Exhibitor Manual | Imaginarium Book Festival

If you would like to ship any of your items (books, swag, etc.) to the venue ahead of the festival, you may only do so the WEEK OF the event. All shipped items must arrive between Monday, June 2, and Thursday, June 5. No sooner, no later. Anything shipped to the venue outside of this time window will not reach us, and the UDC will be returning them to sender. If you plan to ship from an international country and aren't sure about this time window, you can contact us.

Please make sure all packages are addressed with your AUTHOR/BUSINESS NAME (not your legal name) so our team can have your things organized for you. Shipping to the venue is optional and requires no extra charge. You must have the shipping address formatted as the template below. If there is a character limit for the address and you aren't able to include all of the requested information, please contact us.

Line 1: [EXHIBITOR NAME] [BOOTH LOCATION]

Line 2: University of District of Columbia Student Center

Line 3: ATTN: Valerie Lewis Taylor - Imaginarium

Line 4: 4200 Connecticut Ave NW

Line 5: Washington, DC 20008

Line 1 example: Jane Doe - Heritage

Line 1 example: Jane Doe - Ballroom

Line 1 example: Jane Doe - Apothecrafty

If you would like to personally drop off your set-up things (books, banners, etc.) to the venue before the festival, you can also do that the WEEK OF the festival. The time window for this is still Monday, June 2, and Thursday, June 5.

If you'd like to drop things off on the Monday - Wednesday, you can pull up in front of the UDC Student Center building or park on the street, and bring things inside through the main entrance doors. The receptionist there will assist in guiding you to room A01 on the second floor (room across walkway), which is the holding place for IBF-related things. We recommend labeling all banners, boxes, etc. so you can easily identify them as yours. Please also include your booth location (Heritage, Ballroom, or Apothecrafty).

Anything delivered/dropped-off to the venue before the festival will be brought to your booth prior to / during set-up by our team.

You do not need to check-in at registration this year. Everything will be brought to your booth. However, an assistant badge must be picked up at the registration booth if you will need one. There is a limit of one assistant per exhibitor, unless you have arranged something different with the IBF organizers. If you or your assistant purchased add-on tickets to the Fantasy Lush Soirée + Lit Feud or Tomi Adeyemi's Lit Talk, also bring your tickets to the registration booth. We will scan the QR codes and provide you with the correct badge ribbon. If your assistant has any other event tickets, they must be checked in through the attendee registration line.

You have the option of setting up your booth space on Thursday, June 5, if you'd like to. The time window for this is 4PM to 6PM. Again, this early set-up is optional but great if you want to get a headstart. There will be no early registration for attendees this year. Only IBF and UDC staff, and exhibitors, will be allowed on-site on Thursday, June 5. Doors will be locked at the end of day. You can use the event map to locate your booth.

You must come prepared with your own collapsible cart if you need to bring many things inside this way. Volunteers and staff will be on standby if physically able to help.

Note: The walls of the Student Center are owned by the Smithsonian Museum. Please do not tape/attach anything to the walls, and all standing banners must be at least 4 inches away from the wall. Also note that your booth space only includes your booth. All decorations must be brought by you, including a tablecloth. The UDC Student Center is an eco building with beautiful natural sunlight, which means it can get a bit warm even with the A/C settings on high. We recommend coming prepared with a portable fan.

You also have the option of setting up your booth space on Friday, June 6, before the author hall/apothecrafty opens up to attendees. The time window for this is 9AM to 12PM. You can use the event map to locate your booth. The festival concludes at 6PM on this day, after which you are free to leave books and decorations at your table for the next day.

You must come prepared with your own collapsible cart if you need to bring many things inside this way. Volunteers and staff will be on standby if physically able to help.

Note: The walls of the Student Center are owned by the Smithsonian Museum. Please do not tape/attach anything to the walls, and all standing banners must be at least 4 inches away from the wall. Also note that your booth space only includes your booth. All decorations must be brought by you, including a tablecloth. The UDC Student Center is an eco building with beautiful natural sunlight, which means it can get a bit warm even with the A/C settings on high. We recommend coming prepared with a portable fan.

For any drop-offs before the event, you can pull up in front of the UDC Student Center and unload, or find nearby street parking. For Friday and Saturday parking during the festival, there is an on-site parking garage that is $20 for the whole day (up to 24 hours). Lost parking stubs are an extra $20, so don't lose it! We recommend parking here so you can walk the short distance to the Student Center. However, street parking is an alternative. Those rates will vary, so you can read the street signs when you arrive for more information.

Garage Address:

3305-3365 Van Ness St NW, Washington, DC 20008

Directions:

Parking tour video here.
Drive into the Van Ness Parking Garage from Van Ness St. ONLY and collect a ticket at the entrance.

Keep ticket in possession after you park your car

When you wish to exit the garage, go to a Pay Station at either the Plaza Deck Elevator Lobby on the Breezeway OR the B level garage near the Auditorium

Insert ticket into the Pay Station and pay the displayed amount (Credit/Debit cards and Cash are accepted)

The festival ends 4PM on Saturday, June 7, so you should plan to have everything packed up and out by 5PM or 6PM. You're free to start a little earlier than that if you would like. Please keep in mind that the Fantasy Lush Soirée begins at 5PM and the Lit Feud Author Tournament begins at 6:30PM, so you can take things back to your hotel and return. Or you can leave things packed up in your vehicle, ready to go for when you depart at the end of the event. We recommend the latter, because rush-hour traffic can be a lot to navigate back-and-forth.

If you plan to ship things back to yourself after the festival, there is a nearby UPS store, down the street from the venue. There is also a US postal office about a 4-min drive from the venue.

UPS Store

4401-A Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008

Hours

Friday | 8:30 AM–7 PM
Saturday | 10 AM–5 PM
Sunday | 10 AM–3 PM

US Postal Office

4005 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016

Hours

Friday | 8 AM–6 PM
Saturday | 8 AM–4 PM
Sunday | 8 AM–4 PM

Each exhibitor space comes with a 6ft table; 3ft if you have a half table (shared table). There will be ample walking space between each booth, with 3-4 feet of room behind each table. Pipe draping and tablecloths are not provided, so we encourage you to come prepared with your own, should you decide you need it. A 90x132in tablecloth is highly recommended. Otherwise, the table is bare. Access to an electrical outlet isn't always guaranteed, so please plan accordingly. If access to one is necessary for you, we recommend portable outlets and portable chargers.

Wi-Fi will be available to all exhibitors, but note that it is a password protected network. Although you will have access to the password, the network may not work with kiosk/terminal devices used to accept credit and debit purchases. Ex: Square, Shopify. If you will be using your phone to accept card payments, then it will very likely work just fine. Still, we recommend being prepared with other forms to accept payment for purchases, such as Venmo, CashApp, Zelle, or Paypal.

UDC WiFi Set-up

Connect to the UDC Guest Wi-Fi network (UDCWIFI) to start the guest registration process.
You will be presented with a registration page. Click the “Register for Guest Access Here” link at the bottom of the page.

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After, a self-registration page will open, where you will need to provide your name and email address.

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Then, select the orange “Register” button. You will be provided with a summary screen confirming that the guest account has been successfully created. Click the orange “Sign On” button.

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This registration will last for three days. You will receive an email generated by the Wi-Fi system, which will include network credentials. The log-on information may be used on other devices for the duration of the Guest access period. Each user may use up to five devices per registered account.

We are expecting 600-700 attendees at our 2025 event, with over 1000 tickets sold (including add-ons). Since there is no general admission, this number range won't fluctuate higher at all.

If you are an author, we recommend coming with around 80-150 copies of your first book or standalone book, and then stagger that number down for other books in the series. NOTE: This is just a suggested amount. It totally depends on the book and what works best for you, but we'd rather you leave with having sold out, rather than have too many to take back home. If your mode of transportation allows it and you can bring more books, please do!

If you are a small business vendor, we recommend coming with 80-200 items total. It is completely up to you and what works best for your art/products, but for a two-day event, you can expect to sell more on Day 1. We highly encourage event-exclusive items to entice buyers.