Come on guys you must have made it home by now, anything to talk about at Pickering this weekend. I'm afraid it's too far "oop north" for me but has it revealed anything I can look forward to when I go to Warwick. Although I worked hard to get an "allocation" from SWMBO for Bristol I only bought lunch, if the same happens at Warwick I run a good chance of seeing the money evaporate. It's also my birthday in a couple of weeks and I don't want socks again. So what did you guys find that any "aspiring" model engineer just has to have?
I went on the Friday to catch the 'bargains', needn't have bothered as there weren't any!. Very limited trade presence, some nice models but nothing on the scale of Harrogate. It was worth my visit though as I came away with a lot of little bits and bobs for the Land Rover rebuild from that bloke with the reels of green belting. Will I bother next year?, probably academic as I doubt it will be held, it's getting smaller not bigger. Greg
Thanks guys, I guess it's socks again then this year. Perhaps I've visited too many exhibitions of late but they do seem to be getting "much of a muchness", still Warwick is not too far so I'll give it another go.
I'm afraid exhibitions are changing much like a lot of the world we live in.
With the advent of website's, Ebay and internet sales it's becoming hard work to pull exhibitions into the calendar.
There are two side to an exhibition, club stands with models and trade stands. There are also two sources of income for the organiser's, door sales and trade stands.
Door sales are putting many off due to the high cost and also remember all of what you see in there don't pay.
Each model gets two people in for free.
Trade stands are on a rising scale of cost down to floor space as expected. What many don't realise is the extra burden them put on as well.
Warwick for instance is the old Donington show but TEE charge exactly the same price for trade as they did at Donington to stand in either a tent or a cow shed. On top of this a 10A electrical supply is £85.00, a 13A supply is £110.00, that's one plug. Telephone hook up for credit card machines is £165 per machine.
Trade needs to be away from base [ and away from mail order and internet sales] for 7 whole days.
None of this also recons in hotels, meals away and transport. Warco for one, runs a 32 tonne artic, a 7-1/2 tonner and a van. Reckon the costs up on that for 5 or 6 shows a year.
At the old Donington show, Myfords never attended, instead preferring to have an open day. Supposedly to save money but in actual fact it was because when Jerry bombed them in WWII they lost the front door key so can't leave the place unattended.
This year they are doing the same but in typical Myfords thoughtfulness they have the dates mixed up and having theirs the week after
Don't bother checking the web site it's been down for nearly three months, they have lost it. It's probably with the key .
Joking apart though, these open days will be more popular as traders realise that dragging 15 tons of machinery around the country, paying high prices for the shows and loosing money on pre-existing sales soon mount up.
You can buy a lot of advertising for 6 shows worth of rent. Web pages are very lost cost and open days are not that expensive given they are already open.
Many traders are giving the new Olympia show at the end of December a miss. Who's going to work during this time and more to the point who going to pay overtime on a venture that won't bring anything extra in ? Would you pull a stand down, load up and drive 300 odd miles on New Years Eve night ?
Open days have a lot more to offer. Less crowded, often free drinks, more relaxed and at many places you can get a chance to see machines under power. Because of H&S reg's that's becoming more rare at exhibitions and God only knows how much they would charge for a decent supply to run a few machines.
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