Attracting Orchid Show Vendors

[Keysguy]

Good day all.

I'm in charge of soliciting and contracting vendors for the New Hampshire OS annual show and sale which is typically the largest in New England. Historically we've had 8-10 plant vendors of which as many as 4 have been International. Pretty good for the dead of a New England winter when we were doing our show in mid February.

The weather has caused us a fair amount of grief over the years between blizzards and negative degree F days so the Society is moving to new dates on the last weekend of March. This is no guaranty we won't get buried in snow but with the shifting climate the probability is certainly lessened and temperatures will definitely be more temperate and agreeable even if it does snow.

We have a great venue at the Marriott Courtyard in Nashua, the second largest city in the state and right off the highway 5 miles from the Massachusetts border and an hour from Boston. We have almost 10,000 square feet of floor space at our disposal. We do a reasonable job at promoting the show and have even been featured on the state's nightly news magazine TV show in past years just prior to the show.

I have recently released the vendor invitations for the March 2022 show. I am soliciting nearly 30 vendors. Response thus far has been spotty and that's not terribly unusual as people are busy and tend to procrastinate about these things but I'm still always nervous about getting in the commitments so I know what I'm dealing with. BTW- we have not raised our vendor rates in years! The other factor playing into my nervous system is that, since our last show in 2019 (thank you COVID! )we have lost two of our largest and longest tenured vendors, Piping Rock and Marlow who were both located in upstate NY.

So, my question to you all is, what does your society do special to attract new vendors and manage the commitment process? I'm just reaching out to see if there are ideas out there that maybe we haven't considered.

Appreciate any insights this erstwhile body of collective knowledge has to offer.