Convention Issues

We had taken a step and signed up for a convention. It wasn’t just any convention but the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in February 2003 that was held in Nashville, Tennessee at the Opryland Convention Center. We had decided, I am sure one evening at a late night meeting when none of us were thinking clearly, to not only attend but to actually have a Big Dream Ministries, Inc booth.

All of this sounds great of course unless you were the Big Dream Board made up of women who had never been to a convention nor had ever even seen a booth!

By late December we were beginning to wonder what in the world had we gotten ourselves into and how could we get out. The convention board had sent us a large notebook with all of the instructions and rules and suddenly we were face to face with that horrible thing called reality! However, we HAD paid the convention fee and could think of several really good reasons why we should be there.

So on Thursday evening December 5, 2002 we did the only thing we knew how to do. We met and prayed. We had specific prayer needs.

1. Help us make sense of the convention notebook!
2. Help us to be able to have a booth that was attractive and informative.

Later that week I was talking to a friend who had helped us with various things in the past. I told him my problem and he said, “Oh you must talk to my friend Tom!” I called Tom and left a message with what we needed and asked if he could meet with me the following week.

I hung up and went back to working on my computer when the phone rang. It was Tom.

“I have some good news and some bad news”, he said.

I asked for the good first and he then began to rattle off several great suggestions for a booth.

1. Keep it simple
2. Have large pictures of the four teachers to hang on the back wall along with the company logo
3. Stack the product up from the floor up at the base of the booth.
4. Give away Georgia peanuts
5. Have a small TV on the table with a looped VHS of the promo
6. Have the ladies behind the booth all wear something that stands out, like bright colored sweaters
7. Have take- home copies of the promo to give to anyone who is interested
8. Have plenty of business cards

The bad news? He couldn’t meet the following week. But then he no longer needed to as we had our plan for the booth. Robin ordered bright, shocking pink sweaters for each one of us and we had the photos taken along with the logo designed and mounted The peanuts were ordered from the Georgia peanut association all in little individual bags with Georgia written on them. The booth was donated to us and the carpet was ordered and the sweaters monogrammed with the Amazing Collection logo.

As if designed by God Himself, everything came together and we were ready to embark on yet another adventure: Conventions!