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Cardiff Model Railway Show


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4 minutes ago, Leander said:

The gent you refer to is Geoff Kent.

Thank you! Geoff Kent. Fantastic modelling. Apologies to the gent in question, I don't know why I've mixed his name up, but the modelling still stands.

 

Cheers,

Ian.

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If I had to offer any constructive criticism on this year's show my own observations were as follows; 

 

I attended as a paying punter this year having exhibited at last year's show. 

 

The layouts were generally of a very high standard and worth the entry alone. Personal favourites were Shirty Abacus, Foxcote, Dear Rosamund, Ynysybwl and Tal y Bont but as I say all were extremely good with something for everyone. 

 

Trade support was generally poor at the show. I'm not sure what the solution is. Do traders not want to do shows? I do agree with Brian re glue man. Why feel the need for a mike?  Not required in my humble opinion and a bit over bearing really. 

 

The amount of space given to non-railway items was interesting, but, in my opinion, added nothing to the show.  The display of Action Men on entry was novel and seemingly as per previous years...........The military vehicles on the stage were nice but quite frankly I didn't linger up there. The stage area always seems a  tad dark and dingy, somewhat jumbled. The demos appearing cramped and perhaps not in the right place. I felt for the demonstrators given the lack of natural light up there.  Sorry but surely one or two of the traders could relocate from the lighter parts of the halls..........

 

However, as always, the social side made up for any perceived short comings with many familiar faces in attendence, much laughter was had........and a bit of inspiration taken away....

 

 

Apologies for any offence caused, none intended. 

 

Rob. 

 

 

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We have to accept that Railway Modelling like most other things in life is changing, apparently something to do with progress and ‘tinterweb. In the good old days we went to exhibitions to see layouts and buy things from traders who were there in abundance. The layout element still exists but the general traders that will attend exhibitions are getting as rare as hens teeth because they can sell as much, or more, on the Internet without moving from their shop, or in some cases their lounge. 

There is a double whammy as attendance at exhibitions generally is falling gradually year on year, and without “punters” traders don’t sell things. If they can be press ganged into attending they will not return in following years if sales are poor. 

A trawl through ‘tinterweb will show that a rising number of traders have withdrawn from attendance at exhibitions and others have sold their businesses so the available pool is diminishing.

 

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Shirty Abacus, love it!

 

we really like this show, predominantly for the social side. The Cardiff boys are one of the most welcoming and friendly groups you could wish to meet.

 

I would broadly agree with Rob's comments above. The only thing I would add is the catering which, to be fair, is out of the organisers control. There are no drinks for exhibitors. I find them a bit grumpy and surly, they make absolutely no allowance for gluten free which, being school caterers is surprising and, the final straw was when they demanded a £1 just for a bit of hot water for a lemsip!! We spent our lunch tokens in the supermarket over the road!

 

That said, we will be back in two years time as it's one of our favourite shows as an exhibitor - but we'll bring a kettle.

 

Jerry

 

 

 

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Jerry,

As an exhibitor I found the catering indifferent. I bought a sausage roll on Saturday which should have been supplied with a hammer and chisel to get into it1

 

Sunday I had a baugette which was much better.

 

The tea was ok though.

 

I pity the poor pupils if this is what they get in the week,

 

Dave

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4 minutes ago, Danemouth said:

Jerry,

As an exhibitor I found the catering indifferent. I bought a sausage roll on Saturday which should have been supplied with a hammer and chisel to get into it1

 

Sunday I had a baugette which was much better.

 

The tea was ok though.

 

I pity the poor pupils if this is what they get in the week,

 

Dave

 

 

Perchance it is a Welsh Government ploy to deter over eating.........

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1 hour ago, Danemouth said:

Jerry,

As an exhibitor I found the catering indifferent. I bought a sausage roll on Saturday which should have been supplied with a hammer and chisel to get into it1

 

Sunday I had a baugette which was much better.

 

The tea was ok though.

 

I pity the poor pupils if this is what they get in the week,

 

Dave

 

Hi Dave, I don't think it was the quality of the tea that was an issue but the fact it was £1 a cup for exhibitors. By and large exhibitors run on tea!

I hasten to add this is not a criticism of the organisers, like many venues you are stuck with the caterers you get.

 

jerry

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As has been pointed out by Prof. Queensquare the catering is out of the hands of the exhibition organisers and the school itself, it is run by Cardiff Catering i.e. the catering arm of Cardiff County Council who run catering at all Cardiff County Schools. Following a stuttering start when we first started using the school we have developed a good relationship with the Catering Staff employed at the school, rest assured that the complaints voiced will be taken up with the Staff. However ”Gordon Blue” standards cannot be guaranteed.

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I have to say I was more than satisfied with the smoked salmon and scrambled egg served on a nice toasted muffin with parsley garnish, washed down with a splendid pot of Darjeeling.......

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34 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

I have to say I was more than satisfied with the smoked salmon and scrambled egg served on a nice toasted muffin with parsley garnish, washed down with a splendid pot of Darjeeling.......

 

Didn't spot that on the menu!

 

Jerry

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Sorry when I made my comments about traders, I didn't mean this to start off a critique of Cardiff exhibition but rather the lack of modelling traders applies to almost every exhibition. As Abergwaun said, it's a growing trend that, apart from box shifters, traders don't want to do exhibitions other than the very large shows or specialist ones such as ExpoEM.

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2 minutes ago, Barry Ten said:

In relation to Mozzer's comment above, would the traders at the Cardiff exhibition also be paying  a rent for their stall, or is that only applicable at the larger shows?

Yes all the traders pay rent for the space they take up, but if it gets us better traders we may have to look at the charges, if we have to lower the charges to get the right traders then that's something we will have to consider

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On 21/10/2019 at 18:26, NHY 581 said:

 

Personal favourites were Shirty Abacus

I’ve got a feeling that name may stick!:)  I’d better make some new signage!

On 21/10/2019 at 18:26, NHY 581 said:

 

 

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On 24/10/2019 at 21:51, CardiffModelExhibition said:

We would love to attract some Specialist traders, if any of you guys are at shows and spot someone that might be interested in attending our show let us have the details so we can contact them if you can find them we will book them :)

 

On 24/10/2019 at 21:57, Barry Ten said:

In relation to Mozzer's comment above, would the traders at the Cardiff exhibition also be paying  a rent for their stall, or is that only applicable at the larger shows?

 

On 24/10/2019 at 22:01, CardiffModelExhibition said:

Yes all the traders pay rent for the space they take up, but if it gets us better traders we may have to look at the charges, if we have to lower the charges to get the right traders then that's something we will have to consider

We did the Cardiff show in 2017 ( 247 Developments) takings did not cover the stand rent 

we would like to attend the local shows but sale are not high enough to make it worth going 

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On 24/10/2019 at 21:57, Barry Ten said:

In relation to Mozzer's comment above, would the traders at the Cardiff exhibition also be paying  a rent for their stall, or is that only applicable at the larger shows?

I do not know of any show wear the traders do not pay anything  

apart for some very small shows were its a donation 

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8 hours ago, mozzer models said:

I do not know of any show wear the traders do not pay anything  

apart for some very small shows were its a donation 

As a trader would you be interested in a stand cost that reflected the numbers through the door, ie a fixed min-cost for poor numbers through the door if that cheap cost was cheap enough stepping up and the door number went up to a max cost for a good turn up as long as that cost was not too expensive.

 

Just a thought I have been playing with, it would mean both the trader and show organisers would be taking a gamble.

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31 minutes ago, CardiffModelExhibition said:

As a trader would you be interested in a stand cost that reflected the numbers through the door, ie a fixed min-cost for poor numbers through the door if that cheap cost was cheap enough stepping up and the door number went up to a max cost for a good turn up as long as that cost was not too expensive.

 

Just a thought I have been playing with, it would mean both the trader and show organisers would be taking a gamble.

 

Numbers through the door (whether at model railway exhibitions or elsewhere) is not a great guide to what the spend will be - especially for the more specialist traders.

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1 minute ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

Numbers through the door (whether at model railway exhibitions or elsewhere) is not a great guide to what the spend will be - especially for the more specialist traders.

I know the only real way for something like this to work would be to use the takings of the trader as a guide, low sales, low stand price, good sales higher stand price. But you can not expect trader to say what they have taken and there would be a lot of trust involved which is why I chose door numbers as a thought.

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Would it be possible to draw a distinction between the retail traders with  lots of RTR to sell, and the likes of 247 Developments, who aren't necessarily going to turn a huge amount of money over a weekend, but do provide a useful range of hard to find bits for the kitbuilder or scratchbuilder?

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42 minutes ago, CardiffModelExhibition said:

As a trader would you be interested in a stand cost that reflected the numbers through the door, ie a fixed min-cost for poor numbers through the door if that cheap cost was cheap enough stepping up and the door number went up to a max cost for a good turn up as long as that cost was not too expensive.

 

Just a thought I have been playing with, it would mean both the trader and show organisers would be taking a gamble.

pm on its way

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3 minutes ago, Barry Ten said:

Would it be possible to draw a distinction between the retail traders with  lots of RTR to sell, and the likes of 247 Developments, who aren't necessarily going to turn a huge amount of money over a weekend, but do provide a useful range of hard to find bits for the kitbuilder or scratchbuilder?

That's something to consider :) 

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4 minutes ago, Barry Ten said:

Would it be possible to draw a distinction between the retail traders with  lots of RTR to sell, and the likes of 247 Developments, who aren't necessarily going to turn a huge amount of money over a weekend, but do provide a useful range of hard to find bits for the kitbuilder or scratchbuilder?

If you took a ruff average price of our items say £4.00 it takes a lot of sale to cover the rent

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