November is the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season, the busiest buying time for stores and online merchants. It’s also a busy time for trade shows. You’ll find an array of events around Pittsburgh where vendors of all stripes converge to display and sell their goods. And you may see Weleski Transfer trucks and personnel helping with tradeshow logistics, moving boxes of merchandise and displays in and out of the exhibit venues.Family shopping at Christmas Trade Show

The Pittsburgh Toy, Comic and Childhood Collectibles Show (Steel City Con) takes place December 9 to 11 at the Monroeville Convention Center. It’s billed as the largest toy show in the U.S. with over 500 dealers. You’ll find antique, classic, and vintage toys; games and  trading cards; and film and television memorabilia. This event also features several celebrities—this year you’ll see some faces from AMC’s The Walking Dead.

Art and craft shows are popular this time of year. They allow smaller entrepreneurs and home-based businesses a chance to market themselves in aggregate. The Handmade Arcade is a free event on December 3 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. It features more than 150 exhibitors and is recognized by BuzzFeed as one of the world’s top 35 Indie Craft Fairs.

Another sizable craft fair takes place here in Tarentum, home of Weleski Transfer. The Holiday Gift Giving and Craft Expo starts on Black Friday (November 25 to 27) and spans four weeks. A portion of the receipts benefits the Pittsburgh Food Bank. You can find it at the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills. Downtown Pittsburgh’s Market Square is a family-favorite venue this time of year. The People’s Gas Holiday Market provides a European-themed shopping experience with vendors in Alpine-style booths. It runs from November 18 through December 23.

A week after the New Year rings in, you can catch one of the area’s bigger trade shows of the year at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. The Original Pittsburgh RV Show attracts about 30,000 people over eight days (January 7 to 15). In addition to manufacturers and sellers of motor homes, trailers, and campers, the show features about a hundred vendors of all kinds for recreation, home improvement, and business services. It’s followed a week later by the World of Wheels (January 20 to 22), a custom car show expected to draw over 20,000 auto enthusiasts.

Many smaller exhibitors, such as ma and pa entrepreneurs, often handle their own trade show services. However, Weleski Transfer is always available to provide assistance as needed. Look to our trade show experts for specialized transportation; helping load and unload exhibits, displays, and merchandise; handling setup and take-down of trade show displays; and planning your trade show logistics to ensure exhibitors get the bottom-line benefits of efficiency.

Questions about trade show services? Contact Weleski for answers.