What is the Best Vendor Management Software for Markets and Pop-Up Events?
The best vendor management software for markets and pop-up events handles six things well: event and series setup, vendor applications and approvals, booth and floor-plan management, payments and payouts, event-day operations, and reporting — all in one place, priced in a way that doesn’t punish you for growing. Here’s what to actually look for in […]
A Smarter Way to Manage Vendor Insurance For Your Market is Here
If vendor insurance is part of your event requirements, you know the drill. One vendor already has coverage. Another needs to get it. Someone emailed you a COI three weeks ago. Someone else swears they sent theirs. And suddenly you’re digging through your inbox trying to figure out who’s actually ready for event day. We […]
How to Manage Vendor Insurance Requirements Without Chasing a Single COI
It’s ten days before market day and you’re staring at a spreadsheet with three columns you dread: “Has COI,” “Needs COI,” and the honest one, “No idea.” If that sounds familiar, you’re not disorganized… you’re just doing a job that was never built for one person to track alone. Vendor insurance requirements rarely get the […]
How Do I Build a Booth Layout or Map for a Market or Event?
You build a booth layout by designing your space on a visual canvas — placing booths, backgrounds, and arrival zones — then assigning approved vendors to specific spots before publishing the finished map so everyone knows where they’re set up. That’s the short version. The long version is that most organizers are still doing this […]
Best Vendor Management Software for Markets and Pop-Up Events
The best vendor management software for markets and pop-up events handles six things well: event and series setup, vendor applications and approvals, booth and floor-plan management, payments and payouts, event-day operations, and reporting — all in one place, priced in a way that doesn’t punish you for growing. Here’s what to actually look for in […]
The Vendor Waitlist Problem No One Talks About
Picture this: the vendor of your dreams applies to your market. It just so happens to be your busiest season yet, so they get added to your waitlist. As a market manager, having a waitlist should feel like an indicator of success. A long waitlist signals demand, and that should be a good thing. Here’s […]
What a Market Season Looks Like When You’re Not Doing Everything by Hand
Picture this… it’s Saturday morning and your market opens in a few hours. You got here early, but you still feel a sense of impending doom. You down a few energy drinks because you barely got a wink of sleep last night and you have nothing but your anxious thoughts to thank for that. By […]
The Farmers Market Manager’s Friday Night Spiral (And how to Break the Cycle)
It’s 11 pm on a Friday. Tomorrow is market day. You’re lying awake in bed, unable to sleep, running through a mental checklist regarding tomorrow’s market day. Did Luisa confirm her booth change? Are your vendors aware of what time they’re supposed to arrive at the market tomorrow? Did you actually remember to tell Sam […]
How to Optimize Your Farmers Market Booth Layout for Better Foot Traffic (Whatever Shape You’re Working With)
It’s 7:45 on a Saturday morning. Your vendors are set up, the coffee is hot, and shoppers are already trickling through the gate. Everything looks great, until you notice what always happens: they walk straight through, buy from the two or three booths they already know, and leave in under 20 minutes. It doesn’t matter […]
Hot Take: Market Managers Are Brand Builders, Not Just Business Owners
Picture a busy Saturday morning at your local farmers market. The smell of fresh bread, the towers of strawberries, the easy feeling of a community doing what communities do best. It looks effortless. It isn’t. Someone built that — and they were up at 5am to make it happen. Market managers don’t just run events. […]