Now, I say Week “One” with a bit of a chuckle. It’s been the first week of showing off ShowWiz to the world, but it’s more like week Six? Or Seven? for us actually working on the physical website and more like MONTH SEVEN that I’ve had this idea kicking around my head.

I’m addicted to craft fairs. absolutely love them. I love the pre-show energy when I’m running through my mental checklist making sure I have everything. Playing Tetris making sure all my stuff fits in the car (It’s getting more and more challenging!). I love setting up with other vendors and watching a boring room be transformed into a condensed city of passionate makers and vendors. I love people of all ages appreciating everything that’s been made (and making new friends over shared interests, like my feminist buttons or map magnets!). And I love watching the speed at which this shopping village packs up and the boring room returns. It’s a rush I just can’t beat!

But keeping track of everything is hard. As more and more people express a desire to keep things local and buy handmade, more and more shows crop up. And this is awesome, but oh my gosh it can get overwhelming. I was struggling with keeping everything organized – what shows was I interested in? Where were they? When? Was I double booked? There were times I didn’t know. So I cobbled together an Excel spreadsheet and shared it with some of my closest crafting buddies. It was useful, organized, but eventually – even that got unwieldy.

Enter my knight in shining armour.

In crafting Jon is my valiant steed and support…meaning he drives me and my stuff all over the place, helps me wrangle my display, and helps me, absolutely exhausted, get home. He deals with my whining and frustration over some things and shares in my joys about others. I was ranting to him about how hard it was to keep track of everything and how magical it would be if there was a place that had it all in one spot.

His response? “Why don’t we make that?”

And thus, the ideal for ShowWiz was born. In the time since I’ve been busy with finding all the shows and keeping the database updated and he’s been plugging away with the code and resources that make the site run. It’s been an adventure already – and this is only the beginning.
We have so many ideas that are all lined up – we’re just working on the coding and testing to make sure they’re in good working order before they’re released to you. Everything from vendor profiles, being able to add yourself to an event as “attending”, to being able to curate an “interested” list (this will be especially useful for shoppers). Many of these features will be available to standard users, but we have some additional goodies in store for those willing to support our work with a Vendors+ membership.

Shameless plug, yes. It’s $25 a year and helps make all of this happen. Consider it.
Looking forward to many more weeks and shows!