TubeNet

I have the folder sitting in front of me for the upcoming Ohio Music Education state conference

And that is Ohio, not Chicago!

A few years ago Midwest moved to McCormick Place. Now you are talking Chicgo prices. High rent for a space, a lot for chais and tables. If you need power watch out. Then there are the unions, yes the Teamsters. They charge an arm and leg to get stuff in and out. They are really slow until they go into overtime and are even slower. Blow out a light bulb? You might be lucky to get a union electrician to do it for $200! Needless to say, Chicago is losing a lot of conventions.

That is for big shows - I doubt if any brass instrument show will go to McCormick Place. Things are small but still costs mount up. I just made plans to go to the Army show - Show fee, Air Fare, Car, Hotel, Airport Transfers and the latest - shipping. I really doubt if I will make expenses and I know tricks to keep things bare bones! There are shows that want an exhibit fee of $300-400 where you have to sell a couple thousand dollars worth of stuff to just pay that fee.

Things have changed!

If your business analysis tells you that it is not cost-effective to exhibit, and yet you *do* exhibit...

There is either something wrong with your decision...or with your analysis.

In either event, I'm trying hard to figure out the business benefit in bitching about it.

Care to see the business analysis of the costs and benefits of being a simple attendee at these events?

Contemplate this: my decision to go, or not, is not at all influenced by who will be exhibiting. There are other events where the trade show is the big draw. I don't go to those. At some shows, the attendees are attracted by the exhibitors - at others, the exhibitors are attracted by the attendees, who are attracted by...something else. If neither group is "attracted", the event dies.

sloan wrote:If your business analysis tells you that it is not cost-effective to exhibit, and yet you *do* exhibit...

There is either something wrong with your decision...or with your analysis.

Or you have money to burn and want to exhibit anyway.

If your business analysis tells you that it is not cost-effective to exhibit, and yet you *do* exhibit...

There is either something wrong with your decision...or with your analysis.

When you have an internet music related business, many times you have to throw common business practices out the door. There are times you just want your customers to see a face behind a name!

normrowe wrote:Or you have money to burn and want to exhibit anyway.

In which case it is not a business.

I have participated in planning for shows that cost six figures for building and staffing a booth. There is a lot of consideration that goes into it. And while it may not be practical for blokes, who are just one person requiring the business to halt when they go to a show, bigger companies do benefit from promoting their brand in the market, and that promotion has both a cost and a value that can be analyzed. (That's the half of Sloan's comment that you can't forget. "Something wrong with the analysis" can indeed include insufficiently understanding the benefits.)

Rick "who is now involved in booths that have no hope of revenue and exist only to promote expenditure" Denney

I think Stauff's original point was just give some info about costs, but I am now a bit befuddled by where this thread has gone. As a sheet music dealer, a tuba player, etc., I see there are costs involved with putting on a show and someone has to pay for them, rather than complain does anyone have some suggestions on lowering what many feel are fees that are too high? How much should dealers be charged? How much should individuals be charged to attend etc.?

In regards to the upcoming Army Tuba Conference, I have always felt that since those who are attending are not charged anything to attend they will probably be more inclined to buy something therefore I have no complaints about the fee structure.

I also feel the fees we pay help bring in various artists who in turn bring in people which as a dealer we all hope turn into sales. I have never felt the fee is just for the "booth". Maybe I have a different take on this because I play, compose, arrange, etc.

I do have many complaints about any place that charges a fee for a booth, another fee for a table, another fee for electricity, etc. As Brian mentioned, Chicago is losing many conventions. I am sure Chicago is not alone...

I do agree costs to attend a show can be high, but at the same time taking my 3 kids to McDonalds now costs $20+ just for the three of them so everything is more expensive. I always chuckle when the news talks about gas approaching $3.00 per gallon and we in CT have been there for years...

Time to get back engraving Tuba charts for DC!

Trade Shows cost vary directly with the type of industry and attendee the shows' contractor is trying to attract. Rick is absolutely correct on the analysis of the cost/benefit for the corporate exhibitor. It typically is not a direct profit return that is being sought. But, a longer term brand, identification process. I've been the promoter of multiple large trade shows (Industry Association Sponsored) in a relative to a small market place, where the venue of the show dictates a higher cost for the exhibitor, when their is either a minimal or no cost to the attendee. Where a 10'x10' space maybe as little $4.00 sf and all incidentals are inclusive in those costs, and the attendance expectation's are well over 12,000 people in 3 days (20 hrs.)

And I have also been an exhibitor in NYC at the Jacob Javitts Center, convention center in Anahiem, and the McCormick Center in Chicago, the base cost is three to four times that base and EVERYTHING, is extra, including the dock time to unload, forklifts, plants, electrical, unpacking, set-up, it doesn't stop. A 10'x10' space on a major venue easily will tip the $10K scale without a blink of the eye.

It is capitalism at it's finest, "Whatever the market will Bear", Who's the host? Who are the guests? And what is the final goal for the promoter. RARELY it is of a philanthropic purpose. Most promoters, even associations' need to make a big buck of the event, Strange things can and will happen that will turn the event into a big loser. Typically the events that lose are mother nature related,(a blizzard or hurricane can raise havoc on an expected attendance, and their is NOTHING worse than empty aisle to a promoter) or a slow economy.

The exception to a market driven event is probably the Army's unofficial TE conference coming in January. In this case, my guess is, the vendors are charging an exhibit rate to merely cover the direct expenses of the event. It's not logical for the promoter to be seeking a profit to establish a slush fund for the DC Tuba/Euph summer outing.

Rarely, does the exhibitor ever cover is direct costs of the event. His evaluation of the event is dependent on his long-term business strategy (Brian, this is where your strategy of the "face to a name" business strategy fits and it is a good strategy, when you are in the personal services business sector such as you are) and what is the extended benefit of the investment in time, resources and money. And I do miss those trade shows. They are a glad-handers paradise, their is nothing better than a name-tag to open the conversation.