Miss Checklist

Here is the signing schedule for Saturday! In addition to this, all the authors and artists that are presenting are also signing. Check out http://www.readtoday.com/ksl-book-festival/.

It's crazy to think that we could work 7-8 hour days and be constantly working on details of the festival. Today at the end of the day we kind of looked at each other and took a deep breath of relief. We think we have thought of everything! Today I even thought about making up clipboards for each stage manager so they will have everything that they need to run the stage. Little details like that are what is going to make this event go really well.

Principle #1- Checklist's are pointless until you check it off! There is power in being able to cross something off :)

Miss Project(s)

The stickers, bookmarks and programs I copied and am currently cutting out. Whew. It is a gem.
How many projects am I working on?? Possibly 10 or 9. No joke! Excuse my messy desk but I had to document how non-stop busy I have been the past few days at work.

We are of course getting everything finalized for the Book Festival which is one Sat. from 10am-6pm (PLUG) If you are in SLC or in the Utah area, or if you love me (yes, I just pulled that on you) then you will come! We are going to have so many great authors come and cooking demos with samples and a giant mouse will be walking around. It will be great. I will post the author schedule and stage schedule tomorrow.

Today I made about 20 plus calls to different schools around the U.S to offer a free presentation by Obert Skye, author of Leven Thumps. I hardly got a hold of people but I practiced some good sales skills. He is a great author and is promoting reading and using your imagination. (http://www.abituneven.com/)

Principle #1- Practice BEFORE you preach. I ran over in my mind a few times before I would pitch to each phone call because I didn't want to ruin professionalism! Tone is important too. I didn't want to get robotic or seem like I was selling something. I needed to fight for the cause. I have learned something about myself. If I believe in something, you don't need to convince me to sell it, just show me the info and once I believe it, my heart will sell it for you. This is why I would personally like to stick with one company instead of working in a firm.

Principle #2- Take notes and always stay tuned. With this book festival we have had so many details come up that we didn't ever expect because we are pioneering our way through it. My handy-dandy notepad has been helpful and constantly thinking about the event helps too. Becoming an effective note taker came from my 11th grade history teacher. She taught us how to letter and number outline notes. Thank you Mrs. Wong.

Miss Singing In the Rain

This morning we met with Allied Signs to discuss the banners for the KSL Book Festival and right as we pulled back into the parking garage it started pouring! We went into The Plaza Hotel, on South Temple, and asked if they had bags we could put over our heads. (See image on right) then we ran out the doors right in time to be in the 'eye of the storm.' We ran outside and had to cross two crosswalks and we were laughing so hard we could hardly breathe and we looked so ridiculous! We got to the office and the rest of the day proceeded with comments about how we should have grabbed one of the 20 complementary umbrellas that Deseret Book has at the front doors. We're thinkers...I was dry around 3 O' clock but my feet are still a little cold. :)

I felt like the HUGEST weight was lifted off my shoulders today after we met with Allied. Figuring out the signage has been so much harder than expected. I am really glad that I have got to head it up because it has taught me a lot of skills. I found the designer, printed up maps, formed excel documents, met with the sign company a few times, corresponded with the event specialist concerning placement and the policies at the U and have spent a lot of hours re-configuring and thinking outside of the box.

We also have been working on what we are going to do for our Shadow Mountain booth at the event. We decided on bookmarks that kids can color and then we were going to laminate them afterward. I have been searching for a cheap laminator that would meet the needs in our about $200 budget. I have been searching and making phone calls and discovered a good link and also suggested that we make stickers. I had the designer make a draft and they look great so we are doing stickers now too! I got a bid that was about half the price of the normal cost and it is being shipped to us now. We went out and got all of the other materials as well and we only spent $225. Pretty good :)

Principle #1: Thinking in marketing involves a lot of strategy and analytical thinking. I feel like you always have to know the worst and best case scenario. For example, with the signage we wanted to make sure to secure the fonts and logos and even placement of the date so we can use these in future years.

Miss Clipboard

Don't get mad...I haven't blogged in a year and a day and I apologize. Life is busier than expected but here is the LDSBA update:

LDSBA went SO well! We set up the day before in the hot, hot warehouse but it left way less work to do at 6 am the next morning. We set up for the breakfast and then bookstore owners, buyers and employees came in at 7 am for the breakfast. I had personally been working on the schedule for the the program so I was watching the clock...we definitely did not run on time. Surprised? Not really. We had a full blown program. Jericho Road, David Osmond and Alex Boye all performed and we had Paul Cardall speak as well as Heidi Swinton....author of President Monson's new biography To The Rescue. In case you didn't know...this is monumental! It is the 4th biography written about a living prophet. CEO Sheri Dew announced it at the breakfast. It was a great event and people reported that they could have stayed longer because they enjoyed it so much! They all received a bunch of free items including a few chapter teasers from President Monson's biography.

My responsibility for the event was to hand out the tickets. Once we cleared up the confusion of where I would hand them out, I got in the mode and went to town. I got to meet so many great people including amazing authors such as Gale Sears- The Silence of God, Chad Hawkins- The Mountain of the Lord, Wendie L. Edwards- Hidden Light (the first book of a volume 10 series!) and many others. I had the fortunate opportunity to chat with Gale while I was eating lunch and she was signing books. She is a great lady and very humble. Wendie is a creative genius who knows the scriptures so incredibly well! Her series is similar to the Left Behind series. So, if you are a fan of that, check her out! She is a super woman. I also got to chat a lot with Catherine Rae Purves, author of Libby Boom: I Want To Be Baptized. This is her first book and she is a DOLL. The book gave me chills when I read it. Before I even met her I looked at her poster with the book on it and thought, "That book will sell." I believe it will and we exchanged information and I will be blogging more about it in the near future.

The event lasted two days and it went way to fast. I was busy the whole time talking with people, answering questions, and dealing with some pretty cranky people who wanted a free book and signature. One of the executives reported that the marketing department did a great job and that they were impressed with the image that we displayed for the company. That is why I LOVE marketing. Job satisfaction is incredible. Looking back on that weekend I learned so many principles about preparation and delivery.

Principle #1: Being over prepared is important. I had the schedule in hand and I knew who was going up next and so anytime Roberta had a question she could ask me and I could answer. I am glad I brought that clipboard :)

Principle #2: If you don't know the answer to a question, GET IT! People would ask me questions that I didn't know the answer to but I would do everything to find it out including running across the convention center in 3 inch wedges to find whoever they needed to speak to.

Principle #3: Customer service pays off. There were people who missed their author signing and so I turned down a few people and apologized and then realized I could probably do more. I had the authors signs extra books and I would keep them with me to give out to the stragglers. I even ran back to the storage room to grab a book for a man and he thanked me profusely and even pulled me aside later the next day to thank me again.

Miss This & That

Tomorrow is finally the LDSBA! We spent a few hours the other day setting up for the event. All the prep going into it is finally going to go into play with very few errors or room for mistake. David Osmond is going to be performing and informed us he was using a guitar so I had to call the sound equipment guys to see if we could get a DI box. So I was able to take care of that and confirm final details for A/V equipment.

Then we had another mini crisis... We ordered sweaters for us to wear at the event with our logo on it and we got them back and they had Deseret Book in RED not WHITE like we had ordered. After a few brainstorming ideas we decided to wear those in the morning and wait for the new ones to come in the afternoon.

I have been able to work on the tickets for LDSBA. Each author will be giving away 75 free signed copies of their book or CD. I made tickets for all 17 authors and printed them but on different color paper. An hour before each signing, the first 75 companies can claim a ticket for the authors product. I have an excel document with over 100 different book companies that are to claim these tickets. I played around on the excel sheet and was able to make a document with check boxes for each author. It made me start thinking about if one of these authors were to come up to me, I don't know if I would even recognize them?? So I made another sheet. I made a table with two columns and a row for each author. I put in the right hand column the authors picture and a picture of their item, so I could recognize them. In the other column I put their signing time and what time ticket claim starts at. I will be manning the ticket station and I am super excited.

It's been fun to be a part of this event because it is annual and they basically fill in the blanks and follow the same format of the prior years. Starting a new event however is more difficult. Pioneering the way for future book festivals has been intersting. I try to think of that every time we order a new product to sell or print. How can we be the most resourceful? How do I get more with less? Speaking of printing...The signs are struggling for the festival. It is a mess trying to coordinate BUT we do have a graphic designer! My friend Stuart from BYU-I was in Salt Lake this week and I remembered and pitched that we use him to design. They agreed and he is getting paid to design on the banners. I am really excited for him. He works quickly and efficiently and that is why I knew I could refer him.

Principles Learned: Be willing to help with anything! Whether it be this, or whether it be that, showing that you can help in any way is important. Even if it is taking miscellaneous items back and forth to a storage room.

Oh! I started using LinkIn as well so search me out and add me!

Oh, Oh! I am LOVING Driven By Larry H. Miller. I realized that I don't think I have ever read an autobiography before. It makes me think about my life and if it worth writing down. I read at Temple Square during my lunch break today with the storm clouds rolling in and thunder roaring. It was risky but relaxing.