(I’m not using the name of the show in case this gets picked up by Google)
Hi!
I’m so curious to hear what everyone thinks of the doll show that just happened in Orlando.
From what I’ve seen on Facebook it looked great! I know the show dates were an improvement from last year and the classes looked amazing.
Apparently parking was a big paint point. I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as free parking in Orlando, but if people checked the Facebook group and knew how to use QR codes the parking was $15. It was $38 if you didn’t know to do that. I’m sure that’s the hotel’s fault but that’s unfortunate. I hope it didn’t deter anyone from coming.
I saw many photos of beautiful tables and dolls, not as many photos of them being sold but lots of sales did happen. I’m curious if it was any better or worse for sales compared to other shows? I maybe want to go next year, not sure if as a vendor or an attendee.
I know that many vendors had poor sales and traffic was not great. @YelenaRey won some awards but I don’t know about her sales. 2 people I know say they won’t be returning next year.
One person I know said it was poorly organized and she won’t be returning as well. Others seemed to have a good time. I did hear parking was very high.
You had to open the link to get all the info and the QR code. That post was too discreet. Most people just scrolled right past it. There should have been a bold post pinned to the top of the Facebook page. It also should have been posted on the homepage of the website. And they should have printed flyers to hand out with tickets. Or better yet, print the QR code and instructions on the back of the admission tickets. They also could have made announcements, or verbally told people when they bought their admission ticket. There were soooo many ways they could have made sure everyone was informed about the parking.
As for the show, like Angie, I spoke to a vendor who said it was horribly run and she will not be attending next year. As you can see by all of the photos and videos, the showroom was very empty. Christmas time is too hard for people to get away for a doll show. I really didn’t have high hopes for the show. It was destined to fail.
I heard there was 0 communication from the hosts and that they couldn’t answer questions. I also heard attendance was poor. Apparently worse than Rose was this year.
@Katinafleming omg wow that’s way worse than I thought!! I’d have missed that post too. That sucks so much for anyone who had a car. I liked all of your suggestions. Oof so frustrating.
I agree, Christmas isn’t a good time for a doll show. I wish they’d hold it another time, and/or another place. I’ve love to see New York City instead of Orlando! I honestly don’t really want to go to Orlando, I’d only go if there was a can’t-miss doll show there. The NC doll show is apparently a can’t-miss, so I’m going to prioritize that one instead (and I love Kansas too.) Travel to the East Coast, especially the South, is far for me coming from Northern Oregon. If I have to go on a plane it needs to be amazing.
@ttulsajess oh wow. That sucks! Thank you for sharing.
I was a Rose this year, not as a vendor. I loved my class and how not crowded it was for me, as someone with anxiety, but it wasn’t successful for the vendors. The customer pool was small compared to the prior years.
I had friends in tears due to lack of sales in '18 and '19 too, and I barely sold anything those years when I had a table. I think it’s hard to gauge how things went overall since those are generally considered to have been good sales years. I wish we had real data to analyze.
Rose was at least run well and communication was good. I think their promo wasn’t there so hardly any locals came. I’d hoped Yophi would have learned from that, and their prior shows. I though Yophi’s promo was better this time. It seems like it didn’t pan out. So sad. I hope the people who went had fun, the classes looked good.
There weren’t the normal crowds at rose. I enjoyed it also and I did well but I was also selling lower prices items. My prices started at $5 and topped out at $125 other than the one reborn had that didn’t sell. I live in Washington state so I’m very sad there won’t be a show next year.
I guess the Orlando show had even less crowds than that.
Well to say something positive about this show, even though I am hearing sales were not good I am excited because it looks like I am finally going to get my dream clown baby! I have always wanted one of Jodie Lombardo’s clown babies! She did some cuddle baby clowns for the show which are a bit more affordable than her full limbs clowns. Ever since I saw her post this one I loved him and she said he is still available! I am just waiting for her to send over the invoice to me and he will be mine!
Ignore the hairy bunny he is holding. Here is Giddy!
I’m so disappointed to hear that this show didn’t go well. I was looking forward to tons of pics and lots of good vibes. I guess they can’t all be winners.
‘Hope For The Best, But Prepare For The Worst’ was my set of mind for the YDS2024, despite that my YDS 2023 went amazing.
As you already know the attendance of the show was practically non-existent, and probably 1/3 people on the floor were friends and family of the show vendors who came to see them. Those who vended and attended ROSE was comparing YDS attendance to it.
Unfortunately vendors attendance was very poor also. Yophis were asking people who signed up just for 1 table to spread their stuff on 2 or 3 tables, so floor would have less empty spaces.
I sold 1 doll (Erica by Joanna K) to another vendor. And ironically another lady came just to buy that particular one after she was sold. Most of the sales were vendor to vendor for the more expensive dolls. Low priced dolls were most sales.
Most vendors sold 1 or none. Some of my friends managed 4. To sell you need people to attend and that was not happening
I already learned from my and my friends previous vending experiences that each show is unpredictable. So for me the biggest disappointment were not in sales, but in unfairness of the contest. And I received several messages from other artists stating the same.
Despite the fact that all 3 my entries received awards here is what I though was done unacceptably:
Entries that were shown online as prototype and FB posts - and they won the 1st places and other awards; Every other contest that I attended required entries to be anonymous and never shown on any social media platforms;
Collaborated entries between two artists (one did dolls, another costumes) - and they won 1st places and other awards with the same dolls; Every other contest that I attended required everything done by the same artist, even their dolls fantasy outfits;
Judging was do by the VIDEO! Who does it like this? And who were the judges? People who already knew whose entries are those?? Lights in the show room were horrible and everything and everyone has orange-yellow hew. I can’t even imagine that judging was done by the video and what they saw on it!
The only reason I know about video judging is because when we came on the 1st show day, one of my doll that I entered in Painted Hair category had an Ethnic tag. Why would I enter 2 dolls in the same Ethnic category and compete with myself? I reported 3 times to the stuff that the tag is wrong. On the 3rd time tag was removed and never replaced again. When we submitted our contest entry to the stuff, they took pictures with paperwork next to each doll. How hard was to make it right?
So, now my doll sits without any tag and Ralph decided to talk to Enrroke, who told him
No worries, we already took video of them in the morning and judging will be done by the video.
How that will help Yelena if in the morning her doll had a tag with a wrong category. Why would she compete against herself?
Then People Choice voting comes in the middle of the day (why not to start it in the morning, when show floor got open?). My and a couple other dolls still doesn’t have any tags with numbers. In the middle when majority people already voted, Ralph finds Lorraine and says that Yelena’s and a few others doesn’t have numbered tags. She comes and write numbers on a piece of paper by hand, but by that time the voting crowd is mostly gone.
Voting slips had all categories and should be distributed individually one per voting person. And it was done correctly for the first 10 min. After that Lorraine leaves the whole pack of them on the corner of contest table (my booth was just next to that contest location) and now people (mostly helpers and artists friends) come and grab the hole bunch of them. Needless to say those artists won People Choice.
Each award came with the certificate for all 4 places (1st, 2nd, 3rd, People Choice) and were presented at the Award Banquet. When we all already finished with our dinners, they invite Ping Lau to the podium to SIGN ALL of them! Which took another 10 min. Our dinner table neighbors who were not in competition and just came to know who won what said ‘This is ridiculous’ and left. Then precious tiny Pin with her gentle voice try to read all those certificates WITHOUT the microphone! No one hears her and knows who is awarded for what.
But despite everything - I had fun, made new friends and saw so many amazingly done high quality reborns that I never saw that many at other shows.
Will I sign again? At the current moment I don’t know. Probably I will as I enjoy artists comradery and at YDS I can meet artists that I would not meet anywhere else.
And most of you already saw my pictures on the FB .
I didn’t hear about it. And I don’t know how it’s even mathematically possible. They had so many NON-refundable booths and tables cancelations as well as non-refundable cancelation from the teacher’s classes. Unless you are talking about their unsold merchandise.
But I am not a friend with them, so I don’t know the insides.
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