Everything you need to do, in the right order, so you walk in prepared instead of panicking the night before.
By Conventory · Last updated April 2026
It is the night before your convention. You are up at 1 AM realizing you never ordered print sleeves, your price signs are still just numbers in your head, and that grid wall you planned to borrow is still at your friend's house across town. Sound familiar?
Knowing how to prepare for a convention is the difference between a profitable, low-stress weekend and a scramble that costs you money before you even open for sales. The problem is not that convention artists are disorganized. It is that there are dozens of tasks spread across weeks, and without a timeline, something always slips through.
This guide gives you a complete week-by-week countdown from eight weeks out to convention day. Every task is in the order you should actually do it, timed around production lead times and the things that take longer than you think. If you follow this timeline, you will walk into your next convention with everything handled.
Most convention artists do not fail because of bad art. They fail because they ran out of time to prepare properly. And it is not one big thing that goes wrong. It is a pile of small things: products arriving late, no change for cash buyers, a table layout that looked good in your head but falls apart on setup day.
The core issue is lead times. Enamel pins take four to six weeks to manufacture. Prints take one to two weeks from a professional printer. Display equipment ships in three to five days. If you start thinking about all of this two weeks before the convention, you have already missed the window for half your prep.
A timeline fixes this by putting each task in the right week. You stop trying to hold everything in your head and start working through a sequence that accounts for how long things actually take. The result is less stress, fewer forgotten items, and a table that is ready to make money from the moment doors open.
Before you spend a dollar on production, know what this convention is going to cost you. Add up the table fee, travel, hotel, food, parking, and estimated production costs for the inventory you plan to bring. That total is your break-even number. Everything you sell above it is profit. Everything below it is a loss.
Knowing your break-even target before you start spending changes how you make decisions. It is the difference between "I hope I make money" and "I need to sell $380 worth of product to cover my costs." The second version is something you can plan around. The artist alley budgeting guide walks through every cost category in detail, and the profit calculator lets you run the numbers quickly.
If you have past convention data, start there. What sold? What did not move? What ran out too early? Your previous sales numbers are the best predictor of what to bring next time.
If this is your first convention, keep it simple. Pick five to eight products across two or three categories. Stickers and prints are the safest foundation for a first table. You do not need to bring your entire catalog. A focused selection that is well-displayed will outsell a cluttered table of 40 different items every time. The product selection guide covers what performs at conventions and how to build a balanced mix.
Anything manufactured (enamel pins, acrylic charms, custom keychains) needs to be ordered now. These products typically have a four to six week production window, and that does not include shipping. If you wait, you are gambling on your inventory arriving in time.
Get quotes from at least two suppliers before ordering. Order 10 to 15% more than you think you need to account for defects and quality issues. It is much cheaper to have a few extra than to sell out at noon on Saturday with no way to restock.
Typical production lead times
Prints and stickers have shorter production times (one to two weeks), but ordering now gives you a buffer. If the first batch comes back with color issues or the wrong finish, you still have time to reorder. Waiting until two weeks out removes that safety net entirely.
This is also the week to order print sleeves, backing boards, poly bags, and any other packaging materials. These are the items people forget because they are not the "fun" part of prep, but showing up without print sleeves means your $15 prints are getting bent and damaged before anyone buys them.
Grab a piece of paper and sketch your six-foot table. Where do the prints go? Where do the stickers sit? Where is your payment setup? Planning this now lets you figure out what display equipment you need while there is still time to order it.
Decide on your display approach: grid wall, easels, risers, or some combination. If you need to buy or borrow equipment, do it this week so it arrives in time for your test setup later. The table display guide covers layout strategies, equipment options, and common setup mistakes.
By now your products are either in hand or on the way. Time to set prices. For each product, calculate your cost per unit (production + packaging + your share of the table fee) and set a price that gives you at least a 55 to 70% margin. Round to whole dollars. Nobody wants to make change for $7.50 at a convention.
Plan at least one bundle deal. "Any 3 stickers for $10" or "print + charm for $20" raises your average transaction without feeling like a hard sell. Bundles also move slower products by pairing them with popular ones. The convention pricing guide has the full breakdown on margin calculations and market rates by product type.
Do not wait until the morning of the convention to figure out how you are going to track what you sell. Whether you use an app, a spreadsheet, or a paper tally sheet, set it up now with your product list, quantities, and prices already filled in. On convention day, you want to tap and go, not fumble with setup while customers are waiting.
The goal is to walk out of the convention knowing exactly what sold, what did not, and what your real profit was. That data is what makes your next convention better than your last one. Without it, you are guessing. The sales tracking guide covers your options and what to look for.
Conventory lets you load your full product list with prices and quantities, then tap to sell during the con. Sales, inventory, and profit tracking handled so you can focus on your table.
Try Conventory Free30-day free trial. No credit card required.
Price signs should be readable from three to four feet away. That means large text, high contrast, and no clutter. Include individual prices and any bundle deals prominently. Print them rather than handwriting them unless hand-lettering is part of your brand aesthetic.
This is a small task that has a measurable impact on sales. Tables without visible prices force customers to ask, and many of them will not bother. They will just walk to the next table. Clear pricing removes friction from every transaction.
Set up your entire table at home. Every product, every display piece, every sign. Time yourself from start to finish. You want to know two things: does everything fit, and how long does setup take?
Stand back and look at your table from four feet away, like a passing attendee. Can you see your best products? Are the prices visible? Does anything look cluttered or unstable? Take a photo of the finished setup. On convention morning, that photo is your reference so you are not trying to remember where everything goes while half-awake at 7 AM.
Double-check your hotel booking, parking situation, and load-in times. Read the convention's artist alley rules document if you have not already. Check for restrictions on display height, signage, what you can and cannot sell, and whether they provide anything (table coverings, chairs, wifi). Surprises on convention morning are never the good kind.
Count every single product. Compare your actual quantities to what you ordered and note any defects or missing items. Enter your final numbers into whatever tracking system you are using. This count is your "before" snapshot. Without it, you have no way to accurately calculate what sold at the end of the weekend.
Do not pack from memory. Use a checklist. Products, display equipment, sales supplies, tech gear, comfort items. Go through it line by line and check things off as they go into your bins or bags.
Pack in reverse setup order: what you need first at the venue goes in last so it is on top. Tablecloth first, then display hardware, then products. The complete packing list covers every category so you do not have to build one from scratch.
Get $40 to $60 in small bills and coins for making change. Fives and ones are what you will burn through the fastest. Test your card reader and make sure the app is updated and working. Charge your phone and battery pack. If your payment setup fails on convention morning, you lose every card sale until you fix it, and that is most of your sales.
Whether you are tracking digitally or on paper, make sure your product list is ready to go with names, starting quantities, and prices pre-filled. You should be able to record a sale in seconds, not minutes. Any friction in your tracking process means you will stop doing it when things get busy, and busy hours are exactly when tracking matters most.
Arrive during load-in, not after. Give yourself the full setup window. Rushing setup because you showed up late means a table that looks worse than it should and a frazzled start to your day.
Set up your display hardware first (grid wall, tablecloth, risers), then arrange products, then place price signs last. This order keeps you from having to move products around while you are still building the structure underneath them.
Before doors open, take a photo of your finished table. This gives you a reference for day two setup and a record of your display for future planning. Make sure your phone is charged and your payment app is open and ready. Keep your battery pack within reach.
Record every sale immediately. Not "after this rush," not "during a slow period," not "tonight at the hotel." Right when it happens. Sales you do not record are sales that disappear from your data, and your post-convention analysis is only as good as what you captured during the event.
Pay attention to what is moving and what is not. If a product has not sold by mid-day Saturday, move it to a more prominent spot on your table. If something is selling fast, make sure it stays front and center.
When someone picks up one item, mention your bundle deal. Not as a hard sell, just a "by the way, those are 3 for $10 if you want to grab a couple more." This is the simplest way to increase your average sale without feeling pushy.
If something sells out, rearrange your table to fill the gap. An empty spot on your table looks like you are closing down, and attendees will walk past.
This is the part that separates artists who improve from artists who repeat the same mistakes. Do your post-convention review that night or the next morning, not "sometime this week." The longer you wait, the more details you forget.
Count your remaining inventory. Subtract from your starting count. That is what sold. Calculate your actual profit: total revenue minus every cost (table fee, travel, hotel, production, food, everything). Not your revenue. Your profit. These are different numbers that too many artists confuse.
Then write down three things that worked well and three things you would change. Maybe your sticker bundle crushed it but your large prints barely moved. Maybe your table layout funneled people to the wrong products. Maybe you ran out of change by 2 PM. Whatever it is, write it down while it is fresh.
This data is what makes your next convention better. Artists who track their numbers across conventions start seeing patterns: which events are worth returning to, which products to stock more of, which price points hit the sweet spot. Without data, you are starting from zero every single time. The earnings breakdown shows what realistic numbers look like so you can benchmark your results.
Here is every task from the timeline in one place. Use this as your master reference as you work through the weeks leading up to your convention.
8 weeks out
6 weeks out
4 weeks out
2 weeks out
1 week out
Convention day
After the convention
Conventory tracks your inventory, sales, and profit per convention so your post-con review takes minutes, not hours. Set up your products once and you are ready to sell at every event.
Try Conventory Free30-day free trial. No credit card required.
Eight weeks is the sweet spot for most conventions. That gives you enough time to order manufactured products (pins, charms), get prints and stickers produced, plan your layout, and do a test setup without rushing. If you are only bringing prints and stickers with no manufactured items, you can compress the timeline to four to six weeks, but starting earlier is always less stressful.
Focus on what you can control. Skip manufactured products and work with what you can produce or print quickly (stickers, prints, digital products). Set your prices, plan your layout, and make sure your payment setup works. Two weeks is tight but doable if you keep your product selection simple and your expectations realistic. Prioritize having a clean, well-priced table over having a large inventory.
For a first convention, bring 50+ stickers (across all designs), 3 to 5 copies of each print, and a small quantity of any higher-ticket items. It is better to sell out of a few things than to bring home boxes of unsold product. After your first event, use your sales data to adjust quantities for the next one. The beginner's guide covers quantity planning in more detail.
It depends on the convention and your state or local laws. Some conventions require a business license or sales tax permit as part of the application. Others do not ask. Check the convention's artist alley rules and your local business regulations. Many artists operate under a sole proprietorship which is simple to set up, and some states require you to collect sales tax on physical goods regardless of whether the convention asks for documentation.
Artist Alley Packing List
The complete checklist so you never forget a thing.
How to Budget for Artist Alley
Know your costs before you commit to a table.
How to Price Art at Conventions
Set prices that cover your costs and feel fair to buyers.
Convention Profit Calculator
Run the numbers on any convention before you apply.
Conventory is an inventory and sales tracker built specifically for convention artists. Learn more