We have only 2 requirements for our Expo Merchants, regardless of what category you design in.

📌#1
Create  ** 2 NEW AND EXCLUSIVE TO The EXPO** items which will be for sale in our provided Christmas Expo vendors with 100% of the sale going to the American Cancer Society. Such items draw shoppers to the Expo and your store.   Most Xmas Expo Creators have always made an extra effort to include four or more items in the Christmas Vendors.  We applaud the dedication and creativity of all our Creators and especially those who go beyond what the Expo asks of them. If you would like to have third or fourth item for the ACS, consider including best sellers from the past! 

✔️ ** NEW AND EXCLUSIVE TO THE EXPO =  Created new for sale at the Expo (it does not have to be a winter item), not for sale or given away by you before the current Expo and only for sale during the current Expo Nov 29 – Dec 8, 2024.   After the Expo, starting December 9, 2024, you can sell it wherever you wish.  You can sell the additional items in your own store (not marketplace) during the Christmas Expo, however, they MUST be in the provided Christmas Expo 100% donation vendor. New & Exclusive items are to only be sold at the Christmas Expo.

📌 #2
Participate in our Stocking Stuffer Hunt at the Expo.
Provide 1 item to be placed in our Christmas Expo Stocking Stuffer vendor which you hang in your Expo store.
This is a big draw to your Expo store for shoppers to see all your items.
The item must be of good and current quality.
It does not have to be made new, we leave that up to you.
The Stocking is set for sale at L$25
You may have more than one Stocking Stuffer in your Expo store.
The stockings do not have to be hidden.
Stockings are to only be hung in your Christmas Expo Store, not at your store outside the Expo.

By registering for the SL Christmas Expo & Winter Fair, you agree that you have read, fully understand and accept all policies, guidelines and disclaimers governing the event. The Christmas Expo organizers reserve the right to remove items or merchants from the Expo should any rules be broken.  The situations are handled on a case-by-case basis. There will be no refund on shop money should such a situation occur.

📌 Should I Participate In The Expo?

Please understand, this is a charity event held to raise money for the American Cancer Society and, therefore, has different requirements than a regular for-profit sales event you may participate in. 

While we sincerely hope your store does well and has many sales for your own individual business profit, if that is your primary focus for participating in the SL Christmas Expo & Winter Breedables Fair, we kindly ask you to reevaluate your decision to participate before signing up so there are no misunderstandings. We realize not every merchant is meant to participate in a charity event and that is okay.

📌  Can I Reserve More Than One Store?

Absolutely!  Just do so on a separate application form. You have to be the owner of all stores.

📌  Can I Share A Store With Someone Else?

✔️  REGION & GOLD STORES ONLY – Sharing of a store between 2 DIFFERENT CREATORS/ 2 DIFFERENT BRAND NAMES is a benefit of Region & Gold Stores only and acceptable under the condition that the avatar who registers for a store understands s/he is responsible for ensuring that all individuals who are displaying in the store follow the participation guidelines and for ensuring that the correct fee is paid. EACH creator sharing the store must provide 2 New Exclusive Items and EACH creator must participate in the Stocking Stuffer Hunt.  The total number of your Own Store Single Item Vendors (20) does not change and, therefore, must be shared between the 2 creators / brands.

✔️  REGION / GOLD & SILVER STORES ONLY – Sharing of a store if 1 CREATOR (YOU) / 2 DIFFERENT BRAND NAMES  is a benefit of Region, Gold & Silver stores only.  Two brands per store is the maximum. If you have more than 2 brands, please book another store via a separate application. The donation requirements are the same for each brand (IE. EACH brand must provide 2 100% New Exclusive Items and EACH brand must participate in the Stocking Stuffer Hunt).  The total number of your Own Store Single Item Vendors (15 ) and does not change and, therefore, must be shared between the 2 brands.

📌 I Sent In The Application Form, Now What? 

Please note that registering online does not complete your shop and/or sponsorship registration.

Within 48 – 72 hours , you will receive a confirmation notecard & email with the location where you may pay your sponsorship donation.

You will be invited to the SL Christmas Expo Production Group.  We appreciate people have a lot of IM’s pop up over the day and it can get overwhelming at times.  Our chat is minimal but be sure to check the notices.  Important, NEED TO KNOW, information will always be sent over group notices. 

The coordinator for the event reserves the right to deny any application. Should an application be denied, the registrant will be notified.

📌  How Do I Pay For My Store? 

It is important to understand that all merchant registration payments are donations to the American Cancer Society – they are not ”entry fees” to participate.  You have an option to pay with a credit card and get an instant tax receipt from the American Cancer Society.

✔️ Tax Receipt From The American Cancer Society

• If  you would like an instant tax receipt, you may make the donation for your store package online via credit card or paypal.  (Link will be available in mid-late September). 
• Your tax receipt will be issued immediately to you via email in your real name, however, when filling out the donation form you may choose to have your name show on the ACS webpage as your RL name, as your Avatar name, your store name, group or club name or as anonymous. Keep an eye out for that box when completing the application.
• The people at the Xmas Expo do not have access to any of the RL information you use to fill out the donation form. This is a secure page run entirely by the American Cancer Society.  

✔️ If you do not want a tax receipt, you may pay by Linden $ in-world.

 ***Once registration/sponsorship fees are paid, due to the security of the American Cancer Society donation kiosks, the fee is non-refundable.***

✅
All donation payments will be made at a designated location via SL Christmas Expo American Cancer Society vendors or via the American Cancer Society Christmas Expo online dashboard. Do NOT give payment to anyone else or make a payment to any object other than the special SL Christmas Expo Vendor in the designated area or to the provided URL. As these vendors do not accept partial payments, all registration monies are due in full at the time of payment. Donations are not refundable.

You will be provided with the donation payment location landmark or url with your registration confirmation. We are not responsible for any payments made to any other avatar or object.

Donation Due Dates:

✔️ Region Sponsorship Pkgs – within 7 days (1 week) of booking or July 31, 2024, whichever is first.

✔️ July 1 – August 31, 2024 registrations – within 72 hours (3 days) of confirmation

✔️ September 1 – October 15, 2024 registrations – within 48 hours (2 days) of confirmation

✔️October 15 – November 7, 2024 registrations – within 24 Hours (1 days) of confirmation.

Fundraising Bonuses at entertainment and other Audience participation venues at the SL Christmas Expo & Winter Fair help to generate additional support for the American Cancer Society.

All funds collected by the official ACS Mega Event Avatar, such as sponsorships and merchant registration fees, are considered to be donations to the Society. Some funds may be used to help encourage additional fundraising by providing bonuses and matching donations.

Payments to vendors or donations to kiosks, which are immediately paid to the official American Cancer Society account, are not included in this program.

As a merchant, your generosity never goes unnoticed or unappreciated, and we thank you for your understanding and acceptance of our vendor guidelines. 

📌  What Vendors Do I Use? 

You are required to use the provided ACS SL Christmas Expo Vendors for your two new Exclusive 100% donated items.

While only the 2 vendors outlined above are required, we always appreciate when merchants have additional ACS SL Christmas Expo vendors in their stores. These additional provided vendors can be either 100% donation or 50% donation to the American Cancer Society and do not count towards your Land Impact.

• Items in the additional 100% and 50% ACS SL Christmas Expo vendors do not have to be new or exclusive, however they must maintain the same quality of work that you have in your own for profit vendors.
• You can place as many additional ACS SL Christmas Expo vendors in your store as you wish.
• For donation transparency purposes, the only % split vendors permitted are the 50%  ACS SL Christmas Expo vendors.  You will be asked to remove any other split vendors.

You will be provided with both 100% and 50% ACS SL Christmas Expo.

📌 Can I Use Multi-Item Vendors? 

No.    There is nothing that cannot be put in a Single Item Vendor.

📌 Can I Use My Own Split Vendors To Share With The American Cancer Society? 

No.  For donation transparency purposes, the only % split vendors permitted are the 50%  ACS SL Christmas Expo vendors.  You will be asked to remove any other split vendors.

Remember, our 50% Split SL Christmas Expo vendors do not count towards your Land Impact total.

📌 How Many Of My Own Store Vendors Can I Put Out?   

The number of your own store for-profit SINGLE ITEM vendors  and Multi-Item vendors permitted in your Expo or Winter Breedables store is determined by the level of registration you choose.

• SINGLE ITEM vendors.
• You will be asked to remove vendors if you are over your registration limit.  Note: 5 colors of an item = 5 vendors. Demos do not count as a vendors
• Region = 30
• Gold = 20
• Silver = 15
• Bronze = 10
• Market = 5

📌  Can I Put Out Miepon or other similar style gacha machine replacement vendors? 

No.  This is not a single item vendor. It has multiple items in it. We will ask you to remove it or return it if you do not remove it.

📌  Can I Use Networked Or Scripted Vendors? 

 WE STRONGLY DISCOURAGE NETWORKED / SCRIPTED VENDORS for your for profit items and ENCOURAGE SIMPLE SINGLE ITEM VENDORS.

We want people to be able to move and visit your Expo shops – please help us help you!

This is a very large shopping event, please don’t cause undo load time and additional lag for your customers or Expo visitors by using networked or scripted vendors.

While we recognize that networked systems work great in individual shop locations, the SL Christmas Expo and Winter Breedables Fair is a large event. Having several hundred networked vendors on one region, in addition to hundreds of ACS SL Christmas Expo Vendors, places a high demand on an already busy region server. Even special vendor event scripts are still additional scripts running in an already busy region. Heavy script usage vendors will be returned. Please read our Script Load policy.

If you do not need to use a networked vendor (ie: provide regular updates to a purchased product, not to send out new item notes) – please don’t.  We are not saying no, we are asking you to use your best judgment as a merchant.

✔️ Simple Single Item Vendors (ie: Non Scripted) – In an effort to reduce lag and provide an enjoyable shopping experience, the Expo requests merchants use Simple Single Item Prim Vendors for your own 100% store items in lieu of networked systems whenever possible.

Sales numbers for the 10 days of the Expo are easily sorted and pulled from your SL account if you simply add Christmas Expo to the name of your simple single item vendor.

✔️ Simple Single Item Vendors will never fail with delivery if something happens or the region is extremely busy.

✔️ Simple Single Item Vendors are easy to create. 

1. Rez A Prim
2. Name The Prim
3. Drop Your Texture On The Prim
4. Drop An Item In The Prim
5. Set Prim For Sale To Sell A Copy

Easy Peasy!   
NO SCRIPT LAG!   NO MISSED DELIVERIES!

📌 Can I Sell Adult Content At The Expo? 

Yes, however, all content must conform to the moderate rating. No adult content may be depicted in pictures or demonstration models. Tasteful nudity on skin vendors is permissible, at the discretion of the Expo management. The sale of adult furniture is allowed as long as the demo furniture is not rezzed, vendor pictures are not explicit and the vendors are clearly marked as Adult versions.

📌   What Size Should My Vendor Ad Or Wall Display Textures Be? 

TEXTURE SIZE  – We won’t limit your texture size, however, we ask that you do FLATTEN the texture and REMOVE ANY ALPHA LAYERS.  Alpha layers can cause lag and are not needed in your poster or vendor textures.

📌 We will not place your logo in-world on any signage if it is larger than 512x 512. Sorry, we will not resize your logo.

The region designers have worked very hard to create a region you will be proud to be part of and keeping your merchandise inside your stores is a way of saying Thank You for all their time and efforts.

 📌  When Can I Set Up My Store? 

November 22 – 26 (7pm slt) are the dates marked for set up of shops.

Once the SL Christmas Expo & Winter Breedables Fair regions are online and ready, landmarks will be sent out in the SL Christmas Expo Production group. 

Any store not set up by 9pm slt on November 26 will be considered to have withdrawn from the Expo and your space will be offered to a merchant on the waiting list.  There is no refund on package payments.

Unless otherwise requested, merchant space will be indoors with the possible exception of the market area, which may be individual stalls or may be small market stores, depending on the yearly theme.

📌 Outdoor Spaces – Can I Put Out My Own Store Or Building?

No.

Outdoor spaces are flat areas (no terraforming) where you may display your items for sale. Perfect for H&G with small gazeebos, parks, fenced areas, small walls or Breedables with small barns or outdoor setting displays.

The outdoor areas are just that.. .outdoor. It is not an area to place your own walled merchant store (we will ask you to remove those). If you need 4 walls, please take our regular merchant space, not an outdoor space).

✔️
NOTE: If you have any questions regarding the design you wish to place out in an outdoor area please ask.

📌  Can I Have A Group Joiner Or Landmark Giver In My Store? 

Yes…..but… they must be triggered by “touch only”. They cannot be listeners scripts that scan the area and send out invites automatically.   They cannot be collider scripts (ie: walk on them and they send an invite or landmark)

No listeners scripts, shouting scripts, greeter scripts, traffic detectors or collision scripts. We will return these.

Yes Landmark Giver
Yes Group Joiner
No Temp Rezzers
No Greeters
No Listening Scripts
No Traffic Counters
No Collision Scripts

📌  Displays In Your Stores 

TURN OFF HOVER TEXT – Remember to turn off the hover text on your own and on the SL Christmas Expo vendors.  You can turn Floating Text on and off on the Christmas Expo Vendors to see the totals at anytime. Instructions are in the vendor notecard or ask one of the merchant liaison.

Please turn off hover text on breedables too.

You can place walls inside your store for decorative purposes.

Please stay within the boundaries of your store / outdoor space.

All your items are to be inside your store. Nothing is to be on the outside of the shop building. The region designer will decorate the outside. 

NO MOVING ITEMS – Items on display are to be static… ie: do not move, rotate, bounce, jump, walk around. No dancing or moving elves / people in your stores, no merry go rounds, etc. The only exception is in the Breedables Region for the actual breedable item only. We ask that this be kept to a minimum as well.

We reserve the right to return items with or without your prior consent if you are over your land impact limit or running very high scripted items. 

Items not in compliance with the above may be returned without prior consent or any liability due to loss of any kind to the SL Christmas Expo & Winter Breedables Fair, or the organizers, the Relay For Life Of Second Life, The Relay For Life, or  American Cancer Society.

📌  Are There Texture Sizes I Should Adhere To?

To lower lag and improve visitors experiences,  unless it is something your work truly depends on to be seen, ensure you flatten or remove the alpha layer from any texture it is not required to be in.

We will not place your logo in-world on any signage if it is larger than 512x 512.  Sorry, we will not resize your logo. If your logo is not on the outside of your store or promotion board, please check the size you sent us and resend a 512 x 512

📌  When Can I Tear Down My Store? 

No earlier than 12:01 am slt, Monday, December 11, 2023.

Any no copy items should be picked up by 11pm slt Monday, December 11, 2023.

If you can leave your store set up for the remainder of the week, that is great.  Linden Lab often leaves the regions up longer so people may come back, explore and shop.

Although the regions may not be taken off line by Linden Lab until later, we cannot guarantee that and are not responsible for any no copy  items left behind, so pick those up by the end of the day Monday, December 11, 2023.

📌 FLATTEN TEXTURES & REMOVE THE ALPHA LAYER 

To lower lag and improve visitors experiences,  unless it is something your work truly depends on to be seen, ensure you flatten or remove the alpha layer from any texture it is not required to be in.

Logo Size 512 x 512 – We will not place your logo in-world on any signage if it is larger than 512x 512. Sorry, we will not resize your logo. If your logo is not on the sign in front of your store, please check the size you sent and resend it as a 512 x 512.

📌  Can I Use The American Cancer Society or the Relay For Life Logo On Items For Sale?

No.

The Relay For Life /  American Cancer Society Logos cannot be placed on any item for sale.  They can be placed on items you give away for free.

There are very specific guidelines for using the American Cancer Society / RFL logo. Please contact us before making any item.

📌  Can I use the SL Christmas Expo & Winter Breedable Fair logo on items I make? 

No.   

You did not create the texture, so please do not use it in your creations.

Our logo is reserved for use only for official Christmas Expo items made by approved persons and released by the Christmas Expo only.

📌  Can I use the SL Christmas Expo logo on my Vendor Ads? 

Yes.

You can use the Expo logo on your vendor display ads to show the item was created for the Christmas Expo and benefits the American Cancer Society.   

You in-world welcome kit contains the current Christmas Expo icon with alpha that works as an exclusive tag for this purpose.  It is not obligatory to use it, that is up to you.

📌  Flickr: Can I put the poster on my Flickr page?

No.

Uploading the SL Christmas Expo poster implies that you are the creator of the image, which you are not.

Flickr is not a blogging platform, it is an image sharing platform. It has its rules and upload implications are very different.

If you want to announce that you will blog the Expo, or share your excitement about the Expo, we recommend you take a picture of yourself with the in-world poster.  Yes, taking selfies with the in-world poster is ok.

📌  Can I use the SL Christmas Expo poster on my blog page? 

Yes

You may upload the SL Christmas Expo poster or images to your blog when you are blogging about the SL Christmas Expo. This is the intended, normal usage of the posters and ima

ges.

📌  Can I  put the SL Christmas Expo poster in my store? 

Yes. 

Please use the one we provided in your welcome kit.

📌  Do You Promote My Store At The Expo?

We promote the SL Christmas Expo & Winter Breedable Faire event overall through various groups and online event promotor sites such as Seraphim or Grid Affairs for example. We do not promote individual stores.  

We do promote your 2 Required New and Exclusive 100% Donation Items,  your Stocking Stuffer Hunt Item(s), and any One Of A Kind or Limited Edition Breedable Item on our Social Media and Expo webpage.

In addition, if you are participating in the Holiday Shopping Spree Raffle or doing Collectibles, we promote those as well on our Social Media and Expo webpage.

📌  Do I need to promote my store?   

Yes

Our most successful merchants at the Expo reach out to their customers and groups letting them know they are participating in the SL Christmas Expo and Winter Breedable Fair and supporting the American Cancer Society fight against childhood cancer. 

You can reach people we cannot.   Signage in your main store, sending out the poster in your group, writing about your 100% donation items on your flickr, blog, FB, IG, and / or webpage are great way to increase your exposure.

In order to help promote the SL Christmas Expo and Winter Breedable Fair,  we ask our merchants to provide the following to us.

Please remember, we can only promote the Expo as a whole, YOU know your buyers. We ask merchants to promote their participation to their groups, on any social media and in their stores as well.

Here Is What We Need From You

Logo: Ideally we receive this within in 48 hour of paying your donation registration, but no later than November 16. Or you can send it during your registration sign up.  512 x 512 only .  

Landmark or Marketplace URL: Ideally we receive this within in 48 hour of paying your donation registration, but no later than November 16

Vendor Textures For Your 2 Required New & Exclusive 100% Donation Items.  Or One Of A Kind Breedable  Or 2 New Limited Edition Breedable Items.

By November 16 to guarantee you will be included in all the package promotional opportunities. 

We will try out best  to include logos, textures, photos received after November 16, but we cannot guarantee the fulfillment of all package advertisement benefits. 

Other Item  Textures – Stocking Stuffer Hunt, Auction, Collectibles, Raffle, Tree Lot, Decor Market

By November 16 to guarantee you will be included in all the package promotional opportunities.

We will try out best  to include logos, textures, photos received after November 16, but we cannot guarantee the fulfillment of all package advertisement benefits. 

• Texture of your required Stocking Stuffer Item(s)
• Holiday Shopping Spree Gift Certificate(s) (if participating) (see Raffle tab on what we need)
• Picture of the items in your Decor Market vendors

📌   Your Merchant Liaison’s –  Reminders & Shop Set Up

Starting in November, our Merchant Liaisons will be contacting you as a reminder for any outstanding items such as your exclusive item textures,  stocking stuffer textures, One Of A Kind Auction textures or gift cards for advertising purposes.

They will remind you only 1 time.  After that, we will assume you will be dropping the textures / items before November 16 or do not want to have any additional promotion and will be promoting your items for Christmas Expo yourself.

They will also be available during your shop set up to help.  The merchant liaisons will do shop checks once you have finished your set up and will let you know if anything in your store needs to be tweaked.

✔️ Please be kind to them.  They are trying to help you get promotion, ensure our merchant requirements are being met, and are helping to fundraise for the American Cancer Society just as you are doing.

🌟 MEGA HOLIDAY SHOPPING SPREE RAFFLE

Drawn at the end of the Expo and is a large shopping package for the lucky winners. The winners often use the gift cards as Christmas gifts, which increases visitors to your main store after the Expo ends. Our past Mega Shopping Raffles have had over 150 gift cards and over L$100,000 values.

****************************************
✨ HOLLY JOLLY DAILY RAFFLE ✨

A variety of daily individual raffles drawn at the end of the day (usually 7pm slt)
Great exposure to have your brand in front of our entertainment crowds all day and bring new visitors to your main store.

****************************************

✅ HERE IS HOW THEY WORK

• Minimum gift card value is L$100 per card
• Gift Cards Only
• Must be Transferable
• We prefer SIMPLE GIFT CARDS instead of networked / scripted cards (see below how to make them & why we prefer them)
• You will pass the gift card to the Christmas Expo Avatar to place in the raffle vendors.
• You can provide any value of cards you like – L$100 is just the minimum per card.
• A variety of values is great! (2 x $200, 1 x $1,000, 5 x $250, 2 x $2,500 , 10 x $500 etc)
• You can provide as many gift cards as you like…the sky is the limit! Our Christmas Expo merchants are always very generous and we appreciate that very much.
• If we receive an odd number of gift cards, we will split the values evenly between 2 Mega Raffles and use the remainder for our Daily Raffles.

****************************************
✔️ SIMPLE GIFT CARDS

We prefer SIMPLE GIFT CARDS instead of scripted, networked cards which may or many not transfer owners correctly, and that just leads to unnecessary hassles for you and for us to get the winner your gift card.

A SIMPLE GIFT CARD always ensures the winner receives their Gift Card and simply contacts you to arrange a proper gift card or store credit.

If you cannot “transfer” gift cards due to networking etc… simply make a SIMPLE GIFT CARD CERTIFICATE –

• Add the L$ amount of the gift card on your logo texture
• Add the words “SL Christmas Expo (or the log0) to redeem contact xxxxxx (name)”
• Place the texture on a prim and name the prim – XXXX (store name) L$xx (value) Gift Card Xmas Expo 2023.
• Drop in the prim contents a notecard explaining on how to redeem the “gift certificate” (ie: send to you) and a landmark to your store.  The Notecard MUST be full perm.  

In an effort to make the SL Christmas Expo & Winter Breedable Fair enjoyable for all individuals, we have Scripting Guidelines in effect to help both the Server Side and the Client-Side Lag.  If you have questions on any of the policies, please reach out to us and we will be pleased to help.

✔️ Merchant Ambassadors will be present before, during and after Merchant Set Up reviewing script usage.  If they knock on your door to have something corrected, please listen to what they are saying. They are doing it for the betterment of all visitors and merchants.

We strongly recommend if you are placing an item out for display to do so without scripts or ensure they fall into the Low to Moderate script time listed below.

EASY STUFF

Yes Landmark Giver
Yes Group Joiner
No Temp Rezzers
No Greeters
No Listening Scripts
No Traffic Counters
No Collision Scripts

WHAT DOES THIS SCRIPT STUFF MEAN?

Desired script time per item
Low < 0.05ms per item;
Moderate 0.05 – 0.1ms per item
High 0.1 – 0.5 ms per item;
Extreme > 0.5 ms per item

Combined (aggregate) script times per creator:
Moderate (<1.0 ms) per creator
High (1.0 – 1.5 ms) per creator
Extreme (>1.5 ms) per creator

📌 What does that mean?

Low – Moderate:
Going good! Nothing to do.

High & Extreme:

• Item is recorded with script time and / or aggregated time is noted
• You will be notified via IM & Notecard identifying the high scripted item or high combined (aggregated) script time.
• Assistance will be provided to help identify the item and see if there is a way to reduce script time. Ie: turn off scripts, remove scripts, replace the item with a non-scripted item.
• The item will need to be removed if the script time cannot be reduced to low or moderate range.
• Aggregated creator total script time will need to be reduced.
• Aggregated script time in excess of 0.5 per item is not sustainable in the Mega Event environment.

✔️ When removing a script from an item, be sure to set it to NOT RUNNING before removing. Simply removing the script without turning it off essentially does nothing.

✔️ If both creators and visitors help keep an eye on their script time, we can make the SL Christmas Expo & Winter Breedables Fair as lag free as we possibly can.