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I’d like to try to tap into the wonderful network here to find out where people recommend buying tablecloths for World Cafe-style dialogue — and what type of tablecloths you recommend (fabric, paper, color, etc.). For the regional NCDD event in Portland this weekend, we are holding an evening World Cafe on Friday that is open to the public. Then we’ll be holding our one-day Cascadia Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation all day on Saturday. So we’ll need to use the tablecloths both days.
We’re renting 36″ 4-person round cafe tables, which is ideal for World Cafe and should serve us well for the whole program. But renting the tables costs about $9 each (we need 50 for an expected 200 attendees), and it actually costs an additional $10 per table plus additional staff time to also rent linens for the tables. We’ll pay that if we have to, but a quick google search implies that you can actually buy fabric tablecloths for half that price! (And then we could give them to a planning team member to use again.) But I'm not sure what size works well for 36" tables, what companies people recommend, etc.
For our past events, I’ve always gotten linens from the venue, so this is new to me.
To reciprocate, here are a few links to the places I always work with for our events (best prices, great service, small companies):
* PCNametag (name tags and great name tag ribbons): www.pcnametag.com
* School Stationers (affordable flip charts, easels, markers and more): http://schoolstationers.stores.yahoo.net/
* PsPrint (high quality full-color printing at the best prices I can find): www.psprint.com
Please add a comment here on the NCDD blog asap with your tips if you have experience with this:
www.thataway.org/index.php/?p=3131
(Or add a comment to this blog post here on the WC Community.)
We’re renting 36″ 4-person round cafe tables, which is ideal for World Cafe and should serve us well for the whole program. But renting the tables costs about $9 each (we need 50 for an expected 200 attendees), and it actually costs an additional $10 per table plus additional staff time to also rent linens for the tables. We’ll pay that if we have to, but a quick google search implies that you can actually buy fabric tablecloths for half that price! (And then we could give them to a planning team member to use again.) But I'm not sure what size works well for 36" tables, what companies people recommend, etc.
For our past events, I’ve always gotten linens from the venue, so this is new to me.
To reciprocate, here are a few links to the places I always work with for our events (best prices, great service, small companies):
* PCNametag (name tags and great name tag ribbons): www.pcnametag.com
* School Stationers (affordable flip charts, easels, markers and more): http://schoolstationers.stores.yahoo.net/
* PsPrint (high quality full-color printing at the best prices I can find): www.psprint.com
Please add a comment here on the NCDD blog asap with your tips if you have experience with this:
www.thataway.org/index.php/?p=3131
(Or add a comment to this blog post here on the WC Community.)
Comment
- Comment by Sandy Heierbacher on April 1, 2014 at 7:39am
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Oh - that was basically what you just posted, huh, E_Gray? :) I got an email notification about your comment, but I was looking at the bottom of the thread rather than the top. Sorry about that!
- Comment by Sandy Heierbacher on April 1, 2014 at 7:37am
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In case anybody is interested in this question, I compiled all the answers people sent me at http://ncdd.org/3131 (look in the comments). I also posed this question on the NCDD Discussion list (www.ncdd.org/listservs).
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Comment by E_Gray on April 1, 2014 at 5:58am -
The URL for NCDD responses has moved from www.thataway.org/?p=3131 to http://ncdd.org/3131
- Comment by Sandy Heierbacher on November 10, 2010 at 6:13pm
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Thanks so much for the advice, Tom! A bunch of NCDD members who have facilitated World Cafe's responded to my question, too, and I've posted all their responses at www.thataway.org/?p=3131 if you'd like to check them out. Lots of good, budget-friendly advice!
- Comment by Tom Genovese on November 10, 2010 at 5:41pm
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I went online to Joann Fabrics and bought cafe tablecloth looking fabric from their clearance section and cut it into 45" squares myself. Works for card tables and 36" rounds. I'm using the same tablecloths for the 3rd time at a cafe I'm hosting this Sunday.
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