We’re back from Sock Summit ’09 and what a show it was.  I can’t remember the last time I participated in an event that was so anticipated, talked about or written about.  For the better part of the past year, since that first phone conversation with Stephanie many months ago, SS09 has been an item on my to-do list.  Other than a bit of post-mortem, it’s completely crossed off now.  It’s sort of a strange feeling.

The event was awesome.  There is simply no other adjective necessary.  Steph and Tina and their team accomplished what few of you (honestly folks) can truly grasp.  I’ve been in charge of several large events in my day.  Nothing compares to the scale of Sock Summit and I stand in awe of how beautifully the event ran.  Kudos to ST-1 and ST-2 – you guys rocked the free world for several days in Portland. 

Being a vendor gave us a unique perspective on the event.  Not that we had any special access, but I did get lots of photos and some pretty cool video that I would like to share with all of you.   If you follow me on Twitter, some of the shots may be repeats (sorry!).  But I want to give a good start to finish recap of what was SS09. 

We were scheduled first to move in last Wednesday afternoon.  Here we are on the loading dock at the OCC:

 

Perusing the program booklet:

 

Let me stop here and say.  It.Was.Gorgeous.  So personal, so perfect, velvety paper and just knock-your-(proverbial)-socks-off photography.  I’ve been in marketing for the better part of the last 20 years and this program book is among the best I’ve ever seen.

They even made sure we had beautiful badges:

 

Move in was move in.  No way to make that romantic:

 

I’ve joked here in the past about us being “Tradeshow Warriors”.  Our team is the best.  We had all of the yarn out and set by the time we said goodnight on Wednesday at 6:45.  Five hours and we were basically done.  Team WEBS rocks!

When we were finished we looked pretty darn good.  We’re never going to be the fancy booth or the prettiest, but we make shopping easy and we think that is what is important:

So there you have it – our excursion to SS09.  Tomorrow I’ll blog about the show experience, but let me leave you with this short video clip.  This it what the crowd waiting to enter the marketplace on Thursday evening was doing just minutes before the doors opened:

 

We’ll be talking about Sock Summit on this week’s episode of Ready, Set, Knit, so be sure to listen!  If you had the chance to attend please leave a comment about your experience at SS09!

Kathy

Tags: Sock Summit