An interesting table at Thought bubble
Well, overall the Thought Bubble experience was a bit of an anticlimax. Firstly, I think because of covid there were not as many exhibitors as usual and secondly the panel I wanted to attend had the wrong time in the programme so I missed it.
Looking on the brighter side however….I spoke to three people, one of whom I gave my business card to. She was interested in me joining a group of writers locally. I’m slightly confused as to whether I actually want to join it but anyway.
I bought a lot of zines and three books so I’m pleased with that.
I’m glad I had prepared my business cards and zines for the event even though in my heart it was always going to be unlikely that I would actually push them onto anyone. It was a good test of reality, what I think I might do in my head and what actually transpires. I did carefully look at the publishing tables and look at the work on offer. None jumped out at me as ideal. I had far more in common with the female artists with lots of zines. There was one group (London based) which was made up of a collective of artists which I could identify as being appropriate for me.
I thought about the possibility of applying for a table myself, each artist needed a good selection of bits and pieces to display. Being realistic here…I would loath sitting at a table with my work on it. I could maybe manage if I was part of a collective and shared the work and the sitting there, but as a form of self promotion, it is not for me.
I wore my noise calming ear things, did they help? Hard to say, I wasn’t aware of them so they weren’t a nuisance at least.
The coffee was not that nice but OK. There were plenty of places to sit down, away from the crowd.
I had to queue for 40 mins to get in.
One day attendance was ample.
Coming home for lunch worked.
Next time maybe see what events are on in the week before?
Next time don’t get so wound up? It’s actually quite do-able and doesn’t need such a big build up, but equally I can’t pin all my OCA self promotional hopes on it as it is not going to work for me.
It was definitely worth looking through all the exhibitors beforehand and I correctly picked out people who’s work I might be interested in (all female). Definitely worth going to at this stage as it gave me a context to place my work stage in. I was glad I had done my zines as I can mentally measure them against the sort of work I saw.
A couple of thoughts, I felt like a participant not a spectator, I fitted into that small niche within the niche. I remember being surprised a good few years ago when a LDC lady gave me a card at a previous Thought Bubble in Leeds. I wondered why on earth she had done that? Surely it was a mistake?
She recognised me before I did myself.