Pop-Up Shops: Organizing and Executing a Successful Event

Today I want to share with you my experience as a summer marketing student at Goodwill Industries of Alberta, where one of my tasks was to create and run three pop-up shops in Calgary. As you can imagine, this was a fun and challenging experience that gave me full creative control over the project, from picking the venue to choosing the booth theme and products on display.

To start, I had to reach out to various city events to book a booth spot and pay admission fees. Once that was done, it was time to get creative! I wanted to make sure that our booth would stand out and be visually appealing to those who came across it. To do this, I brainstormed unique booth ideas that would capture the attention of visitors and draw them in.

One of my favorite parts of the process was visiting different Goodwill stores to find products that would align with my booth theme. This was not only fun but also gave me a chance to better understand our brand's mission, values, and goals. It was essential to have productive conversations with people and leave them with a good idea of what Goodwill Industries stands for, along with some cool thrifted finds.

To promote our booth, I created graphics to post on various social media channels featuring the event's time, date, location, and theme. This helped to generate interest and awareness about the pop-up shop.

Now, let's dive into each pop-up shop event!

The first event was VIP: Vendors in the Park at Shouldice Athletic Park. I ran a dog/pet-themed booth that featured various pet items from our Goodwill Varsity location. My booth had great conversations with people in the community, and my dog Kona was the official booth mascot, making everything better!

My second pop-up shop was located in the heart of Inglewood for a street festival called Inglewood Sunfest. Setting up my booth started as early as 7 am, which was a bit intimidating. However, I had some amazing conversations with visitors at this outdoor festival. All the vendors near me expressed their support and love for Goodwill. The booth theme was patio party, and sales were better than my first pop-up shop due to the increased foot traffic.

My most successful pop-up shop was Marda Gras, where my booth theme added to my patio party ideas and was called Picnic Party. In this booth, I included many woven baskets that were very popular because people used them as shopping bags for the festival. I also included more adult-targeted items such as unique wine glasses, bottle stoppers, and openers.

Overall, these pop-up shops provided a fantastic opportunity to showcase the diversity of products you can find at Goodwill, have conversations about our mission and upcoming projects (such as the Calgary Impact Center), and sell some items that reflected my creative vision.

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