Run a live embroidery event

The Events page holds one record for each live event you do: a market or craft fair, a pop-up at a store, a party or shower, a corporate or brand day, or a hat bar. Each event has the questions to ask the host, the menu guests pick from, a checklist with a date on every item, and the printables for the table.

The prep half (the event record, the host questions, the checklist and the printables) is part of the Maker plan and up. The live day (the table order screen, the guest order link and QR code, the queue board, the ready text and the close-out) is part of the Shop plan and up. On a Maker plan the live-day card on the event page shows what the Shop plan adds.

Set up the event

1. 1Open Events in your dashboard and fill in the New event form: the event's name, what kind of event it is, the date, the hours guests are there, where it is, and whether each guest pays at the table or the host pays for everyone. Click Add the event.
2. 2The event's own page opens. The first card holds the same details plus the host's name and email or phone, and a status: Planning, Live now, or Closed out. Change anything there and click Save the event details.

Ask the host

The Ask the host card lists fourteen questions to get answered in one pass before you confirm the date: the hours, the guest count, what gets stitched, who supplies the blanks, the space, the outlet, indoors or outdoors, load-in and parking, the last time a guest can order, the fee, whether machine noise is fine, who pays, whether there is a logo, and the WiFi. Type each answer in and click Save the host's answers.

Three boxes above the questions say whether the event is outdoors, whether there is no outlet at the booth, and whether guests provide their own items, and a pair of buttons says who supplies the blanks. The answers to the blanks, indoors and who-pays questions set those for you when you save. The checklist reads them: an outdoor event adds tent weights, no outlet adds a power station, a corporate event adds the W-9 and the logo test stitch.

The menu

The menu is what guests pick from at the event: the items with one fixed show price each, the fonts, the thread colors, the most letters one order can have, and a line under the menu such as the pickup times. Add an item from your products or type one in, and check the box on any item the guest provides themselves. Pick the fonts and colors from the same lists your order form offers. Click Save the menu.

Keep it short: five fonts at most, colors no more than your needles, short text only. Every owner who has done one says this is what keeps the line moving. When the host pays for everyone, the menu shows no prices.

The checklist

The checklist is every item an owner needs before, during and after a live event, in five groups: booking it, four weeks out, the week before, the day, and after. Each item has a due date counting back from the event, the reason in one or two sentences, and, when the work happens in Broidry, a link to the place: the menu, the host questions, the printables, the quotes page, the queue board or the close-out. An item past its date and not done shows a past due mark.

Check an item off and it saves right away. The count at the top of the card and on the Events page shows how many of the items are done.

The printables

The Printables card opens a page that prints the menu card, the how-it-works sign, the price signs, the paper order slips and the QR card for the guest order link. The menu card shows the items, prices, fonts and colors you saved on the menu.

The live day

The live day card on the event page holds four links. This card is part of the Shop plan and up.

The table order screen is for your phone at the table. It keeps taking orders when there is no signal and sends the queued orders when the signal comes back. Each order gets a ticket number. A guest who chooses to pay by card is sent to the order's pay page.

The guest order link is the same order form for the guest's own phone, so the guest types their own name once. Copy the link from the card, or print the QR card from the printables and set it on the table.

The queue board shows every order by ticket number in three columns: waiting, in the hoop, and ready. Open it on a tablet or a TV at the booth. When you move a piece to Ready, a short text goes to the guest, if they gave a phone number and said yes to texts when they ordered. The Shop plan has 200 texts a month and the Atelier plan has 1,000.

The close-out

After the event, open the close-out from the live day card. Enter what was in the cash box, the booth fee, travel and other costs, and the blanks you used, and write what to change next time. It shows the orders and pieces taken, what was handed over, and the sales by payment method against your costs. Every piece that was not finished at the event stays a normal order with the guest's details on it, so you can ship or deliver it from your Orders board.