The Artist Alley Packing & Survival Checklist

There's setting up your table, and then there's surviving three days on your feet next to it. This checklist is about the second part: the stuff that keeps you functional and sane from the moment you leave your house to the moment you collapse on your hotel bed after teardown.

Packing: the night before, not the morning of

Pack the car or the suitcase the night before. Every single time you tell yourself "I'll just throw it together in the morning," something gets left behind, usually the thing you needed most. Lay everything out on the floor first, product, display gear, admin stuff, personal bag, and only pack once you can see it all in front of you.

If you're flying, weigh your bags before you leave home. Convention centers are not forgiving places to discover you're 4kg over at the airport counter. This is also where display gear that packs flat earns its keep. A modular panel kit collapses down small enough to check as one bag or, depending on the tier, fit inside the standard 56 x 36 x 23cm carry-on allowance, versus a rigid wire grid setup that basically forces you into an oversized or additional bag fee.

The travel bag, separate from your booth bag

• Phone charger and a portable battery, your card reader will die at the worst moment otherwise
• Snacks that survive a bag (nuts, bars, dried fruit, nothing that melts or crushes)
• A refillable water bottle, fill it after security, not before
• Painkillers and blister pads, you will need one of these by day two
• A change of clothes if you're staying multiple nights and only checked one bag
• Cash beyond your float, for food and the inevitable "why is parking $40" moment

Surviving the actual day

Standing for 8+ hours is a genuinely different kind of tired than a normal workday, even if you're used to being on your feet. Your feet and lower back take the hit first. Wear shoes you've already broken in, never new ones, and if you can swap between sitting and standing throughout the day, do it, even if it feels less "on" for customers walking by.

Eat actual food at some point. It sounds obvious, but a lot of vendors run entirely on con-hall snacks and adrenaline until 4pm and then crash hard. If you've got a table partner or a neighboring vendor you trust, trade 10-minute breaks so you can actually walk away and eat sitting down, even briefly.

The survival checklist

Teardown is part of the trip, plan for it

The last hour of a con is when everyone is exhausted and rushing, which is exactly when display gear gets damaged or lost. Have a system: display comes down first and gets packed the same way it came in, product gets boxed second, personal items last. If your booth structure folds flat and packs into the same case every time, teardown stops being a puzzle you re-solve at every event and just becomes muscle memory after a couple of shows.

Give yourself a buffer before your flight or drive home. Don't book a flight two hours after doors close on the last day. Teardown always takes longer than you think, and you don't want to be the vendor sprinting through the venue with a panel wall under one arm.

None of this is complicated, it's just easy to forget when you're focused on product and sales instead of your own basic needs. Keep a running note after each event of what you wished you'd packed. That list, built from your own actual mistakes, will serve you better than any generic checklist, including this one.

Curious what a Shapeshift kit actually looks like in person? Head to the Artist Booths homepage to see the full lineup and find the one that fits your table.