GASC

Silly me! I responded to a request for help on the Cricut Forum for a shop that would be at the Great American Scrapbook Convention this weekend. They wanted someone to help out in the booth. They would pay, it wasn't a volunteer job. However, I thought I was signing up for perhaps four hours each day. I was hoping that I'd earn enough to cover what I spent shopping and I had a very short list of things I was looking for, and didn't expect to spend much at all.

I put in 26 hours in three days. I got paid a lot more than I'd hoped I would earn, but I barely had time to shop the show and I didn't take any classes. Will I help out again? Probably not. In fact, I could go so far as to say, No way!

I did sign up for the crop on Friday night. Not the paper crop, I didn't feel like lugging a crop tote, so I signed up for the laptop crop. I think it was the worst crop I have ever attended. They didn't understand digital and gave us goodie bags with paper and stickers. For a digital crop? There was no Internet, we almost didn't have a moderator and the door prizes were along the lines of the goodie bags. I got an eyelet setter and A Technique Tuesday tote and some stamps to go with it. But some of the stamps were inkstained, indicating that they were used. Used door prizes? What were they thinking? I later was told that the goodie bags were leftovers from Thursday night's crop. Don't I feel special? Not!

Will I go to GASC again? I don't think I will. It's just not that well run a show. They placed the Pazzles and the Cricut booths right next to each other. They are direct competitors. The people I was working for, who sell Cricut, consider a Pazzles machine to be a knock-off. I don't know what the Pazzles folks think. I didn't talk to them.

I learned quite a lot while demonstrating the Expression and the Design Studio Software. I can use the pens, and I learned a few tricks with Design Studio. The Technique Tuesday case and stamps are nice, even though some of the stamps have been used. I earned a lot more than I spent, the show was a profit for me overall. But I'm tired, my feet hurt and I didn't get enough time to shop at all. The crop was not well run.