We’re taking Carolina Game Tables on the road! Would you like to join us?
Working a booth at a game convention is a lot of fun and has more than a few perks–but it is work! We’ll spell out what we need in terms of heavy lifting and what dates you’d need to commit to. And we’ll share some of the perks others have seen from working with us in the past.
WORK WORK WORK
- We need people able to lift about 50–75 pounds. Our tables are heavy! The Dining Game Table, fully assembled with legs, requires four people to flip to an upright position and weighs about 250 pounds. We don’t want anyone to injure themselves, so we require four people to flip any of our dining height tables. We’ll also instruct you on proper lifting mechanics and go slowly. We can have other booth helpers, too, for setting up things like flyers and banners, but we need at least four heavy lifters.
- Setup/Load out helpers must be over 17 years old. We’ve known plenty of capable people under that age but this is usually show policy. (Our daughters helped us at conventions starting at ages 6 and 8, and we’ve had booth helpers with infants and toddlers. That’s fine, and encouraged! We LOVE kids in the booth. But we can’t have them on the show floor for setup or load out)
- Setting up the booth and packing it up at the end of the convention is the hardest labor. We only break a sweat when the hall isn’t air conditioned, though! On average it takes about 4 hours to set up and 2 hours to tear down. Sometimes we have to wait our turn to get loading, but since everyone loves games there’s always a new game to play or talk about. We prefer to set up the day before the show opens, and tear down always happens on the last day of the show.
- Each helper is in the booth about 22 hours over five days. When the exhibit hall is open we need at least two people in the booth. We don’t make ANY financial transactions on the floor–that’s what this cool website is for. Our presence at conventions is purely for answering questions and letting people see the tables. You’ll never be left alone in the booth without someone there to answer the hard questions; Real CGT staff like owners Jodi and Clint Black will be there with you at all times. If you do the math from setup above, you’ll see that we can easily accommodate booth helpers working part time (about 16 hours over four days) while the Exhibit Hall is open and your evenings are wide open for gaming!
- One last note about requirements; You’re representing our company when you help us. No parties in the hotel room. No bad mouthing other companies (especially other furniture companies’ products). No intoxicated behavior in public. Please, no negative social media posts during the show. I think you get the idea. We’ve never had a problem with this, but since we’re putting it in writing it needed to be included.
BENNIES!
We want to make this a fun and rewarding experience for you. You’re doing us a big favor! But let’s make one thing clear–you are not an employee for insurance reasons. You’re a volunteer. We can offer no cash compensation or transportation assistance.
- If you are traveling with a partner who can also help with the booth, you can bring your kids! You two can “tag out” when needed, and we understand with kids sometimes emergencies come up, meaning you’re both out of commission for the day–been there, can you tell?–and that’s fine. We’ve raised kids.
- We provide a hotel room convenient to the convention. This is usually worth $1000 or more. We try to arrive at the hotel the night before setup and stay an extra night after load out. you may arrive the day of load in and leave after load out if you prefer, but the option is there for you to stay an extra night and catch up on sleep.
- When we can, we make a reservation for a hotel with a free hot breakfast. We find that the “con lifestyle” works best with a big breakfast and big evening meal, and small snack during the middle of the day. If you need a lunch that’s fine too–We try to come up with a plan for booth shifts before the con then flex as needed. If breakfast is not your thing most of these hotels have a “to go” bag of granola bars, apple, etc., which you can use for snacks later.
- You get a BADGE! Again, depending on the convention, this is a value of $60-150 per badge. Even better yet, you get an Exhibitor Badge, meaning you get to see all the other booths before they open each day. Getting to the hall early to walk the floor when no crowds are around is certainly a benefit! Some vendors in the hall give other Exhibitors discounts. Again, if you are a family helping us, we provide badges for everyone, even the kids! We’re committed to family gaming.
- Family Dinner! We try to have a big meal together at a nice place after setup on the first day, our treat. This is part important business meeting to discuss shifts and schedules, and part fun for everyone to get caught up on what’s going on in our lives.
- Networking? If you want to make connections in the game industry then the best way to do it is to meet people. You’ll have plenty of time to show off the demo of your game to prospective publishers, spread around your business cards, show off your portfolio, or however you’re trying to get a toehold in this crazy cool world of tabletop games. Jodi and Clint are veterans in the game industry with over 20 years of experience. If they know someone who can help you, they’ll make an introduction.
Donations
We like to give back to our gaming community, but projects near and dear to our hearts are getting children into gaming and supporting people in a crisis with adequate food, housing, and water. Our family’s favorite charity is Lutheran World Relief (please read the bolded link about why). You may reach out to info@carolinagametables.com for donations, but we want you to be aware of our funding priorities.
–Jodi and Clint Black, owners
Upcoming Conventions
Here are the conventions and dates where booth helpers are needed, with a few notes about accommodations.
Hotel stay dates available: June 20-26, 2023. Hampton Inn Columbus Downtown. 2 Rooms with 2 Queen Beds available currently.
Setup June 21. Exhibit floor open June 22-25. Hours are 10am-6pm Thurs-Sat, 10am-4pm Sun. Expect load out to end about 7 pm Sunday June 25.
Booth helpers needed: 4-6.
Hotel stay dates available: Aug 1-7, 2023. Tru by Hilton Indianapolis Downtown. 2 Rooms with 2 Queen Beds available currently. 1 room with 1 King bed available currently.
Setup August 2. Exhibit floor open Aug. 3-6. Hours are Thurs-Sat, 10 am – 6 pm, 10am-4pm Sun. Expect load out to end about 7pm Sunday August 6.
Booth helpers needed: 4-6.
August-September 2023 DragonCon
Hotel stay dates available: Aug 30-Sept 5, 2023. Hampton Inn & Suites Atlanta Downtown. 1 Room with 2 Queen Beds and one Double sofabed available currently.
Setup Aug 31. Exhibit floor open Sept 1-4. Hours are Fri-Sun, 10 am – 7 pm, 10am-5pm Sun. Expect load out to end about 11pm Monday Sept 4th. We highly recommend staying the night until Tuesday–load out takes longer at DragonCon because we’re on the 4th floor and there are only 3 freight elevators.
Booth helpers needed: 4-6.
Hotel stay dates planned: Nov. 14-19, 2023. Hyatt Regency Dallas. Exhibitor hotel block has not opened yet–let us know what kind of room you want!
Setup Nov 15. Exhibit floor open Nov. 15-19. Hours are Thurs-Sat, 10 am – 5 pm, 10am-3pm Sun. Expect load out to end about 5pm Sunday August 6. Because we get done loading out so early, we leave on Sunday, unlike other conventions.
Booth helpers needed: 4.
Dates TBA, but usually the first or second weekend in December.
Exhibitor hotel block has not opened yet–let us know what kind of room you want!
Booth helpers needed: 4-6.
Questions? Text Jodi at 828-276-2390.
See a convention near you we missed? Let us know about it at Info@CarolinaGameTables.com! We can only attend a few shows a year, but love hearing about shows focused on tabletop gaming.