Event Planning: Just Another Day at Sweet Tooth

For a few weeks now we have been planning an event in our store.  The event is centered on the release of a new Mary Engelbreit sponsored cookbook:  120 Fantastic Desserts and will take place on Saturday, September 21.   3 Tulsa cooks have recipes in the book and Oklahoma is well represented with people whose recipes are published.
A few years ago Mary Engelbreit sponsored another cookbook and 2 Tulsans were featured then.  We had a tasting of their recipes and a cookbook signing event in the store.  It was a lot of fun and well worth the effort to show off some of the special people who live in our city.
Event planning is just one other aspect of retail merchandising.  More and more, events in stores are becoming the norm and a way to introduce potential customers to what a store has to offer.
It takes a lot of time and effort, though, and we never know what the outcome will be.
This time we sent out press releases about the cookbook and the event.  Both KOTV and KTUL responded as did Scott Cherry and Jason Ashley Wright from the Tulsa World and Judy Allen from Tulsa People magazine.  Wow!! we were totally excited about the enthusiasm they all showed for our event and for the 3 Tulsa cooks.
So Jeff went on KOTV morning program with Anna Marie Penix, one of the cooks, to talk about her recipe and our event.  To prepare I baked her carrot cake and Amy Dodson brought us a plate of her Pinwheel Cookies. 
Lee Ann Taylor at KOTV was a wonderful interviewer, asked all the right questions, gave all the right information and even ate a piece of the carrot cake during the break!  I imagine the Pinwheel Cookies and the carrot cake didn't last too long after the show was over.
What did I have to do with all of this?  Well, I am now becoming an expert in baking Mimi's Carrot Cake, Baked Fudge from Denise Rounds and being a real cheer leader for the whole thing.  For each appearance we are bringing a cake and some cookies.  Jeff has practically memorized the recipes and has picked out just the right jacket, shirt and tie to go with his appearance.
Our friend Eric Himan who is a good cook and has made numerous appearances on local television demonstrating recipes is going on KTUL Thursday morning with Jeff to tell the television audience how to make the cake.
That's a lot of preparation and work on everyone's part!!
But you know what?  Doing all this is a heck of a lot of fun!!