Events

[Quistess Alpha]

So, I recently (not even a week ago) put up a backlog of somewhat market-worthy projects on the marketplace (dear god it's 2022, why can't they auto-crop and scale images for you) and got more business than I would have expected for just doing almost the bare minimum to throw things up there. . .

Anyways, jump forward to today and I get an invite to participate in a shopping event. After reading through their rules it didn't seem like my stuff was a good fit for their venue (My stuff is all interesting scripting stuff, which doesn't really seem to fit their mission statement of wanting amazingly textured things and not allowing any non-vendor scripts. Being really pessimistic, I almost want to say they're somehow scraping for any"upcoming" mp store with more than 20 items)

It did get me thinking though, are events really a decent value-time proposition? What sorts of considerations should someone think about when deciding which (if any) events to participate in.

Another random thought: All the events I know about are somewhat 'hands off' after setting things up for potential buyers to come and look at. Are there any events where it's common to have people at the booths to help push product ("Ooh that demo looks good on you" "Would you like a demonstration of how this gizmo works?") I'd be a bit more interested in participating in an event (either customer or merchant) that involved a bit of shopping RP.

Edited July 15, 2022 by Quistess Alpha

[Love Zhaoying]

48 minutes ago, Quistess Alpha said:

("Ooh that demo looks good on you" "Would you like a demonstration of how this gizmo works?")

"Let me help you find something in your size!"

[MoiraKathleen]

1 hour ago, Quistess Alpha said:

Another random thought: All the events I know about are somewhat 'hands off' after setting things up for potential buyers to come and look at. Are there any events where it's common to have people at the booths to help push product ("Ooh that demo looks good on you" "Would you like a demonstration of how this gizmo works?") I'd be a bit more interested in participating in an event (either customer or merchant) that involved a bit of shopping RP.

That's an interesting thought, though hearing about the way so many shop at events (hovering and camming, wearing a full alpha, just showing friends, etc.,) I doubt that there would be many customers that would appreciate or like booths having salespeople that interacted with them.   

When I first joined SL, I thought the stores would have salespeople, but if anything, they just have a bot that welcomes you and perhaps answers standard questions, like how to join the store group. 

[Polenth Yue]

It's very rare that an event that randomly spams you is an event that would be worth doing. I've had a whole bunch of invites recently from bots owned by the same person who runs multiple identical events with different names. I just blocked the lot of them. People who know who you are will mention something about you and your products directly (but it doesn't mean you have to do those events either... I've been turning down a lot this summer as I'm taking a break from events).

I tend to favour events that run sometimes rather than ones that run monthly. A lot of the RFL/Strides events are good, though you will need some new things to sell for charity, and you might not fit the themes of the events.

The only time I've seen roleplay shopping was a roleplay market at Fantasy Faire. It was a limited time event where the whole purpose was roleplaying a market, rather than getting stuff. Sometimes people stay at their booths at SciFi Con, but this is usually things like roleplay communities and similar. The shop owners know to leave their shops alone. This is because you will sell less if you hang out at your shop. The majority of customers want some space to browse without the owner there.

[Lucia Nightfire]

On 7/15/2022 at 1:30 PM, Quistess Alpha said:

So, I recently (not even a week ago) put up a backlog of somewhat market-worthy projects on the marketplace (dear god it's 2022, why can't they auto-crop and scale images for you) and got more business than I would have expected for just doing almost the bare minimum to throw things up there. . .

Anyways, jump forward to today and I get an invite to participate in a shopping event. After reading through their rules it didn't seem like my stuff was a good fit for their venue (My stuff is all interesting scripting stuff, which doesn't really seem to fit their mission statement of wanting amazingly textured things and not allowing any non-vendor scripts. Being really pessimistic, I almost want to say they're somehow scraping for any"upcoming" mp store with more than 20 items)

It did get me thinking though, are events really a decent value-time proposition? What sorts of considerations should someone think about when deciding which (if any) events to participate in.

Another random thought: All the events I know about are somewhat 'hands off' after setting things up for potential buyers to come and look at. Are there any events where it's common to have people at the booths to help push product ("Ooh that demo looks good on you" "Would you like a demonstration of how this gizmo works?") I'd be a bit more interested in participating in an event (either customer or merchant) that involved a bit of shopping RP.

IMO, I feel if your presentation is in-theme, unique enough and priced/permed accordingly, it is a decent form of advertising and/or brand awareness that otherwise would be lost in the sea of competition relying on a MP or mainstore presence alone.