My Experience at Planner's Unite 2019

WHAT A BLAST.

Wow. Where do I even begin? I recently came back from my first planner event and had the honor of participating as a vendor for my good friend, Faith's "Planner's Unite" event hosted in Southlake, Texas, USA. 

I was initially quite nervous packing up my Sproutie supplies and envisioning myself traveling from Canada to Texas, knowing nobody, except Faith (which we had only communicated through email or social media). I'm just a gal from the cold, wintery north with no background in graphic design... who somehow managed to teach herself how to design over the last year and half, and launch a sticker business. I live in an oil and gas city that is predominately focused on the 9-5pm corporate grind. Having work in graphic design, particularly with a focus within the planner community, is unheard of here. I honestly had a lot of doubts of why I was traveling so far for work for the first time and if anyone would even be interested in my creations in real life. All I knew was that I had a lot of faith in Faith ;) and that I would be in good hands with her.

From the moment I landed in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, I was greeted by a blast of hot, humid heat! and then by many friendly and kind locals. I haven't met so many genuinely nice people during my travels before and it definitely helped broaden my perspective. As the event approached closer, my worries and fears were replaced with feelings of excitement and eagerness instead.

THE PARTY BEGINS.

On Friday, we attended the Friday Fling party and it was a great opportunity meet some of the guests and vendors before the official planner event began. Faith did an outstanding job helping to break the ice with everyone and she hosted a fun planner gift swap game! Everyone was asked to bring a small planner related gift and then asked to stand in a large circle (there were at least 80 attendees!). Faith would call out a prompt and whenever it was applicable, you would have to stand inside the the circle and pass your gift to someone new. It was so fun watching our gifts get swapped around to new owners. I laughed so hard when Faith mentioned that "Kim is from Canada so we have to keep her in the a/c at all times!" (the heat and humidity in Texas is no joke! It was an awesome 35/36°C or 95 F and my dry Canadian skin was LOVING IT! Such a great way to experience some true heat before the summer ends, that's for sure!). I ended up with a planner gift that included a lovely notebook with the word 'Faith' on it (what a coincidence!), a sparkly dashboard, and some neat planner stickers.

I also met Scott Andrew James, a talented poet with a beautiful way with words. He's able to create poems on the fly out of a single word you give him. My word was "Motivation" and I briefly told him how I've been feeling as though I'm at a cross roads in life and that a bit of extra motivation would be a nice boost. I was able to watercolour my page before handing it to Scott to add his poem on. I loved the poem he was able to create for me. Short, simple, but definitely something I needed to hear. This was such a great concept and Scott is a super nice guy! You can check out his new book here - I'm sure it won't disappoint. 

PLANNER'S UNITE PARTY

Saturday was the big day and the vendors started setting up in the hotel ballroom around 7am (some were even earlier!). I was a bit nervous to be among experienced vendors but was relieved to meet some new friends who were also experiencing their first times setting up a booth. Experience aside, everyone was so professional and I would have never guessed it was their first times as vendors! I learned so much from all of our interactions and will definitely be doing some shopping on Amazon for supplies to use on booths in the future! It was so great meeting all the shop owners and being able to talk openly about our experiences running our own businesses. There were so many similarities and overlaps - it was great having so much in common with everyone.

Working solo on my sticker business  from my home office has been great and I've learnt a lot, but feelings of loneliness were kicking in this year and I was missing having social interaction with people. This trip was everything I needed to get out of my comfort zone and honestly, out of my head. It was amazing being able to finally meet people within the same field of work.

At 9:30am, the doors opened for guests and the party officially kicked off! All of the guests were so sweet and welcoming. It was amazing hearing that some of them had heard of me before and were excited that I was apart of this event. It truly warmed my heart and the support and encouragement helps me realize that this strange path that I took in life is going somewhere positive. I loved being able to finally put a face to some of the Instagram accounts I interact with and selling in person was nothing like I ever experienced before! It was great seeing the people who actually use my stickers, washitapes, or cards and it really gave me back a spark of motivation to continue working on my shop and growing as a designer.

After the event ended, most of the vendors went out for dinner at Ra Sushi Bar and Restaurant. It was a great evening to close out a wonderful day. I had so much fun chatting with everyone and it was honestly so hard to leave by the end of the night! I was so busy trying to live in the moment but I wish I had snapped more pictures!

A HUGE THANK YOU.

To all the volunteers, vendors, guests, and of course, Faith, who invited me out in the first place: Thank you, thank you, and thank you. I have nothing but praise for Faith who organized such a successful event. She has set the bar so high - I just want to attend anything she hosts! Her attention to detail and her ability to take care of everyone around her, including the vendors, does not go unnoticed. We even got free swag to take home! I'm so proud and happy to call her my friend. I'll put it here in writing: I'll be the first one to sign up for the next planner event by Faith! You can find more of Faith and her awesome washitape shop here. She's definitely sparked convention fever within me and I hope to be part of more events in the future so I can meet more of you lovely people in this community.

Thanks for reading!

- ♡ until next time,

Kim

{Planner's Unite Party - August 30 to 31, 2019}