jbe Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 My thanks also to the Chatham club for a very organised exhibition. Club members I found extremely helpful with loading and unloading, I liked the fact that they were easily identified by yellow bibs and I liked the friendly tea, coffee and hot drinks service. Overall I would recommend anybody with an invitation to accept! It is a world away from the circumstances in the old Dockyard. Julian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
salmonpastures Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 This was my first visit to this show and I was generally impressed. I had already seen a couple of the layouts before, Hawkhurst (Southwark MRC) and Happisburgh (I'm an MRC member). The standout layouts for me were Salmon Pastures as it is visually close to the layout I have in my mind and in my sketch book that I would love to build and Palmerston Road by Wimbledon MRC. Many thanks for the mention AliR53 and we are obviously delighted you enjoyed the show, although I doubt if you enjoyed it as much as we did on the dark side!! I have to say this weekend was without doubt the most enjoyable exhibition I have been involved with for a very long time. Why: The venue was spotless, the floors level, and with all the help from the hyviz bibs we were set up & running in no time and retired to a local hostelry opposite the car park. Probably a mistake as we were all running on auto-pilot/driver till about 11.30am Saturday. The hotel was less than 5 mins walk and whilst there we had the pleasure of the company of the 2 Dutch exhibitors Henk & Jan. My sides ached and the back of my head was sore by the time I hit horizontal on Sunday night. I cannot remember the last time I laughed as much as I did Sunday evening. So to everyone who had anything to do with Chatham 2014 congratulations,,, from the Salmon Pastures perspective it was absolutely wonderful. Well done,,, and when the dust has settled,, or,, we have something new to show off we would love to come again!!! Sincere regards to all SAD, David & Andy from Salmon Pastures Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jol Wilkinson Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 It was my first visit to the Chatham Show for a number of years and I regret to say that I came away rather disappointed. I was assisting one of the traders and found the hall uncomfortably warm through the day - a not uncommon problem with sports facilities. I can't comment on the catering as I took my own, but that is another area where it is important to get it right. Anything which puts customers off, poor public transport, parking, catering, etc. will deter people from attending. It also seemed to be unsure if it was a general show or a "finescale" show. My experience is that shows can rarely be both successfully, Without sufficient finescale modellers to support the specialist trade they cannot afford to go and several of the specialist traders I spoke to weren't finding it very worthwhile. If you can make the customer numbers up by attracting the general public and families, then that's good for income, but it doesn't help the trade who provide support through stand rent. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fulton Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Almost a week since the Chatham Show just about recovered, rather a stressful run up due to Bob Whitings illness he is making good progress, lots of good feed back, a big thank you to all that took part visitors, exhibitors, traders, helpers and Medway Park staff. We try to improve each year the things under our control, but unfortunately the venue is what it is, a modern sports facility, but a vast improvement over the Covered Slip, there is no other venue of this size in the Medway Towns. Catering did work better this year but still not good, we encouraged visitors to visit Gillingham High Street only a couple of minutes walk away, the tables and chairs were very popular with many people bring their own food and drink in. Parking from my regular checks and asking people did seem better we got as many exhibitors vehicles as possible into our area and could do more next year, hopefully we can arrange free parking again next year, the car park is owned and run by Medway Council so shoppers also benefitted from our free parking arrangements, we are investigating an overflow car park but like our last year in the Dockyard extra parking does not come free, Gillingham railway station is only a ten minute walk away and that seamed popular. The 2015 Chatham Show will be on 13th and 14th June. As a separate subject on venues, having visited and exhibited layouts across Europe even quite modest towns seem to have proper exhibition venues, which just do not exist here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombatofludham Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 https://www.flickr.com/photos/36805899@N06/sets/72157645347787463/ Hopefully a link through to my flickr album of photos taken at the show last week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
richierailfan72 Posted June 28, 2014 Author Share Posted June 28, 2014 Some post event photos here, including some bonus photos of Javelins etc at St Pancras and the PS Medway Queen and a light ship at Gillingham Pier. https://www.flickr.com/photos/53027759@N05/sets/72157645176857292/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/36805899@N06/sets/72157645347787463/ Hopefully a link through to my flickr album of photos taken at the show last week. Thanks for posting some very interesting photos and videos of the show. They really do show off the quality of the exhibits, to which I believe the layout operators would be proud off. The only thing that lets one of the pictures down is seeing me in my yellow bib walking past. Just hope it did not ruin it too much. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrydenford Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 I went on Sunday and thought it was a really good show with some great trade stands inc a tooling trader whom I bought some great paints from. Only downside was the catering or more the lack or knowing where the catering was as it was not easy to find. I found it about 11.30am and I was the only one there and they had run out of change. Loved the space between the exhibits Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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