Further information for stallholders
Apr 8, 2018 15:45:56 GMT
pinkkittywinks, Sebby6, and 2 more like this
Post by Maz on Apr 8, 2018 15:45:56 GMT
For anybody thinking about becoming a stallholder, we have a few more details for you.
Stallholder applications will be going live on Saturday the 14th of April. A link to a Google form will be published on our website and forum, sent to our stallholder mailing list and shared on our Facebook and Twitter pages. We aim to make this process as simple as possible and hope to be approving the first wave of applications at the end of April.
One objective of the new process is to gather the information that we require in the earlier stages of event planning and promotion. This will include information such as your contact details, your trading name and website addresses, a description for advertising online and in the con book, a brief description of the types of products that you intend to sell, any large equipment or display units that you are considering bringing with you and your current intentions for when you plan to arrive to set up your stall and whether you may require the use of the loading bay. Later in the year, we will need to contact you again for you to tell us more detailed information about your stall, such as confirming the details of any equipment that you plan to bring with you, and we will also ask you to complete a risk assessment (we’ll provide you with a template to help with this). The ticket store doesn’t allow us to collect this information at the point of purchase, whereas we can do this with an application process. Last year we struggled to contact some stallholders who provided incomplete or inaccurate information when purchasing their ticket or changed their contact details after purchase.
In order to keep the products available for attendees as varied as possible, stalls will be allocated as such. UK PonyCon has always catered to all fans and generations of My Little Pony and we'd like our stalls to reflect this. It’s important that the mix of products on offer from the stalls meets the needs of the various types of attendees we see at the event, without allowing any one type of stall to dominate to the detriment of other types of stalls. Furthermore, all stallholders will need to make sure that their planned stock meets our guidelines of being 75% My Little Pony themed or inspired items. Stalls have been in very high demand in recent years - by introducing an application process, rather than first-come first-served, we hope to ensure variety.
To help with diversity, we will be limiting stallholders to a maximum of two tables. This should ensure that there are no issues with stallholders buying large batches of stalls early in the process, squeezing out stallholders who may wish to buy their stall a little later.
Another change in the spirit of supporting a variety of stallholders is to offer a range of stall sizes, with varying prices. We have two sizes of tables available at the venue this year – 5ft wide tables as standard and a limited number of 7ft wide tables. There is also the option to request half of a 7ft wide table (I.e. 3.5ft of stall frontage), which may suit new or smaller stallholders. Each stall ticket includes admittance for one person for the full weekend. A full table also entitles you to purchase one ticket for a helper at a reduced price of £20. Helper tickets are not available for shared tables as there is insufficient space for extra chairs behind the table. The prices for these table options will be as follows:
In response to the feedback gathered through the pre-registration survey, we have moved the Sunday opening time back half an hour to 9.30am, compared to 9am last year, and will close the stall area earlier at the start of the closing ceremony, rather than at the close of the convention.
There is one change that we would like to make to information that we have previously provided. Previously, we advised that we will require all stallholders to sell for both days. The reasoning for this was that we wanted to have a full and vibrant stall area for both days of the event, as empty gaps in the stall area don’t come across well to attendees who may only visit on one day. Now, we would like to advise that we will welcome applications from stallholders who intend to sell for only one day. In the event of over-subscription, preference will be given to stallholders who intend to sell for both days. There will be no discounts for one-day stalls.
As the Chairperson, I’d like to personally reassure you that applications will not be assessed based on the personal relationships between potential stallholders and committee members, or lack thereof. While we want to have high-quality and relevant stalls at the event and also need to safeguard our attendees and other stallholders, I sincerely hope that we do not have to reject any stall applications, however if we do, a full and clear explanation will be given to the applicant.
We appreciate there has also been some concerns about the unloading and loading at the venue. The nature of the venue, much like with the Royal Armouries at Leeds, is that there is limited space in the building’s attached loading bay, so we need to plan around this limitation to ensure stallholders and other suppliers are able to unload and load in a safe and efficient manner. This will likely involve inviting stallholders who wish to use the loading bay to sign up for timed unloading and loading slots, with contingencies built into the schedule in case of late running, for example due to bad traffic conditions. We will also be exploring other options with the venue, for example whether drop-offs can be made earlier on Friday and pick-ups can be made on Monday. Another route we will discuss with them is whether couriers can be used to deliver and pickup goods from the venue in the days before and after the convention. Finally, we will be asking the venue about their past experiences in handling the loading for events similar to ours, such as Nottingham Comic Con, which played host to a stalls area with over 150 tables. When we have more information about how and when stallholders intend to arrive to set up the stalls, and we have discussed all available options further with the venue, we will of course share the confirmed unloading and loading arrangements with you.
The rule around not allowing consumption of food and drink brought from outside of the venue is our current understanding of the rules imposed on us by the venue. Exemptions to this can be made on medical grounds. One reason for this is likely due to the venue operating their own catering outlets, but there may be other reasons that we are not currently aware of. Under no circumstances can alcohol be brought into the venue from outside due to the licensing restrictions imposed by the local council. We will be providing bottled water to stallholders, and all stallholders will have access to further complimentary drinking water. This rule is fairly common amongst other similar events to ours, however we will be asking the venue again about this in response to your feedback.
We hope that this goes some way to reassuring you that we are listening to your feedback and that we want to make this UK PonyCon a great success. We hope to have answers to some of the outstanding questions by next weekend, in time for stallholder applications opening. In the meantime, please feel free to email us at ukponycon@googlemail.com if you’d like to discuss your particular situation further or have any other suggestions for improvements.
Maz
Chairperson
UK PonyCon 2018
Stallholder applications will be going live on Saturday the 14th of April. A link to a Google form will be published on our website and forum, sent to our stallholder mailing list and shared on our Facebook and Twitter pages. We aim to make this process as simple as possible and hope to be approving the first wave of applications at the end of April.
One objective of the new process is to gather the information that we require in the earlier stages of event planning and promotion. This will include information such as your contact details, your trading name and website addresses, a description for advertising online and in the con book, a brief description of the types of products that you intend to sell, any large equipment or display units that you are considering bringing with you and your current intentions for when you plan to arrive to set up your stall and whether you may require the use of the loading bay. Later in the year, we will need to contact you again for you to tell us more detailed information about your stall, such as confirming the details of any equipment that you plan to bring with you, and we will also ask you to complete a risk assessment (we’ll provide you with a template to help with this). The ticket store doesn’t allow us to collect this information at the point of purchase, whereas we can do this with an application process. Last year we struggled to contact some stallholders who provided incomplete or inaccurate information when purchasing their ticket or changed their contact details after purchase.
In order to keep the products available for attendees as varied as possible, stalls will be allocated as such. UK PonyCon has always catered to all fans and generations of My Little Pony and we'd like our stalls to reflect this. It’s important that the mix of products on offer from the stalls meets the needs of the various types of attendees we see at the event, without allowing any one type of stall to dominate to the detriment of other types of stalls. Furthermore, all stallholders will need to make sure that their planned stock meets our guidelines of being 75% My Little Pony themed or inspired items. Stalls have been in very high demand in recent years - by introducing an application process, rather than first-come first-served, we hope to ensure variety.
To help with diversity, we will be limiting stallholders to a maximum of two tables. This should ensure that there are no issues with stallholders buying large batches of stalls early in the process, squeezing out stallholders who may wish to buy their stall a little later.
Another change in the spirit of supporting a variety of stallholders is to offer a range of stall sizes, with varying prices. We have two sizes of tables available at the venue this year – 5ft wide tables as standard and a limited number of 7ft wide tables. There is also the option to request half of a 7ft wide table (I.e. 3.5ft of stall frontage), which may suit new or smaller stallholders. Each stall ticket includes admittance for one person for the full weekend. A full table also entitles you to purchase one ticket for a helper at a reduced price of £20. Helper tickets are not available for shared tables as there is insufficient space for extra chairs behind the table. The prices for these table options will be as follows:
- 1x 1.1m by 75cm on a shared table (approx. 3.5ft by 2.5ft) - £50
- 1x 1.5m by 75cm full table (approx. 5ft by 2.5ft) - £60 (standard table)
- 1x 1.5m by 75cm full table with extra space to side for displays - £70 (limited supply)
- 1x 2.2m by 75cm full table (approx. 7ft by 2.5ft) - £70 (limited supply)
- 2x 1.5m by 75cm full tables - £120 (includes admittance for two people)
- 2x 2.2m by 75cm full tables - £140 (includes admittance for two people, limited supply)
In response to the feedback gathered through the pre-registration survey, we have moved the Sunday opening time back half an hour to 9.30am, compared to 9am last year, and will close the stall area earlier at the start of the closing ceremony, rather than at the close of the convention.
There is one change that we would like to make to information that we have previously provided. Previously, we advised that we will require all stallholders to sell for both days. The reasoning for this was that we wanted to have a full and vibrant stall area for both days of the event, as empty gaps in the stall area don’t come across well to attendees who may only visit on one day. Now, we would like to advise that we will welcome applications from stallholders who intend to sell for only one day. In the event of over-subscription, preference will be given to stallholders who intend to sell for both days. There will be no discounts for one-day stalls.
As the Chairperson, I’d like to personally reassure you that applications will not be assessed based on the personal relationships between potential stallholders and committee members, or lack thereof. While we want to have high-quality and relevant stalls at the event and also need to safeguard our attendees and other stallholders, I sincerely hope that we do not have to reject any stall applications, however if we do, a full and clear explanation will be given to the applicant.
We appreciate there has also been some concerns about the unloading and loading at the venue. The nature of the venue, much like with the Royal Armouries at Leeds, is that there is limited space in the building’s attached loading bay, so we need to plan around this limitation to ensure stallholders and other suppliers are able to unload and load in a safe and efficient manner. This will likely involve inviting stallholders who wish to use the loading bay to sign up for timed unloading and loading slots, with contingencies built into the schedule in case of late running, for example due to bad traffic conditions. We will also be exploring other options with the venue, for example whether drop-offs can be made earlier on Friday and pick-ups can be made on Monday. Another route we will discuss with them is whether couriers can be used to deliver and pickup goods from the venue in the days before and after the convention. Finally, we will be asking the venue about their past experiences in handling the loading for events similar to ours, such as Nottingham Comic Con, which played host to a stalls area with over 150 tables. When we have more information about how and when stallholders intend to arrive to set up the stalls, and we have discussed all available options further with the venue, we will of course share the confirmed unloading and loading arrangements with you.
The rule around not allowing consumption of food and drink brought from outside of the venue is our current understanding of the rules imposed on us by the venue. Exemptions to this can be made on medical grounds. One reason for this is likely due to the venue operating their own catering outlets, but there may be other reasons that we are not currently aware of. Under no circumstances can alcohol be brought into the venue from outside due to the licensing restrictions imposed by the local council. We will be providing bottled water to stallholders, and all stallholders will have access to further complimentary drinking water. This rule is fairly common amongst other similar events to ours, however we will be asking the venue again about this in response to your feedback.
We hope that this goes some way to reassuring you that we are listening to your feedback and that we want to make this UK PonyCon a great success. We hope to have answers to some of the outstanding questions by next weekend, in time for stallholder applications opening. In the meantime, please feel free to email us at ukponycon@googlemail.com if you’d like to discuss your particular situation further or have any other suggestions for improvements.
Maz
Chairperson
UK PonyCon 2018