Behind the scenes – setting up the Lindy’s Cakes stand at the BSG exhibition Telford May 2012

Having a trade stand at any cake show is always a massive undertaking, it involves months and months of planning, preparation, logistics and financial outlay and the 7th International British Sugarcraft Guild exhibition was no exception. However, this exhibition was the first of its kind since 2004!  We were all very excited, despite the hard work, it almost felt on Friday morning that we were about to go on holiday…the prospect of meeting so many familiar faces from right around the globe was tantalising!

Setting up a stand is very physical, so when we were offered the use of a palette and a fork lift truck driver we were not going to refuse. In fact, he made a number of trips for us…. what fab service – NEC organisers please note!!!

Unloading the van is only just the beginning, the setting up of the stand takes hours even with a practice run and an extra pair of hands! I am sure it doesn’t help that I am so particular….

……but I do however think it’s worth it as I love to inspire and delight all our visitors.

My team are always a little nervous before a show opens, is everything in the right place, have we forgotten anything, will we have enough customers, enough stock, enough bags, enough staff etc ?…

Deep breath and the show is on the road. Our stand was quite near the back of the second hall but I was amazed by how many people made a beeline directly to us – it is always a delight to meet these first ‘off the block’ and very keen customers, it starts the day on a really positive note. If you were one of these people, thank you 🙂

There is always a lovely buzz at an exhibition like this, time to talk to old friends, time to make new ones and of course, see some amazing sugarcraft and decorated cakes….if you didn’t manage to visit yourself but would still like to be inspired, do revisit our blog again this week as we plan to write a number of posts about the sugar work that we saw.

On a personal note, I would like to thank everyone who came up to me and thanked me for inspiring them, thanked me for the cake decorating books I write, thanked me for creating amazing cakes, thanked me for giving them confidence in their own sugar work – I really did appreciate hearing all your lovely comments.

Happy sugarcrafting

Lindy