The Pacific Northwest Pen Show is only in its second year. Last year, the show was hosted at a hotel downtown which had its pluses and minuses according to attendees. For those staying the weekend, there was easy access to food and entertainment. However, the hotel was pricey, small and there were issues associated with any event in an urban metro— greater potential for crimes, vagrants and pricey parking, food and other conveniences.
This is my first year attending this show so I will be comparing it to other shows rather than how the PNPS compares this year to its previous year.
The Hotel and Accommodations
For 2024, the PNWPS was relocated to a suburb called Clackamas, about 20-30 minutes from downtown or the airport. This locale made the event more conducive for regional visitors (more parking), nearby restaurants and a Target (better for vendors and weekend guests).
The hotel was not the most modern in aesthetics which is not a big deal. However, many folks mentioned the lack of communal visiting space for after hours. The hotel had a restaurant and a speakeasy bar but neither was designed for the sort of communal hanging that often occurs among pen show attendees and vendors after the show closes in the evening. There was one sitting area just to one side of the registration desk and just outside the restaurant which didn’t feel as comfortable for hanging out as other hotels. All these places to meet and hang out were either dark (not conducive for writing or pen sharing) or loud (not conducive for chatting).
The Show
The PNWPS is one of the few shows I’ve attended that is only open for two days — just Saturday and Sunday. The only other show I know of that is two days is the Dallas pen show but it is Friday and Saturday and both days are packed to the gills with attendees.
The actual pen show was held on the lower level which had only one elevator access and a set of stairs to access it. This made loading products in and out a bit challenging for the vendors and slowed entry a bit on Saturday morning but didn’t end up to be as big a deal as I would have expected. The St. Louis show is also in a lower level ballroom but there is direct access to underground parking lot for vendors and the elevator bay had multiple elevators which was more convenient but they had their own delays as well.
When the show opened, on Saturday morning, it looked like there were about 30 vendors from across the country. It is not a ton of vendors but they were all top notch products and a nice assortment of nib grinders and retail or online shops from a nice spectrum of the pen community.
Strangely, there was a lot of space between each of the tables which created some weird traffic flow. I would have preferred the tables to have less space between them to help move traffic a little more directly and a little less chaotically. The extra space could have been used for meet up tables, ink testing stations or places for bored significant others to park and wait.
The tables were also shorter in length than the tables at most conferences and shows (6 foot instead of the standard 8 foot tables at most hotels). The shorter table lengths are an annoyance to vendors as many plan their table set up based on the length of the tables so being 2 feet shorter means folks needed to squish up or put fewer items out.
Overall, Saturday was very busy and we were run off our feet from the moment doors opened until about 4pm. The show closed on Saturday at 5pm so a one hour lull at the end of the day is welcome.
Sunday, there was some major confusion about the time that the show opened and closed. On the official web site, the hours were listed as 9am-4pm but an Instagram post went live Sunday morning with the hours listed as 10am-4pm. While an hour difference isn’t huge, it was confusing to attendees and annoying to vendors who could have had a more leisurely breakfast or not at attention for an hour for an empty room.
Generally speaking, Sundays at pen shows are generally slow and the PNPS was no different. For attendees, they certainly had more opportunity to browse and chat. For vendors, it can often be a little disappointing. Because the PNWPS is only open for two days, the hope was that Sunday would be busier than it was.
My Final Comments and Recommendations
My overall feeling is that it is a pleasant albeit small show. If you live within a few hours of the show, I definitely recommend attending. If you would need to fly to this show, I’m not sure it’s quite up to the task to appeal to folks who travel long distances for pen shows.
The social and evening activities are not as robust as shows in other cities. If the show remains in the same hotel, a one-night stay is fine but, for visitors, the show doesn’t offer enough classes, activities or vendors to warrant a two-day or longer stay. If the organizers build up the classes, workshops and evening activities and create more of a conference environment over a traditional pen show, I think it could be a really great way to grow and differentiate this show from other mid-sized or small shows.
There were more attendee-specific aspects to the show which I don’t have as much information. There was a VIP pass and I’m curious to know if it seemed worth the additional fee since, unlike other shows, 3-day passholders or VIPs at PNWPS did not get early access. I am sure there will be other recaps listed in the next week or so that I’ll be sure to include in our Wednesday Link Love.
Stay tuned! Later this week we will have a special pen show giveaway!
Next year the organizers should try McMenamin’s Edgefield. It is east of the airport, no further than Clackamas. I used to have contact information, but that was a long time ago.
While I like Edgefield and it’s a nicer venue overall (especially since there are things to do right there), I can see a few issues with the space. Transit service is not as good as at the Monarch, where several bus lines and light rail converge on Clackamas Town Center Transit Center (across the street from the hotel.) Edgefield just has the 77 bus, which is half-hourly on the weekends. Also, looking at the floorplans/details, the largest space at Edgefield is about half the size of the Monarch’s ballroom. One could combine several rooms, but that would make for a disjointed experience, as the other rooms are on different floors and also in different buildings.
Good to see the reply. When I lived in Vancouver for decades, Edgefield was my go-to for out of town guests. I don’t know how many visitors attended, but I was thinking that the McMenamins administration has better information, and an upstairs ballroom in the main building. Portland has just enough sprawl to make the perfect venue unobtainable. Oh, and there is the Kennedy school closer to the airport.
It’s true that there’s no perfect venue, but if the pen show was to change venues next year, they’d need something equivalent to the 13,000 sq. ft. main space that Monarch provides. Neither the Edgefield nor Kennedy School have that. And airport proximity is nice, but not the end-all, be-all, since light rail will bring you from the airport to other parts of towns. If airport proximity was the most important thing, there’s a few in-hotel conference venues right near the airport, all lacking any charm and far from anything to do.
I wouldn’t be inclined to have the event move closer to the airport knowing how much trouble locals have had traveling to the SF show which is near the airport now. The ballroom space and parking at the Monarch are good. It’s choosing which issue to tackle for any event.
Thank you for the continuing comment. I’m on the Olympic Peninsula now, so it’s not like I’ll drive 4 hours back to PDX, and I really like the Opus 88 Colorful’s I have. Once again thanks.
It was a pleasure meeting you at Droomgoole’s booth at the PNW Pen Show. Your primer on paper was wonderful. Let the experiments begin!
Thank you for the write up, Ana. And sorry to have missed seeing you at the show! I had just got back from almost a month away, and I was mentally/physically wiped out and broke. I hope to go next year.
I’m glad you provided your observations about the venue. When I heard about where it was located, I wasn’t enthusiastic. Yes, there are things that make it more attractive to those who were driving there. But it’s not as great for other modes of transportation. The MAX light rail (Green Line) goes near there plus several bus routes, but there’s a good fifteen minute walk from the transit center to the hotel where one needs to cross a pretty hostile stroad. And there are “things” around there (including the Clackamas Town Center Mall), but no place that I’d really want to go hang out during/after a pen show.
I’m guessing the big reason the Monarch was chosen was price. It’s probably tough for a smaller event that can only afford the second-tier venues in the metro area, so I don’t want to be too harsh on their venue selection. But I hope next year they can find a more central space that is easy to get to and is close to things to do.
I just want to say I appreciate your candid review and assessment. Even though I don’t travel to attend multiple pen shows, the information you provide gives me an update of the status of how we’re doing as a community – where we’re growing, the growth of what’s on offer and new vendors. It makes me feel more in touch with this hobby and its community. Thanks, Ana.
Oh, and just so you know: I tried googling The Stationery Cafe and got a warning that the link I had chosen (thestationerycafe.com) may be a scam site made to look like what I was looking for. Can you verify the site address?
I put a link below the image to their podcast. And you can also visit their Instagarm at: https://www.instagram.com/thestationerycafe/
I wanted to add that classes were held in a different building- not accessible without crossing the pool area which was less than ideal as we weaved through poolside vacationers. On a positive note the classes were packed (the volunteers allowed in more than we had requested; thus a supply shortage) and seminar attendees were awesome! Loved the moderate low humidity weather; enjoyed some outdoor time.
Not many pen shows can brag about being located right next to a beautiful pool 🙂 But seriously, it took us almost 8 hours to get there from Vancouver (Canada)–including a 90-minute wait at the US-Canada border–but the show was WELL worth it, in my opinion. I didn’t attend the VIP event on Friday, but I know the cost ncluded discounts to a lot of show vendors, so it’s something I’d seriously consider in the future. There was a pen club breakfast on Sunday (which was free if you brought your own food), but I’m not an early bird so I skipped it. The Sunday show start time confusion was a moot point for me as well (see above).
I didn’t stay at the hotel, but I know a lot of folks who stayed at the show venue appreciated the hotel’s free airport shuttle. I had an amazing lunch at the hotel restaurant (del Fuego) on Saturday and later chatted with friends on comfy couches nearby. I heard the hotel bar was open until 2am and that they had outdoor seating, so that’s something I would have done if I didn’t have other plans (I came to Portland with my husband lol).
I liked the extra space in the “vendor area” because there was space to stand at the ends of the tables if there was a crowd in front; when you have tables crammed next to each other, it eliminates that extra “browsing zone” 🙂 There was an exit by the elevator where I saw a lot of vendors hauling their stuff back to their vehicles in the adjacent parking lot, and there were hotel wheeled luggage racks for them to use to transport their wares. I didn’t hear anyone grumbling about the # of elevators, but I saw a lot of people having fun. Many thanks to show organizer Staci for a well-organized pen show, to the vendors who came to the show (and the vast majority who stayed to the very end), the speakers who gave classes (on a huge variety of topics), and the volunteers from the local PDX Pen Club for helping both attendees and vendors during the show. To quote Ah-nuld — “I’ll be back!” 🙂
I’m glad to hear that from an attendee the show was worth it and enjoyable. That’s really all that matters!
Agreed! There’s no perfect venue, but it was spacious and clean (and there was free hotel parking for attendees as well). I wanted to take a selfie at the selfie station, but when I took a photo, I looked so tired so I deleted it lol