Page 86 - ShowSight - August, 2020

Jamie, my right-hand help, Sue Dwelly, and I made many trips to the Convention Center, planning the grooming space to accommodate all the reserved grooming. We measured it several times to get exact space requirements and details. We did the initial taping off for our vendors, and just the perimeter for the grooming spaces, with a large exterior aisle. Again, we measured how big the blocks would need to be to fine tune our space. Making yet another trip, we added aisles and individual spaces for each person who sent in a reserved groom- ing request. We had close to 400 grooming space requests. We allotted spaces based on the number of crates and breeds they were bringing. All single crate requests had 6x10 space. For the PHA members, we were able to utilize the space better by having a large aisle over 11', then an 18'x 40' block, anoth- er aisle 6', then another 18'x 40' to a 11' aisle and another 18'x 40'. Each of these were given a cross aisle 6' and a second section of the same. As you can imagine, a great deal of time was spent planning the areas to alleviate congestion. What we could have done better would be to have more detail on how to find the spaces assigned. We only gave them the section, then exhibitors had to walk around looking for their name. Next time we would give the section and space number.”
MOVE-IN DAY
“After all this planning and taping, the big day finally arrived...Wednesday was move-in day! We allowed our vendors, superintendent, and individuals who had supplies for the shows to drive in from 6:30 am until noon. From 1:00 pm to 11:00 pm exhibitors were only allowed to walk in. (Due to assigning all spare building space to grooming there was no path to drive in and out.) We stationed club members at
Piedmont Kennel Club Show Chair Suzanne Burns using her hand sanitizer.
LINES FROM LINDA: OVERCOMING THE ODDS
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the doors with the layout and grooming space list sorted by name. We were also lucky enough to have some college students volunteer to help people unload and find their space!”
SANITIZING
“On our show days, both clubs had people to sanitize the rings throughout the day. We needed ten minutes between judg- ing to spray the mats. The products we used needed five minutes to fully sanitize the floor, but another five minutes to allow it
completely dry. All products were EPA approved to fight against Covid and are used in hospitals, veterinary offices, and restaurants. We also kept the photographer stands sprayed and all of the tables: judges, stewards, and exam tables.
The Convention Center had their staff wiping doors, sweeping the floor, and main- taining the bathrooms. They had placed hand sanitizer stations at every door. We added large hand sanitizers at each group of rings.