I attended the Biggest Little Toy Con this past weekend here in Reno. Hard to find info on the show other than the fact it was at the Grand Sierra Resort so I thought it would be a tiny little show.

Boy, was I surprised! 30,000 sf room filled with tables (many dealers with multiple tables), but a LOT of booths (10x10, 20x20). I went there hoping to get a few dealers to attend my May collectibles show in Reno. I spoke to every vendor at the place (well over 100, and maybe 200+). Virtually every one of them said they were looking for more shows. I told them I was going to have another 50 categories of collectibles, including casino items, and they lit up. Bigger audience = more sales. And when I told them my event was NOT going to have a door charge (ToyCon charges $5/day or $8/2days), they were even more excited. So what that means to our niche group is that if you are a dealer at my show, you're going to get a lot more foot traffic and most of it will be NEW foot traffic.

Registration is already open and I added 2 booth sizes to the registration form, so if you want a 10x10 or a multiple of 200sf, those options are available to you at the early bird price of $3/sf.

My event will be heavily advertised, both on property (marquis along freeway, TVs all over property, lollipop signs, etc) and off (billboards, flyers in toy shops, antique stores, collectible shops, etc).

I spoke to the Toy Con organizers and they are anxious to help me make my event a success (which surprised me - I thought they might be territorial). They told me to leave a pile of handouts on their registration table and let me hand them out to dealers and attendees on the floor as well. I printed 500 and ran out in just over 4 hours. I probably could have run home, printed another 500 and handed them out to even more attendees, but I had a family event last night and couldn't make it back for today's show.

Dealer registration here (early bird limited to first 100 dealers or 12/31, whichever comes first): https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/322mder

Attendee pre-registration here (free + goodie bag for pre-reg): https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/3t57gnn

Coming soon (I hope): VIP Passes that includes buffet breakfast and lunch in the room + Reno bus tour