I'm back at SyFy Bartow again. This years theme was Robots so I made two of my favorite Disney robots.
Hello Everybody! I know It’s been a while since my last video and I’m pretty sure the explanation as to why is obvious. The COVID-19 pandemic has become a serious issue this last year for everyone in the world. And it’s still a serious issue today.
The last convention I did took place on March 7-8, 2020 in Tupelo, Mississippi. This was during a time when things were just starting to become severe. Wearing masks wasn't a common practice yet, social distancing wasn't strongly implemented in most enclosed public facilities, and people were still calling this disease “Coronavirus” instead of the abbreviated COVID-19. During this event I increased my basic hygiene practices such as using more hand sanitizer then usual and decontaminating my vending station and hotel room with disinfecting wipes.
However, to emphasize the severity of how quickly this situation escalated, when we went to this convention we left on March 4th, and at that time only 36 estimated cases were reported in the U.S.. When we left on March 9th, that number had increased to an estimated 200. Not long after, many festivals, parties, conventions, and other public gatherings were either rescheduled or cancelled all together due to safety. This resulted in a halt for my convention appearances and why I haven’t been posting videos on my YouTube channel.
Now a few months back SYFY Bartow announced that it was still going to be held this year and they asked me to be a guest at it. This was the first public event I was going to do after this long hiatus brought on by the
Pandemic. After talking with Mibevan(My camera guy, editor, and friend) we remembered how quickly this virus spread during our last event, how it has become more “controlled” in the last year, and the different kinds of people that were going to attend and what their safety approaches were going to be. Keep in mind that this event was essentially a free open block party that anybody could participate in, which means some safety practices weren’t going to be strictly
mandated then the ones being enforced in an enclosed facility like a convention center, a theme park, or a regular everyday supermarket.
NOW PLEASE UNDERSTAND!
SYFY Bartow did practice safety guidelines that were requested by the City of Bartow, Florida. They encouraged its participants to wear masks in its advertising, provided free mask stations for those that didn’t have one, hand sanitizer stations for cleaning hands, and 6ft social distancing between vendors. In the end the event was successful and, as of now, no new COVID-19 cases have been reported by those that attended. I would like to thank the event organizers and staff for committing themselves to making a safe environment for those that attended. You did a fantastic job and I cannot wait to come back in 2022.
With this being my first venture back into doing events during these trying times, I began planning things with Mibevan. We were going to take NO RISK, and I wanted to demonstrate the new precautions I am taking with my vending in this video.
For any questions comments or concerns about my vending feel free to ask via email:
bruce.e.carr@gmail.com