[0:19] Hello, everyone. I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And this is Haunt Weekly,

[0:23] a weekly podcast for the haunted attraction and haunted entertainment community. Whether you're an actor, owner, or just plain a fishing rod, we aim to be a podcast for you. And when we return to you this week, I have a vision that many of you are listening to this in cars or on airplanes or otherwise en route to Transworld. Because I'm willing to bet at least some of you are. If that describes you, you're in luck. because we're going to be covering 11 different lessons we learned from our first time at Transworld, which was two years ago. But yes, indeed. And we'll be talking about all other things trans. We're hoping to give some of you a heads up if this is your first time. Don't make the mistakes we did or learn from the lessons we learned at the very least. Yeah. But if that doesn't sound like what you want, believe me, there's plenty of other episodes. Check us out, HauntWeekly.com, HauntWeekly on Facebook, Haunt Weekly on YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts from.

[1:16] Let's see. We don't have any real housekeeping notes. No. We said last week that we will be in St. Louis for Transworld, but that is just a coincidence. Yeah.

[1:27] Yeah, we had planned on going up for Mardi Gras weekend, not realizing because,

[1:32] you know, the dates are in March, that it was the same weekend as Transworld. Yeah, we've been, in fact, we kind of have it now where we're doing this, we're planning on doing this yearly where we escape mardi gras to go to st louis um main reason being nobody that is not participating in mardi gras wants to be in new orleans during mardi gras yeah you can't do anything you can't get around the city yeah um every place is weird yeah places that are only busy are dead places that are dead are busy you know it's just craziness and so getting out of town makes sense but this weekend it does happen to align with trans world we are not planning on going to the trade show floor i don't know i mean we're still kind of a lot of this is going to depend on how much the uh you know stepson and this grandbaby and all that are available to us and right family will be first but we may be trying to meet up with some of y'all so stay tuned we'll be posting on social our social media um as things change and evolve uh work we did for the haunt uh nothing this week i'm still injured i think our next major project, though, is taking down that panel we even want to get rid of and putting up our new system for running extension cords and other cables in the haunt.

[2:47] Because we saw a guide on a very simple system to do it, and I'm very excited to actually implement it, because it will make running cords through that haunt so much easier.

[2:59] I'm really, really excited about it, and we'll be looking forward to telling you about it when we pull it off, and it'll be a massive success and with no problems at all. Getting right the first try. Exactly. I'm looking forward to telling you guys about it when that inevitably happens.

[3:14] Uh-huh talk about shit that's never happened yeah no all right well every week we do ask a question of the week last week we asked you does the haunt you are at donate to charity if so which ones uh roberta mcclellan yes uh check out our haunters against hate donation actually she posted a image of a whole list of donations so it's like 40 things on there obviously not going to read it all but yes the haunters against hate donation was quite impressive right uh chris gay said our Haunt is hosted by the local volunteer fire company and they bring in $15,000 to $17,000 per year every year. And for a local volunteer fire company, that is a huge amount of money. That is making a tremendous difference there. Yes. Sam Farrell, we donate to organizations to provide firewood, meals on wheels, and buy gifts for children and family needs through the Youth Villages Holiday Heroes.

[4:05] This past season, we also focused on flood relief in western North Carolina.

[4:11] Very fortunate to be surrounded by such great organizations and charities could not agree more portals of fear said over five years we are up to 125 000 donated last year alone they raised 60 000 all to the appellation work camps that build housing for the less fortunate that's an awesome deal and i gotta warn you uh from what you said there uh saying you raised 60 000 last year 125 total that is what we call an exponential curve my friend yes and um yeah that that hockey stick keeps on a hockey and could get that amount could grow really fast so be just make a note somewhere of that uh haunted the roxbury yes the hope clinic pantry um always a great thing to donate to and keony hutton said home on here we collect food for the southern maryland food bank and you know we tried that a couple of years yes it never worked we ended up just making a cash donation to the local food banks which now our food banks are being so yeah but we we also like support the the local uh pantry yeah the little no barrier pantry things um typically what we do is we just pick up extra groceries and drop them off um so yeah yeah these are all great charities it's great to see haunts doing such.

[5:39] Wonderful work and giving back to the local community. So this week's question, the week is obvious. What are you looking forward to at Trans World?

[5:48] Let us know, HauntWeekly.com, HauntWeekly on Facebook, and YouTube.com slash HauntWeekly. Send an email, leave a comment. We read them all, and we will probably read it on the show. All right. So Trans World is coming up. As we are recording this and publishing this on Monday, festivities kick off on Thursday, so it's just a few days away.

[6:08] And we were fortunate enough to be able to go two years ago. It was a very rough trip up, but we did have a great time at Transworld itself. And as we said at the top of the show, we will be in St. Louis. So we may be able to arrange like a quick meeting or something informal, but we will not be attending Transworld. This is a family visit. See grandbaby, send stepson, hang out with all the families and put in that FaceTime so that, you know, children and children's children don't grow up to resent us.

[6:37] Yeah. um is the main goal there we we don't want to be absentee um extended family here even though we live um hundreds of miles away yeah 10 plus hours yeah 10 hour drive away so yeah family is going to be the priority of this trip um oddly enough things may open up for us on monday or tuesday, so but we'll see we'll get with people and talk about it then we don't really know what our schedule is like so that's why we haven't done any outreach other than mentioning it blanketly here.

[7:08] Um but they get us talking about trans world and we kind of got and like i said a lot of these episodes come uh from us discussing something here and they're going shh we should put that on a microphone yeah and this kind of happened here because we talked about well if we did go to trans world what would we do different what were the lessons we learned what would we change and we ended up shooting for just five things and ended up getting 11 so yeah we may have to kind of move through these fairly quickly but we will do our best to get all 10 and get all 11 rather and make sure that you know not to repeat the errors that we did or at least to learn from the lessons we learned and the first one okay sorry we skipped all this part oh no we didn't okay um so the first lesson is to check out the free seminars there's seminars at transworld can be pricey yeah um if you want to go to the paid one because it is a business conference but there are a lot of free ones especially in the early morning that i didn't even know existed i you You know, when you mentioned, because you mentioned this, I wasn't even 100% sure there were free seminars. There might not have been.

[8:28] Yeah. But trust me, they are very poorly promoted by Transworld. Yeah. And they are, as you noted, not at the most convenient times. Well, and the other thing is, is like, whenever we are reporting on Transworld before we went, everybody talks about the trade show floor. Yeah. Nobody talks about the classes. Even though the classes are popular. Yeah. I mean, like I said, we tried to go to one and we couldn't because we couldn't find who to pay for it. Right. We'd rather just pay on site.

[9:00] Really wanted to go. Couldn't go. Sucked. But we had no idea there were free ones. No. So, pull up the list. It's on the Transworld site, H-A-A-S-H-O-W.com, The Ha Show.

[9:13] They have a list of them. There's some really interesting ones. There's one I would absolutely love to go to, which is about changes in liability insurance and how they're impacting haunted attractions after what happened with Fear Fair a few years ago and general issues here basically the the very lengthy um synopsis says that uh liability insurance is making haunts targets for lawsuits and that while haunts have always kind of relied on this assumed risk defense that's becoming less and less a sure thing and so this is definitely one of the talks i would be interested in there was also one by this guy's cfx the makers of our bernie mask um they were doing one about they're doing one about incorporating silicone not just masks but like um silicone hands props other things which i think sounds really interesting and there are a slew of marketing ones i just couldn't pick one marketing one so there's like one day it's like three different marketing ones honestly go nuts they're free go nuts right so yeah honestly like when we were there i'm not even sure they had free seminars but if they did I had no fucking clue. No, you didn't, because you would have been there instead of trying to hang out with me at the booth.

[10:30] Yeah, I would have been doing something. I probably was under at least some of them, you know. Yeah.

[10:34] Because, you know, this was our biggest regret. It was not knowing about these classes. Yeah. And to be clear and to reiterate, Trans World is very much a business conference. This is something that you need to understand if you're a first time attending.

[10:51] This is a conference, and we're going to get into it in just a second. It's very much about buying and selling goods. So everything is expensive, and we're going to get into some of that in a minute. But yeah, just understand that it is a business conference, and have that mindset as you come in. Yes, it's a lot of fun. Yes, haunting is a unique business, but it is still a business.

[11:14] All right number two speaking of it being about a business come ready to buy this is actually my biggest regret in some ways because here's the thing when you go to a trade show event um they vary a lot from business to business and and through my work you know as a consultant doing expert witness stuff i've been to a lot of different trade shows because i've been a speaker many and i've been on a lot of trade show floors like the south by southwest trade show floor, nobody's buying shit not really it's just a place to see and be seen yeah and to get business cards make contacts free kitsch yeah it's it's not a buyer's place no one's like leaving with arms of technology or whatever south by southwest that is not trans world um trans world is very much a buyer and seller trade show.

[12:15] And I'm going to put it bluntly, this is where you will get the best deals of the year, especially with the looming tariff thing we just talked about a couple episodes ago. Yeah. So this is your chance to get great discounts, not have to worry about tariffs. And yeah, if you pay for the trade show floor access, this can make it pay for itself in savings because a lot of places will offer 15, 25, 35% discounts to trade show attendees. And if you buy enough of it or you buy expensive enough stuff, you can easily recoup your costs and go in there and the savings. Right. And they also have buy and take booths as well. So you won't have to be paying for the shipping and things like that too. So yeah, be prepared to buy. That means one, have money. We had some money, but not buying right then money. Two, make sure you have a way to get the shit you buy at home. And make sure that you secure it overnight. Yeah. Because there have been tales of break-ins into cars and things to get the stuff you just bought. We had to limit our purchases to what would fit in a Ford Fiesta with our luggage. Yeah. I say, not very big.

[13:37] If I had it to do over again, I would come more seriously, ready to buy, and I would probably rent a van or something. This way, like that one place that was near the Conjured Media booth that had the panels that we really liked and the netting. Would have loved to have grabbed something. Couldn't do it. Had no way to get it home. Just would not have worked. Stuff like that. So I encourage you,

[14:02] if you're going there to buy, be prepared to buy and be prepared to transport it out. Because if you can take it, you'll save even more money. Yes. And if you're a first-time seller there, I heard this from multiple people because I was on the booth side of things, that they were surprised at how many people were interested in their items and how many people wanted to buy in bulk. So be ready with that answer. So if somebody comes to your booth and says, hey, I want this amount in bulk, what's your bulk rate? What's your discount? How much can you feasibly get to them by August?

[14:35] A lot of the, especially a lot of the newbies have never done anything bulk. Exactly. And you need to be ready for that. And I agree. Because once again, this is a business oriented event. We make the jokes about the booze coming out and playing on the trade show floor. And all the Marriott stuff and all that, but this is fundamentally, at its core, a business event. Treat it as such and come prepared as such. It will make your life so much better. Yes. Tip number three, or lesson three, there are two types of attendee buyers. Yes. Those that first come take advantage of the early entry and buy, buy, buy. The goal is to get the good stuff before it's sold out. Lots of now i will say that lots of booths do offer to let you buy things that they're sold out of and they'll send it to you later yeah um just know that but then you're going to pay the shipping exactly you're going to get hit with that yeah you're going to lose some of the benefit um many items are sold out before transworld even opens and it's the busiest time for many sellers a lot of sellers in the haunt industry are small um companies and this is where they They fill up their donket for the year, pretty much. Exactly. This is where they hit their black. This is like Black Friday for them. Yeah.

[15:57] Yeah, and if you're going to be one of these early birds, you're going to need to take advantage of the VIP system that gets you that two-hour early access. Yeah. Because one thing I noticed was Friday, the first day, after first access, that early access ended, there were sold-out stickers all over the trade show floor. Yeah. Yeah. So if that's what you want, you want your pick of the litter, you've got to do that. Yeah. And then there are the other type of buyers who are the deal snipers who come late in the show hoping to get further discounts. You know, they're going to haggle with the booth. Yeah. They're going to try to, you know, hey, you know, you don't want to take this back to wherever you're from. I'll take it off your hands. Just give me an extra $20 off or whatever. Yeah. There's a lot of those. And that kind of, and this one works both ways. If your first time vendor, be prepared for both groups. Understand what's going to happen. I've heard it from a lot of vendors that the first two hours they're open, both Friday and Saturday, are nuts for sales. They've said they'll make more sales in those hours than they will the rest of the conference combined. Yeah. So be aware of that. But also be prepared that whatever is left toward the end of the show, you're going to start getting the bargain hunters. They're going to start to come in. So be prepared for that and be ready to have a floor. Be ready to say when you're walking away from a sale.

[17:23] You need to have that mentality. And if you're a first-time attendee, figure out which one of these you are and plan your visit accordingly.

[17:32] Because of number four, you really don't need to be on the trade show floor multiple days. No. I feel dirty saying that, but it's true. There are different classes each day, though. Yeah. But the seminars aren't all in the trade show floor. No, no, no. They're elsewhere. Or at least they weren't. At least they weren't when we were there. I don't know if things have changed.

[17:55] But, yeah, the trade show floor is awesome and it is huge. Huge but you can easily get through it all in one day and that includes the interactive entertainment show and a christmas show you can get them all in one day pretty easily and see everything they have to offer yeah i will say that you probably want to give yourself more than a couple of hours though because i tried to do it in a couple of hours because as you know you need a day you do need a day yeah you do need more than an hour or two but i i would say if you came and got like a noon lunch somewhere hit the trade show floor you could see it before the close of yeah business that day that seems reasonable yeah but you don't really need to be there every day so pick the days that are best for you and that way you can do things like go to the seminars go to other events other parties other unofficial events etc etc etc and have a more variety very.

[18:54] Time do more things I mean tracial floricus it is great but it is not a three-day activity three or four day activity it just isn't so playing around that um I will say one of my favorite things is.

[19:14] When you are on the trade show floor, and this is something I learned at other conferences, too, when you're on the trade show floor, definitely make an effort to do the floor and hit everything. But also, give yourself just some wandering time. Yeah. And one of the things to look out for at the booths are contests and things that you can enter just by going up. Yeah. Most of them have QR codes to scan to enter to win. Yeah. Look for QR codes or look for fishbowls with business cards. Yeah. To which I say bring business cards, hidden tip 12. Yeah. Jesus Christ, have a business card because there's a lot of fishbowls. Yeah, because we've gone to more of a, you know, virtual business card now and sharing of contacts. Yeah, there's still a reason to have some physical ones hanging around. And you've got time to order a couple if you need to from like next day flyers. Yeah, or you could actually just go to your local Kinko's and get 50 or so printed out. Yeah. You don't need that many. No. For reasons we'll get into in a minute. But yeah, look for QR codes, look for fish bowls, look for any type of contest you can get your hands on. It's all... Someone will win. Someone will win. And, you know, we won some reasonably decent stuff from a contest there, so I'm sure others can too.

[20:39] All right. Next up, make sure to check out the Christmas and interactive entertainment shows as well. Jonathan spent more time on the floor than I did, but he says they're great. Well, and they are. They're both really, really cool. And the other thing is, is with the Christmas side of it, more haunts are getting into Christmas shows. Yeah. If you really want to change your haunt for Christmas theme, just buy a couple of the items that you can afford. Yeah. And then incorporate them. Yeah. Because it'll give your whole thing a big fill. Yeah. One thing I noticed when I was roaming the trade show floor, was you would get to that line between where the haunty stuff ends and the, well, back when we were there, I think they were still called the escape room show, but now it's the interactive entertainment. They really haven't figured out what that third thing is yet. Yeah. Is what I realized. But regardless when you reach that boundary you would see all the haunted people and turn around like, Grandpa Simpson whoop, too far turn around don't do that there's A, a lot of cool and neat shit in the interactive entertainment one that is more stuff like axe throwing.

[21:59] They had inflatable escape rooms I'm not actually making that up They actually had, the year we were there, they had an inflatable escape room complex that had four different rooms. Weird. It was, they had some wild shit. And one thing I noticed in the Christmas section was that was where a lot of the lighting companies set up.

[22:22] That makes sense. So just like, I mean, there were some lighting companies on the honey side too, but you get into the Christmas side, you're getting the people to do the programmable Christmas lights, things that can be very useful and hot. And there just happened to be in the Christmas section. In the Christmas section. So be sure to give it a tour. Also, the scariest thing I saw at Transworld was animatronic reindeer heads. I was going to mention those. because they were close to our booth and they were creepy as fuck yes they were all sorts of wrong like that's not wholesome christmas i did not know you could uncanny valley reindeer i had no idea that was a thing but apparently it is because jesus christ that was legitimately the creepiest thing i saw while i was there yeah and they also in the interactive entertainment section and they had a lot of VR stuff, too, which was cool. So, yeah, I mean, go tour those other areas. Your ticket lets you go see them. Why are you cutting yourself off? Also, the concession stand in the Christmas area is really good, but we're going to get more of that in a minute.

[23:32] But, yeah, go tour the Christmas stuff. You will be glad you did. I'm not a Christmas person. There's a reason my Christmas tradition is an anti-Christmas music list. I enjoyed it. Yeah. So, believe me, you can, too, and you will likely find something useful and applicable even if you aren't doing a Christmas show.

[23:52] Number six. This is the big one in many ways. If you're completely new to Transworld. We did know this one going in, but we were not prepared for the extent. Yeah. Yeah. The real conference is across the street because basically directly across the street from the entrance to of the America center that we'll be using, there's a Marriott and A, it's booked up. Yes. Completely.

[24:19] But the lobby, mezzanine area, everything is a giant fucking party. Yes, and there are lots of people who host parties in the individual, like, conference rooms at the hotel. Like, they've booked it just for this. Yeah.

[24:39] So, you know, and the thing about this, and I want to sound like one of those dicks that go to South By, and go to South by Badge-less. Yeah. Because there's so much to do that doesn't require a badge in and around South by that you really can fill the weekend perfectly fine without ever setting foot in an official event. Yeah. That's not even a challenge. There's a little bit of that here. You don't need a conference badge to go into the lobby of the Marriott. No. And to hang out and mingle and see people and say howdy and then go to these conference rooms like you were talking about where they're having little get-togethers, stuff like that. And that is where the party is. Now, for me personally, it was a little rough because it was so loud, so echoey, and so noisy that I could not hear words. Right. I mean, I have eustachian tube disorder. I have bizarre hearing issues. And now I'm curious if we are there this year. I'm bringing the AirPods because. Because I've got the AirPods with a hearing aid mode, and it can filter out that kind of noise pretty well. So I'm hoping that maybe it'll help me actually hear people in this situation. That's the reason I had to kind of get out of there to have a real conversation. I couldn't hear anything. But, yeah. And you can BYOB. You are encouraged to use the hotel bar. Right. And you should. Right.

[26:09] A bar is going to be beyond capacity. Yes, they can't have enough glasses ready for everybody, and they run out of things fairly quickly. I remember when we were there, I remember watching one of the bartenders just constantly loading and unloading the undercounter dishwasher for the glasses. And it was just a constant train of glasses. His bar back did nothing but that. Yeah. Like, and if you are going to bring your own, I saw lots of people bring them in backpacks, their drinks for themselves. But even with us having some drinks for ourselves, we didn't bring enough. No. That's one. And two, we still did get a drink from the hotel bar just to make sure that they didn't feel slighted by everybody. Yeah. I mean, and then the bartenders, when we were there, were nice. They were incredibly busy. Yeah. I mean, it's probably one of the busiest nights they'll ever have. I don't know too much about other conventions that come through here, but I'm pretty sure this is a fairly unique time of year for them. Yeah, and one thing also to know about the Marriott is that the elevators do require room cards to use, but there's always somebody getting on and off those elevators, and they will let you on with them.

[27:31] It wasn't an issue, is what I'm saying. And we'll get into it in a minute. We were not staying at the Marriott. No. But, yeah, the scale of this party is incredible. I encourage you to enjoy that and prepare for that. And know that, honestly, that's realistically the main event for most people. If you're not super focused on buying and or selling, that's the big dance. That's where the conference happens, so to speak. Please don't destroy the Marriott. No, we would like to go back. We don't want them to say, no haunters. I don't think they'll ever do that because they make a lot of money off the haunters. I looked at the rates for the hotel before they were sold out. And, yeah, definitely they're making a shit ton of bank here, so they're probably not going to do it. And the result of that is, you know, just be mindful of that. And, yeah, just know that's the case. Number seven.

[28:28] Don't feel pressured to do all of the events. No. Most of the events are repeats, including the Party City. Party at City Museum. Yeah, I said that too the first time I read it. My brain just like, there's no at there. Yeah, no, no. Party City ain't there no more. No.

[28:47] The Darkness Tour, the Vampire Circus, etc. All of those do come back pretty much every year. They added one new event this year, a zombie prom event. Yeah, but there's always some kind of ball or dance. Yeah, exactly. It's just differently themed. Yeah. And so if you don't want to do or can't do one of those things. Yeah. And plan on coming back another year. Yeah. And plan on coming back. Don't worry about it. Yeah. It's probably going to be there next year. One of the funny things is we've been doing conference reminders now for 477 episodes. So that is, you know, almost 10 years. Yes. Yes. Do you know how many times I've updated the trends we're listing in our notes, other than the dates? Twice. Maybe that. Maybe twice. Yeah. I was going to say once, but... I remember when they added the Vampire Circus. That was more recent. But it's been there a few years now. Yeah. And the other thing to note is that the Darkness and City Museum are able to be seen at other times. Yeah.

[29:52] Probably better at other times, too. And the prices are cheaper. Yeah, to give you an example, there's actually some controversy in one of the haunt groups we're in. Because the darkness to go as part of Transworld was $69. Nice. But to go as part of their halfway to Halloween, it was like $32. Yeah, and I think that this came up last year, too. Or at least, I remember talking about it at least one other time. So it's just something to keep in mind. Yeah. I mean, honestly, and once again, we'll be frank. Hi, I'm Frank.

[30:28] We were not fans of the darkness as a haunt or Lent Brewery. Yeah. They were not. Now, we have not. Been. I'm going to put in the caveat, we haven't been in years. That's true. That is true. But when we went, we were not very impressed. No, we were not impressed with either. But City Museum is fucking baller. Yes. Especially if you can still move all of your joints freely.

[30:55] Yeah. You know, I'll say this. We actually spent a day at City Museum and loved it, had a great time. Yes. But as you said, it's a very physical experience. Yeah. But yeah, City Museum will be cheaper to go to on a non-party date as well. And you'll also probably get to see it more as it's intended to be seen. And there are nights that they have it for adults only. Yeah. Where they open, they don't have any kids in there, and you can just go and roam around with other adults if you want. So, and they have alcohol there all the time. Yes. We were never wanted for liquid of any kind when we did our visit. So, honestly, those two things in particular, those are things you want to do. Doing them outside of training's world may make more sense. Just because of cost and, you know, the situation. Especially if you have to cut something. Yeah. And it's kind of funny because, like I said, you're probably going to want to be at the fucking Marriott during those.

[31:58] I mean, I know I'm fucking trans world over here. Sorry, not sorry. I'm telling the truth. Yeah. These events, I'm sure. That's the best networking event. Yeah. I mean, and it is a lot of fun. Like I said, I wish I could have heard better, but maybe the hearing aids will help. Because that was one of the incidents that motivated me to really think harder about my hearing. Yeah. And what I can do. So, yeah. But don't feel pressure. Even if you do want to do them in trans world, don't feel pressure. Most of these events come back around again every year. If you're coming back another year, you'll get another chance.

[32:35] Okay, number eight, bring food and also liquid, both alcoholic and non, as to your taste. And the reason I say that is food was a surprisingly big challenge for us.

[32:50] There are restaurants on the show floor. there's actually three including the concessions in the very back of the christmas area which is where they had the footlong corn dogs that were the head of the year we were there i think those are there every year i think they are too but i'm caveating so that way i don't get yelled at i know so i don't get yelled at if there ain't no footlong corn dogs because it was awesome um but yeah there are restaurants on the floor but they're not particularly great other than the footlong corn dogs and they can be quite pricey for what you get especially yeah now yeah no and as crystal just pulled it up there is no outside food and drink allowed at the convention center right but you can definitely have some in your room you can have food available to you in other places right and I did if you're on the vendor side it's a.

[33:49] You know, I did bring some, like, snack bars. Yeah, the vendors, it's more lenient, definitely, than attendees. Yeah, but there are also restaurants right outside of the convention center that are cheaper and very good. Yeah, but they might also be incredibly full, too, especially on the weekdays. Because, realistically, Transworld is kind of split into two parts. You have the Thursday, Friday, and then the Saturday, Sunday. The actual weekend days are very different, especially in the neighboring area. And we'll be talking more about that in a minute. But, yeah, just understand that you may want to have access to food. You don't have to buy at a restaurant. This way, if you're hungry, you can get food quickly and cheaply. I remember for one of the meals, we had to roam kind of aimlessly around downtown St. Louis to find a restaurant that wasn't busting at the seams. Yeah, because we had found a place that we wanted to go check out, got there, and there was a line. So then we had to go somewhere else. And this was cold weather, too, because this is the year it was in January.

[34:52] Yeah, or early February. I can't remember. Was it January? Yeah. Okay. Because school had just gotten back in, and I was still working at the school. All right. But, yeah, basically have access to food. Arrange your own access to food. It will help you a lot. So, yeah. Even if it's just snacks. Yeah. Also, if you're working a booth by yourself, A, I'm sorry. B, make friends with your neighbor because they will oftentimes be willing to help you watch the booth while you have to go to the restroom or go and find food and water and stuff like that. Exactly. That's a very good piece of advice. But, yeah.

[35:30] Be thinking about how you're going to get food in advance is the main thing. Number nine.

[35:36] Things aren't so bad if you can't stay at the Marriott. We stayed over in Soulard. Yeah, we found out we were going late. Yeah. Pull the trigger late. By the time we pulled the trigger, the Marriott was already booked. Oh, yeah, and so was everything downtown.

[35:50] So we ended up getting the last hotel room, hotel, putting that in air quotes, available. It was an Airbnb in the Soulard neighborhood, which isn't that far. No it's actually a really nice neighborhood with lots of little bars and stuff yeah like that's that's a neighborhood that i could see myself living in yeah i i said if i couldn't live in new orleans anymore that's where i would move as soulard yeah because it was just that great of a neighborhood yeah if i'm in that if we're moving to the st louis area that's the area we're starting in and ending it but what blew my mind was that if you have a car getting to the conference every morning it's not that difficult no i think it was uh 15 minutes even it was less than that it was like 10 well on the weekends yeah on friday whenever the businesses were open it still wasn't as bad as traffic we're used to in new orleans though correct i mean it never got the bumper to bumper gridlock we've seen in new orleans atlanta houston dallas yeah um those types of cities and honestly the craziest thing about it was even on the business days we found street parking near the america center.

[37:10] And we talked with Ellie about this, because Ellie used to work in the U.S. Bank Tower next door to the Marriott. Right. And she's like, oh, yeah, that makes sense, because everybody who works downtown has a parking garage access. That's part of the perks of working in one of these various office buildings. And so no one parks on the street. Yeah, and especially on the weekends, most of the businesses in that area are closed. Yeah. So street parking was not an issue, even on the days that we showed up a little bit later. Yeah, we never were hurting for a space. Getting around St. Louis was relatively easy.

[37:49] Like I said, no struggles for parking. And yeah, we even attended, you know. And the other thing that we did is like when we knew we wanted to go out and go drinking and hanging out in the Marriott, we Ubered. Uber rates were surprisingly good during Transworld. Right. And there are also neighborhoods with rail systems that you can leave your car at or walk walking distance from where you're staying and just take that into town. Yeah, there is a train system. I don't know enough about it to help you use it. We could ask Ellie's son. Yeah. But basically, yeah, getting around St. Louis, especially if you have a car, not difficult. And I would if I would not feel put out. Because basically, when I looked at the rates for the Marriott, I mean, they are sold out. But I looked at the rates. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to stay in Soulard again. I'm going to save $200 a night.

[38:45] Yeah, because I think what we had found was like $70 a night. Yeah. Which was insane. And it was a not terrible Airbnb. I mean, Airbnb is a big... It's gotten more complicated in recent years. Especially for us as New Orleanians. Yeah. Um but i mean that it was all that was available realistically at the time we really didn't have much choice so we weren't taking business away from a hotel i feel pretty confident in that yeah um but yeah it's not a bad town to get around if you have your own transportation if you can drive in or rent a car i don't see a reason not to have access to it no all right Number 10, join the various Facebook groups.

[39:30] Haunters are on Facebook. I do not know why. They're on TikTok, too, but the interaction takes place on Facebook. Yeah. So join those groups. I think it's because young people begrudgingly will say, okay, that's where all of the people are. Yeah. And the old people are, well, old and don't know how to find the new things.

[39:56] But, yeah, basically get in the groups. It will help you out a lot. It'll help you know when informal gatherings are happening. Right. And there are a lot of informal gatherings. Like there was one for like various, like there were several for regional haunters. They were just getting together, like all haunts from the Pacific Northwest to meet here or whatever. It was stuff like that. Yeah. You'll learn about those from those groups. Yeah. And also, if you're going and decide that you wouldn't mind sharing the room that you've got, there are people looking for last minute rooms to stay in who are willing to pay part of the price that you pay. Yeah, seriously. It's a very important thing is to have access to these groups. Yeah. We were in the groups, we still are, but I admittedly, we did not refer to them adequately as the conference was going. Well, and part of that was because I had my objective, and that was to work the show floor. So I still don't feel like I really did Transworld, but I still had a lot of fun and was able to see most of it. Yeah, and I think you did get to see most of it. Yeah. And the final one, I'll just go and take it because I've been following this drama llama. Take a moment and understand the rules. These were confusing when we went to.

[41:21] The rules of Transworld are bizarre.

[41:26] And, I mean, I guess you should expect that to some degree because haunters are a bizarre bunch. But, I mean, they have a... One rule that's actually fairly customary that they have is a strict rule against what's called suitcasing. Yeah. Which is where you attend a conference as an attendee, as a buyer in this case, but then work the trade show floor with the intent of drumming up business without paying the vendor booth fees. Exactly. Now, that's fairly straightforward. I completely agree that you should not be on the trade show floor promoting a business if you're not a vendor. 100% agree with that. I mean, granted, it did come up in conversations a few times for me. People, oh, yeah, yeah. And say, yeah, I do copyright stuff. But it never got past a general descriptor of what I did. And people saying, oh, if I need you, I know who to go to now. But anyways, it was never intentional suitcasing. But here's the thing. Their policy actually extends to events at the Marriott and other nearby hotels. Yeah. Now, we were just talking about the Marriott, so you know that that isn't as strictly enforced there. But, I mean, it was even, like, we didn't know if we could wear Haunt Weekly shirts. Yeah. Like I wasn't going to because I had the shirt for the booth for Conjured Media, but I, you.

[42:50] It's tricky. Yeah. It's a rock and roll. I have never heard of anyone being kicked out for it. No.

[42:58] But they do seem to take this policy extremely seriously. And, you know, just be warned and understand that that is the policy they have. And they are going to enforce it.

[43:12] Yeah. So if you strike up a conversation with someone and they ask you for your information, then i think it's fine to give it to them because that's not you seeking out people just to to hand out and do the suitcasing like you're talking about yeah um the other rule is well there's they passed a new rule this year for vendors um no pre-show photographs are allowed yeah you're allowed to take photos of your booth but no part of anyone else's booth so if you're taking pre-send photos as you set up uh be very careful to not have anyone else's booth in the shot yeah um and they're and while they do encourage uh filming and photography on the trade show floor obviously you cannot be a distraction you cannot get in the way of things right and a lot of vendors will get upset if you're showing everything of theirs so just ask first it's better to talk to the vendors and ask if you can take the photos um that you want to take instead of just doing it kind of stealthily from afar and and i kind of say it like this trans world's been.

[44:27] Pushing out the rules lately and like i said unread them follow them understand them don't break them yeah please um but for all of this talk of the relatively heavy-handed rules it was a very chill atmosphere yeah like one of the rules we encountered when we were setting up the booth was no dollies with four wheels right because that's a union thing i don't fully get it i'm not a union man but whatever we just use two-wheel dollies for everything for the booth we were setting up that was not a huge change yeah but just understand that there are a lot of these rules and enforcement of them is kind of erratic and also the other rule to know because if you've gone to other haunted house conferences they will encourage costumes this one they do not you cannot wear costumes if you are not a vendor oh yeah sorry i knew i was forgetting an important rule jesus christ.

[45:28] You're allowed to do it at the parties and other events, but not on the trade show floor. Absolutely, you're 100% right. Yeah, and that's a big one. That was a big one that I made note of because we had gone to HauntCon multiple years. And I'm like, what? They don't want you to wear costumes at this? And I thought it was weird. But then I understood it because basically they don't want you competing with the vendors' costumes. Well, and that's kind of the thing. Once again, it goes back to what Transworld is. Transworld is a business conference. This trade show floor is about buying and selling haunted attraction related stuff.

[46:08] Haunt Con was much more of an educational conference. It was much more. There was a trade show floor, but the focus was very much on the seminars and the schedule. And the trade show was very much the backseat. so yeah they're make the rules almost universally are there to protect the vendors the best they can and to ensure that you need to pay that sweet booth fee yeah if you're going to have full access to the buyers of trans world and you know in ways i think that's fair but i to me where i kind of draw the line is like when you're trying to legislate activity not on trans world property Yeah, because I don't see how they could actually enforce that. And the thing is, like, I thought about this the other day. Say you and I go to one of the after parties while we're gone. We just said to pop into the Marriott. Yeah. They can't stop us. Right. Doesn't matter. Nothing can stop us. And we start pitching Haunt Weekly or something to people. Advertising Haunt Weekly. What are they going to do? Take our non-existent badges? Yeah. You know, right now we don't have badges. We may pick one up if we decide we do want to go on the floor or pick one up at the event. But right now we don't have a badge. So how are you going to punish us? No. It's not your property. You can't trespass us. That's the Marriott's job.

[47:31] So I'm very curious, but yeah, most of the trade show floor rules do make sense to me as far as the trade show floor goes. So yeah. Well, I think that's about everything. So please definitely read the rules, read up, join the Facebook groups, do all the things we suggested, and have a good fucking time. We may see you there, at least briefly. No promises, because like I said, family first. But yeah, all in all, I think that covers what we learned. Any final thoughts?

[48:01] No. All right. Well, on that note, everyone, thank you very much for joining us. This has been episode 477 of Haunt Weekly, 11 Transworld Lessons We Learn. Find out more. Find more Haunt Weekly at hauntweekly.com, Haunt Weekly on Facebook, and youtube.com slash hauntweekly. Plus, wherever you get your podcasts from. In a moment of irony, my computer just gave me an alert that the latest episode of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me dropped in my podcast app. It's like, ooh, I'm getting notifications about a podcast while recording a podcast. See y'all next week.