[THE DC]

Saturday is the traditional opening of the events. After a quick series of instructions, passing out of the name tags, and other pertinent guidance, the doors open. The exhibitors gather to their assigned tables and set up early, providing that they had not set up the night before. Most of the craftsmen have well planned out storage systems that permit the speedy extraction and set up of their fragile kits. Many have done this exercise for many years. They have the process down pat. If you ever attend a future convention, much may be learned from them about storing and transporting fragile kits.

Even with this care, repairs are quickly made to damaged kits. Emergency glue bottles appear randomly during the set-up.

The convention is divided into three exhibition rooms. The first one traditionally provides space for exhibitors at the registration table. Sometimes there are specialty exhibits; memorials to respected builders, participants, or designers who have passed on. Sometimes a table is prepared for orientation to the craft and instruction, with simple kits to start on.

Sometimes the room contains the items exhibited for the evening’s fundraiser-auction; sometimes these are displayed in the second room. This year they occupied the far wall of the first room; visible upon entry to it.

The first room typically homes some of the oldest and experienced exhibitors, but there is no certain formula here. Jack, a very experienced and skilled builder (whom you will meet later) was in this room last year, while he was in the second room this year. Though Steve Brown has attended every IPMC ever presented, he was in the second room this year. The second room traditionally is mostly made up of exhibitors. The third room typically is decided between a seller of paper models, Peter, who takes up an entire wall with his fairly priced offerings, and the other walls are typically exhibits. A small table is typically also offered in that room for beginning exhibitors, who may rent a space at a table for exhibiting a single model. The cost to display a model of this “open” table is a $10 fee per model. This table typically rests at the end of the room, between the seller of paper model kits on the right and the remaining exhibitors on the left.

The day’s events concludes with a common dinner, that the is sometimes held off site, as it has been over the last several years. The dinner usually happens a couple of hours after the exhibition halls close up, permitting the exhibitors a chance to store their work safely.