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Is there a list of which vendors will be at the conference? If not and you know of who will be there, please feel free to reply. Thanks.

Hiram

Well, I think it comes down to the fact that gas is $4.00 plus a gallon here, and there's a lot people that don't want to spend that kind of money. I know from past experiences that making money off a tuba conference is not as easy as it seems, and given the cost of travel, I can understand why they wouldn't be there.

I've heard from the instrument vendors themselves that they rarely make money at these conferences. The cost to get a bunch of tubas and euphs across country brings profits down to breaking even, even if they get lucky and sell a horn or two.

The sheet music and small goods vendors do a bit better.

The sheet music and small goods vendors do a bit better.

Not!

I have probably exhibited at more tuba shows in thelast year than anyone. My goal is to break even, very rarely do I walk out of a show with a profit! I do this to get out and meet people, something impotant for an internet business.

Why is this? I usually fly for free but we are now being nickeled and dimed by the airlines. Then there are hotel and rental cars - I just paid $4.20 for a gallon of gas! These are expenses everyone pays.

There is a trend by show sonsors to raise the prices for exhibitors. They think that if a horn dealer sells a couple $10,000 horns, they can afford to pay a premium for space. Then they increase the prices down to the small guys like me. I calculate the exhibit rate by the number of participants. There have been times that the rate might go to $2 a person - you can't break even! There are no large publishers at tuba shows, the slack is being done by small publishers - they should be encouraged to come to a show, not charged big bucks.

As far as ITEC, the exhibit hours are way to long, from 9am to 7pm and exhibits are from Tuesday through Saturday! This mkes it imposible for one person to work a show. That is a big reason that exhibitors are not coming!

brianf wrote:

The sheet music and small goods vendors do a bit better.

Not!

I have probably exhibited at more tuba shows in thelast year than anyone. My goal is to break even, very rarely do I walk out of a show with a profit! I do this to get out and meet people, something impotant for an internet business.

I believe Brian has pegged it. The cost for a company to exhibit probably makes it very difficult to actually see a profit from the actually conference. I would guess that the only reasons for exhibiting would be to create more name recognition and goodwill, or because the owner/manager simply has a particular personal interest in the conference.

As a member of the Texas Music Educators Assoc. and the Texas Bandmasters Association, I know that my dues and fees are reduced somewhat due to the fact that exhibitors are being charged OTA in order to be there. I'm not certain this is good for our profession or for the music business in general. I especially wonder why instrument dealers and manufacturers want to take their brand new instruments and allow people(especially high school kids) treat them as poorly as they do. I know I have seen examples of abuse that boggle the mind. I know especially from being around the Miraphone booth, and have watched as Richard Murrow and Richard Morgan have to deal with this. I believe I have been taught much about patience, having been a school band director for a very long time, however I don't believe I have the level of patience I have seen with these two guys.

I read Ken's post and noted his expression of it boggling his mind why more don't exhibit. I understand where he is coming from, but I don't believe he has considered all of the angles involved. Business have to make business decisions when they do business, and when they hope to continue to do business. If there is profit to be made, they will go for it. On an aside, here is the source of one of my pet peaves. Since I live in San Antonio, I will use S.A. as an example. The San Antonio Spurs, like more major league sports franchises, has convinced the San Antonio populace that they need to provide a workplace for the Spurs. Thus an arena was fairly recently built to keep them here. This means a money losing proposition for the city of S.A. If there was a profit to be made by building the arean, the Spurs would be the first to take advantage of the opportunity. I often wonder why the city doesn't build all of the city's businesses a place to do business.


Sorry about the rant. I am glad we have music conferences, but let's not deceive ourselves into thinking that music businesses should support our habit simply because we want to have conferences.

knuxie wrote:

Since I live in San Antonio, I will use S.A. as an example. The San Antonio Spurs, like more major league sports franchises, has convinced the San Antonio populace that they need to provide a workplace for the Spurs. Thus an arena was fairly recently built to keep them here. This means a money losing proposition for the city of S.A. If there was a profit to be made by building the arean, the Spurs would be the first to take advantage of the opportunity. I often wonder why the city doesn't build all of the city's businesses a place to do business.

Ray,

I remember the sales pitch the city made to voters concerning building the Alamodome. If they (the voters) knew then what they know now, do you think a big caplet-shaped building would be sitting along I-37 now?

Ken F.

P.T. Barnum must have visited San Antonio. The people can be sold just about anything, if handled the right way. The first time the Spurs won the NBA championship, the Spurs were playing in the dome. This made it possible for many, many people to attend the games. It also made it possible to get the voters to approved the(now) A T & T Center. This was done despite two polls having indicated that the citizenry opposed it. After it was built, many of of find citizens were surprised to find they could get in. So, there must be "a sucker born every minute." At least this is true in San Antonio.

If staffing is an issue,I bet there'd be plenty of trusted volunteers who would man a booth while the proprietor attended a few recitals.Let's get creative...

rnmjr wrote:It is the job of the ITEC organizers to ATTRACT vendors!

No, it's not. The job of the ITEC organizers to organize and administer the conference program. The vendors are a nice bonus, but they are secondary to the purpose of the conference.

Thinking of it another way, if I pay roughly the same amount to attned ITEC Cincy that I did to attend in Denver, but there are fewer vendors, that would seem to be one area in which Cincy didn't do as well as it could have.

Given the value of the dollar and the cost of living today compared to 2006, if you pay roughly the same amount to attend ITEC Cincy as you did to attend ITEC Denver, the organizers are getting a helluva lot more for their money at ITEC Cincy than they did at ITEC Denver, even without the vendors.