The venue seems similar to that of the now-defunct UK Web & Mini Comix Thing that I attended earlier in the year (in that it's a big hall with a stage at the far end), though the table layout is a little different. When I tabled at the Thing I noticed that my choice of location was not entirely excellent - it directly faced the entrance, and my assumption was that people would come in, see my awesome stuff first, bear straight ahead to check it out and then circulate around the hall thereafter. This was mistaken.Instead it seemed that people came in and immediately turned right or left, circulating around the hall's edges rather than forging straight on. The general procedure seemed to be an initial reconnaissance lap to scope out the various tables (in the course of which no purchases were made), followed by an acquisition lap once they'd sussed out which vendors had things they'd be interested in buying with their finite funds.
This meant that my table was halfway around the circuit, which was non-optimal as it meant that by the time they'd completed the lap and were ready to make their purchases my table was clear on the other side of the hall from them. Way too easy for them to forget about my stuff or get distracted on the way or spend all their money or whatever.
So! I need to work out how to mentally model the crowd flow in order to gauge the best pitch for my wares. Somewhere around the outside edge of the hall is probably good, as it means I have a wall behind me (reducing the risk of display stuff falling over) and will be on the primary loop of traffic. Somewhere that's not in a concave corner would be good too, as it runs the risk of not being noticed. A convex corner/end spot might be a good pitch, though that has the disadvantage of lacking a wall at my back.
I might just be overthinking this whole thing, but it seems like one of those things for which there are definite tactics and techniques. I'd like to work them out, if I can.
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