Monday 6 October 2014

Our First Visit to the National Ploughing Championships

Our First Experience of the 

National Ploughing Championships 



Well now that we have recovered some what I have decided to update you all on our first experience at the National Ploughing Championships 2014
And what an experience it was for our little Flower School

Coming up the the ploughing we were really busy in the school as we had a group of gents and ladies from Donegal to Kerry on our Module 2 Sympathy Floristry Course, so along with looking after our students we were planning what we would do at the ploughing.



It was thanks to the amazing #BAG Business Action Group that we were allocated one of the 20 slots in the #BAG Marquees at Stradbally.

All of team Kays were pulled in to help with the planning and on the Sunday before the event Kay, John & Tom (the Dad & The Hubby) went down to the marquees and set up our stand, they sent on photos as they went and as we thought they would, they did a great job.  It was perfect.
Space was tight and cosy as we called it, but we knew what we had to work with and work with it we did.



Day one of the Ploughing so us leave our houses in Dublin at 4.30am and head on the road to Laois.  Traffic was perfect till we turned off the motor way and it began to get heavy and by the time we got anywhere near to rathiniska it was at a stand still, but he traffic measures enforced by the guards and also the Ploughing Stuarts was fantastic and it wasn't long till we parked the car in "the purple cow" car park.

We then walked for approx 20 minutes to get to the #BAG Tent, which we arrives at at around 6.45am.  Well the atmosphere around was electric, the excitement, the anticpation, the build up, it all had a magical feeling about it and how lucky we were to be there.


The first customers arrived into out tent (there were 2 tents with 10 business in each) about 8am and from then on we had a steady flow, the people came in waves which was probably a good thing as it gave us a chance to catch out breath,  our aim was to speak to as many people as we possibly could, and we certainly did.   And with all her chatting Janette even bagged herself a farmer :)  he was such fun and game for a laugh, we laughed so much with him, we forgot to ask him his name .





Kay was drafted in from Retirement to go a few hours also :)



Opposite us in out tent was Ken & Trish from KT Metal Design, and they gave us all such a laugh, we were like kids let out for the day.


We also had Darren & Ray from TotalGiftz selling their amazing night lights.

we had the classy and ever so lovely Annie Apple who had the most amaizng handbags and purses, most of them seemed like one offs, cos every one she sold was "the last one"  so we all got to calling her "the last one Annie"


Across from Annie was Mary from Addiebeads who stocks the most beautiful beads.  Mary had made hundreds of bracelets for the event along with little packs that you could make your own bracelet from..  I thought these were fabulous.


Up the front of our tent was Rachel from NP Liquid Glass System.  Now this stuff is magic, it is actually a liquid glass that can be sprayed on most surfaces from concrete to carpets and cars to swede shoes and once coated dirt cant (and i mean CANT) stick to them, I asked could they spray my childern ..lol .. this drew a lot of interest into the tent.


At the other end of the tent was Sara and her gorgeous partner whose name escapes me from Sarah2Scents - Sarah makes all her own fantastically scented candles in all shapes and sizes along with lots of other wax melts, so the aroma from Sarah's stand was sweeping through the tent during the day masking any smell from cattle that may have been close by.


We also had the Funky Crayon Lady Michelle with her tractor shaped crayons that all the kids that stopped were mad about.  She also had little gift boxes with crayons made from letters to spell childrens names, they were amazing, I have bought funky crayone from Michelle before in the shape of snow flakes for my daughted Cara's Frozen Birthday Party.


Melanie from Stomp PR & Marketing was at the top of our tent and was one of the most positive and nicest ladies I have met in a long time and she was such an asset to us over the 3 days.



Finnella from Baby Moments had us all in an uproar with her walking balloons each time she walked by you would swear she had a real dog in toe. On the second day she put her walking pet balloons outside of the tent and were they show stoppers...so many people came over to have a look at them and subsequently came into our tent.



But ours was not the only tent, our fellow baggers (as we call ourselves) were in the other tent and creating their own special atmosphere for the customers.  Carol from Ioma Essence, Geraldine from the 88 Food Company, Elaine from Sweet Treats Galore, Brian from BioFinch Composting,  Noeleen from Creative Ceramics and Craft , Hazel from Pure & Simple, Sharon from Heavenly Headbands, Karen from Enchanted Stationery







During the day we were so delighted the lovely Gavin Duffy and his Wife Orlagh took the time out of their day to come visit the BAG Tents, and Gavin was certainly up for a bit of crack when he posed for photos with some of the business. Also we were delighted to hear more about this amazing Sales Training Workshop featuring Gavin & Ramona Nicholas, & Dermot McConkey to name a few












We were also privileged to be visited from Jed Nash the Junior Minister of State for Business and Employment and again he was happy to post for some photos and showed a lot of interest if the goods and services the businesses had to offer.






Over the three days, we smiled, greeted, sold, encourages, chatted, giggled, laughed and sometime cried, but it will be one of the most memorable experiences we have ever had.

Will we do it again????  Ask us next year when our legs and feet have fully recovered :)