SIX"

type thing? Like making salsa or something very quick and easy.
I am not sure how this would work at a fair. I don't think I personally would walk back to the table to see it, unless I was really close anyway. At a small festival it might work, but I think a COUNTY fair is too big.

What are your thoughts?

 

[tpchefrebecca]

OOH! I love these ideas. I am doing a 3-day fair this weekend and I wanted to do demo's. I thought of the a/p/c/s but didn't want to show how battered my was. Anyway, I thought about the lemons and garlic, but the ginger seems like the better idea seeing as it is so fiberous (sp?) it will make a for sure impression. I am showing the chopper, Micro-plane, citrus press, and mandoline. I love the trifle bowl idea and I think I might give a cert. with that. who knows? I can't wait for this weekend.

 

[genburk]

Does anyone know what are the busiest days for fairs?

For instance, I would imagine that the first part of the week, and the big draws (like tractor pulling, etc.) would be your busiest days. As the fair draws to a close I am sure there are less guests, but do you still stay fairly busy or is it just dead the last day or so?

I know there are a lot of repeat guests as some are people in the fair for one reason or another and some buy the week long pass. But I also know that new people stop at the end of week, but not sure how many.

And I am sure it varies for each particular fair.

 

[jlevernier]

If you have them, hand out recipe cards with your information on it to anyone who fills out a drawing slip.

 

[genburk]

Well, I thought I might add a little update.

The pitcher with the glitter (I had colorful stars) is a big hit. Especially with the kids, but if it gets their parents looking, its working!!

We are doing carrots and (probably celery later) with the chopper on the cutting board. Some people are quite amazed. Some just stop to play, but they are stopping. When the chopper is going people are looking for the noise maker. It's kinda funny.

I would like to try ginger in the garlic press, but haven't yet. Does anyone know if it is sticky or hard to get the smell off fingers?

Will update again later for future reference.

edited to add: we are only 2 days into the 8 day long fair. Will update again after more 'testing' with ideas.

 

[Chef Bobby]

Bring a couple of recruiting applications. I always try to recruit people from the other booths. If someone says they want a pizza stone, tell them they can get it an a lot more in the starter kit.

 

[vangogirl]

I got this from here months ago and use it at every booth!

 

[tpchefrebecca]

Ladies, thanks for the ideas! The Races was a big hit despite the low crowd attendence. I have 2-Catalog shows booked, 2-Recruit leads,2-3 shows for the fall and quite a bit of slips completely filled out for the prize of $25 of free products that went into the Trifle Bowl! (Thanks Muffets ) I also had $100 in sales that included the beautiful Trifle bowl.

 

[iamtamnur]

I got this from here months ago and use it at every booth!

Thanks so much! I've adapted it and will be using it at my Fair I'm attending this Friday. What an awesome tool.

 

[Christ Follower]

It's also good to bring the Mandoline. Use apples to show it off. My director sold several of there at the last festival we did together. Also the citrus press. She brought little key limes for it. Always bring the food chopper too!

 

[genburk]

Well, our County fair is over. Here are some of the things we did for future reference. It was an 8 day fair in the country so less traffic than a city fair.

We had the chopper and cutting board. Two pounds of mini carrots were enough and could sit out. They dried out a little but were good till the end.

Celery gets a little rubbery if it sits out, but it still worked, use it first.

The cutting board and chopper took a beating but a little bleach (to remove orange coloring) will help.

The quick stir pitcher was a hit. I used stars instead of regular glitter, and the kids could see it from a distance.

We only sold a few items, some we had in stock, and I had two small orders.

We offered a stone and a Chillzanne rectangle server as the prizes. We also told them we would draw for a free kitchen show after those 2 drawings. The stone was the big attraction. If they didn't want to be in the drawing for the kitchen show, we told them to mark or write in no.

We went through 75 regular catalogs, and 150 mini catalogs. Also almost 4 packs of survey slips.

We had an average of 40 drawing slips a day, except the last 2 days (Friday and Saturday) which had about 55-60.

The booth was $200, but we split it between us (only 2) so it was $100 each.

We split the 350 drawing slips or so, and got about 170 each (shared all the yes, no, and recruiting ones evenly)

We had a total of 7 shows booked, 3 catalog shows and 5-6 wanted us to call them this week to book. We are calling all of them, but the 5-6 wanted us to call them this week for sure. (I am not sure if 10 shows is low or not for this amount of traffic, but we learned a lot this week, so maybe it will help for future festivals and fairs).

One of the things that we tried that seemed to help was to tell them we were offering a free show to anyone that booked while at the fair and we would pencil the date in case it would be a problem. They could change it within a week and we would still offer the free show. That idea didn't come until late during the week, so we may have done better to do it earlier. Not really sure, but it is a though for future fairs.

We had to cover a lot of hours and it was a long week. The fair was 8 days from 10am to 10pm. We split the time as evenly as possible, to be fair. It would have been nice to had a few more helpers.

Another thing if you do have more helpers, write down a schedule, and use either a list of things people bring to show, or have one person bring it all. With two it worked out, because she brought most of it, and I only brought a few things, but with many people in and out, it would be easier for one person to bring their things or make lists.

Figure out how you will split the slips before the end. Split at the end of each day or at end of the fair. We did at the end of the fair, because that is when the drawing was.

Just thought I would let everyone know how it went and wanted to leave it on the thread for future people to read that are new to fairs and festivals.

 

[genburk]

Does anyone know what are the busiest days for fairs?

For instance, I would imagine that the first part of the week, and the big draws (like tractor pulling, etc.) would be your busiest days. As the fair draws to a close I am sure there are less guests, but do you still stay fairly busy or is it just dead the last day or so?

I know there are a lot of repeat guests as some are people in the fair for one reason or another and some buy the week long pass. But I also know that new people stop at the end of week, but not sure how many.

And I am sure it varies for each particular fair.

Actually the last two days of our fair were the busiest. Our fair ran from Saturday to Saturday. The first day was busy, and the last two were the busiest. Asking around the other vendors seemed to think that the demolition derby drew more people than the tractor pulls, and that seemed to be the case at our fair as well.