Yes and no, and not really but kinda.
So the way we've always done it was to have the vendors join the event. We want them to be attendees of the event, not event sponsors that occupy a booth and talk to prospective customers across a table. They're on the trails with us, sometimes leading a trail, sometimes just as participants. They camp and set up a small space near their camp, but we do not do an official "vendor night" like many other large events. We have always planned to do a pseudo vendor night for HIHX just to celebrate the longtime vendors that have done so much for HIH attendees over the years. Since so many of these vendors are close friends with Chris and I, we wanted to hang with them at our event.
We didn't want them standing behind a booth all weekend while everyone else had fun. We felt like this was the best of both worlds for the vendors and the participants. You can see their products in use on the trail and you can chat with them about their products over a trailside lunch or over beers around the campfire. They bring their entire families and it becomes the one event each year that they can attend as participants instead of it being work for them. We don't have sponsor tiers or charge ridiculous amounts to sponsor the event. They pay the standard registration fee and they're free to "work" as much or as little as they'd like.
The products that they donate to the raffle are completely up to them. We do not charge for raffle tickets and there is a "gentleman's agreement" (or lady's agreement) that any product won at HIH will either be used by the winner or traded for another product that was won. It's been that way since year one. We've switched it up the last two years to have specific buckets for specific items that folks need and it's worked great. We gave away five bumpers at HIH9 and only had maybe 30 tickets in the bumper bucket. The winners are always super hyped, which makes it exciting for everyone, and no one wins a bumper that they already have. The problem there would be that if someone were to sell that bumper that they won, for half the cost of a new one, it devalues the product from the vendor that was generous enough to give it away at our event.
HIH folks are super cool and we've never had an issue with anyone trying to take advantage of this unwritten rule in 10 years.
Is vendor registration open or will it have an open/close date?
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