The show-day checklist we wish every organiser had

Show day rarely fails on the big things. It fails on a dead phone at the gate, a trader with no pitch number, and nobody knowing who holds the float. This checklist is the accumulated scar tissue of a lot of show mornings. Adapt it, print it, and give every line an owner’s name.

The night before

• Charge every phone and battery pack that will scan tickets tomorrow. Then charge the spares.
• Print the trader list with pitch numbers and phone numbers. Paper works when signal doesn’t.
• Print two copies of the floor plan: one for the door, one for the setup lead.
• Confirm the float: how much, in what denominations, who collects it, who signs for it.
• Check tomorrow’s weather and decide any wet-plan changes now, not at 7am.
• Send traders a final reminder with arrival window, unloading rules and your on-the-day number.

Setup morning (doors minus 3 hours)

• Walk the venue before anyone else arrives: fire exits clear, toilets stocked, signage up.
• One person owns trader arrivals, checking them in, pointing to pitches, keeping the unloading bay moving.
• Chase no-shows by phone at your cut-off time, then re-allocate empty pitches from the reserve list.
• Test a real ticket scan on every device that will be scanning. A test at 8am saves a queue at 10am.
• Brief the door team: what a valid ticket looks like, what to do with a failed scan, who to call for problems.

Doors

• Open on time. A queue you let build in the first ten minutes follows you all day.
• Split lanes if you can: pre-paid scans move fast; walk-ups paying at the box office move slower.
• Have one roaming person with no fixed job. They absorb every surprise so the gate team doesn’t.

Mid-show

• Do a full floor walk each hour: blocked aisles, struggling traders, overflowing bins.
• Push announcements when anything changes: a cancelled demonstration, a moved car park, a found child’s teddy. If you use Popup Pal, a live announcement reaches every ticket holder’s phone in seconds.
• Check sales and attendance numbers around lunchtime. If footfall is soft, post to socials while there’s still an afternoon to save.
• Feed your volunteers. Seriously. Rota fifteen-minute breaks and a hot drink.

Pack-down and the day after

• Nobody drives into the hall until visitors are out. Announce closing fifteen minutes ahead.
• Reconcile the float and door takings before people scatter, with two people counting.
• Walk the venue with the venue contact and photograph its condition. Deposit disputes die in daylight.
• Within 48 hours: thank traders and visitors, note what broke while it’s fresh, and open rebooking for your next date while goodwill is at its peak.

The pattern underneath all of this: decide everything decidable before the day, and give every remaining decision one named owner. If the tooling side is the part that keeps breaking (scanning, box office, announcements), that’s the part Popup Pal was built for.