Everything starts with a count
Every show-day decision hangs off one number: how many cars you expect through the gate. Clubs that skip the count buy gear the way you buy groceries hungry, and end up with one canopy for four tables and a power strip that reaches none of them. So write the number down first, even if it is a guess, and size everything else from it.
The ratios we use: one registration kiosk per 50 cars, plus one more tablet as a voting station for people without phones; one folding table per kiosk, plus one for the card desk; a canopy over every table that holds a screen; and four radios, which our volunteer playbook says cover almost every show. A 100-car club show is therefore three iPads in stands, three tables, two canopies, and four radios, with the crew sized by the playbook. Write that on the same page as the count and you have the packing list.
The week before
People first, then paper. Make the asks specific: the playbook’s line is that “I need you at the gate from 6:30 to 9” gets a yes far more often than “can you help out”. Under 100 cars on a compact lot a group text is fine for the crew; over 100, on grass, or anywhere cell coverage gets shaky, the radios earn their place, because a message walked from the gate to the trophy tent is a message that arrives late.
Print the things the morning needs: a QR code poster for each easel (the voting code, and the donate code if you are taking donations), and a spare. Turn the hotspot on in your driveway to confirm it still has a plan, and charge every tablet, radio, and power bank on the same evening, because the one you forget is the one the gate needs. If you are setting up tablets for the first time, this walkthrough covers the day code, the setup QR, and the two iPad settings that keep a kiosk on its screen.
What goes in the truck
This is the part that grew into a list, and since September the list lives in Car Show HQ itself, under Gear and services in Manage, with a line on why we picked each thing. The product links below are affiliate links, mostly Amazon; buy through one and Car Show HQ may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, Car Show HQ earns from qualifying purchases. None of it is required. The platform runs on the phone in your pocket. This is the table we set up when we run a show ourselves.
Shade and a place to put things
A canopy per table that holds electronics, because tablets and TVs are unreadable in direct sun and unhappy in rain. Folding tables sized to the count, and folding chairs, one per volunteer who will be sitting for more than an hour, which is the card desk and the cash box, not the gate.
Power
Two ways to do it. A Jackery Explorer 1600 is the stash-under-the-table size: one per station, quiet, and nobody trips on a cord. A Jackery HomePower 3600 is the one-central-source approach, which needs an outdoor power strip rated for outdoors to reach each table. We lean toward the smaller unit per table, because a single cord across a grass field is a single point of failure with a trophy on it. For a table that only has to run a laptop and one kiosk, a power bank is enough and there is no power to run at all.
The connection
A mobile hotspot. Without a connection the kiosk is a very nice clipboard, there is no offline mode, and venue Wi-Fi that works at eight is gone by nine when the spectators arrive. The hotspot is the plan; the venue’s Wi-Fi is the backup.
The registration table
A base iPad per kiosk (nothing about the kiosk benefits from a Pro), an anti-glare screen protector because the sun makes a glossy screen unreadable by ten, and a kiosk floor stand that locks and has a base heavy enough for grass, so the tablet is at standing height beside the table instead of lying flat where it gets picked up and turned. For a show that takes payments through Square, a Square Stand turns the registration iPad into a checkout: the kiosk pushes the charge to it and the entry reconciles itself. Shows on Stripe or PayPal take cards on the hosted checkout page instead, without the hardware. Add a chisel-tip Sharpie for the blank windshield cards (a fine tip is unreadable across a hood), a locking cash box that stays under the table, and a cheap laptop such as the MacBook Neo for the registrants list and the card desk, because two people sharing one phone at the table is the slowest thing on show day.
The gate
The gate crew works from their phones through the crew QR, so the gear here is small: a cash apron for the volunteer taking cash from car windows, and for Square shows a Square Reader so a walk-in can tap a card in the car line. Cash still goes in the apron and gets counted into the box at the table.
The screen and the sound
A TV on a portable TV stand puts the live leaderboard where the crowd gathers, with the giant voting code in the corner; it is the single best way to get more votes cast. A display easel at eye height holds the QR poster wherever the leaderboard cannot go, which is usually the gate and the food line. If you do not have a DJ, a portable PA handles the announcements and the trophies; if you do, skip it and let the DJ earn their tent.
Radios
Walkie-talkies, four of them: gate, parking lead, floater, organizer. Cheap FRS units are fine.
The night before
Four jobs, from our check-in doc: download and print the numbered cards PDF, run off a thick stack of blanks, invite everyone working the table as staff, and set the kiosk day code under Settings, Registration. Then pack the truck by station, not by category: the gate tote holds the apron, the reader, and two radios; the table tote holds the tablets, stands, box, and Sharpies; the screen tote holds the TV, the stand, the easels, and the posters. Whoever unloads a tote can set up that station without asking you anything, and on show morning that is the whole game.
Show morning, by the clock
Arrive at 6:30 for a 7:00 gate; the playbook’s day-of script puts the organizer, gate crew, parking crew, and floater on site then. Canopies and tables first, power second, and only then the tablets: open Show day tools on your phone, scan the setup QR on each iPad, and choose registration kiosk or voting station. The TV goes on its stand with the leaderboard up and the voting code in the corner before the first spectator walks in, because a screen that lights up at ten has missed the morning crowd.
At 7:00 the gate opens and the gate crew scans passes from their phones, takes cash into the apron, and, on a Square show, taps cards on the reader. Walk-ups register at the kiosk in about a minute; the card desk writes their number on a blank card with the fat marker. All morning the emcee repeats how to scan every half hour, which does more for the vote count than any poster. When voting closes, the tally is already done, and the first five minutes after that are their own post.
Do the count tonight. Ten minutes with the club’s last two years of entries, one number written down, and the rest of this list sizes itself. The full list, with the why behind each item, is at Gear and services, and it is in Manage next to the settings it belongs with.
