How often is a exhibition layout not 'ready to go' at 'doors open' at exhibitions?

[St Enodoc]

19 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

Dunno about mandatory as it’s not enforceable to any real extent but it’s a nice polite contract that clearly states why it’s being asked too. 

It's enforceable but with a time lag, by not inviting them again.

[PaulRhB]

34 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

feel that there is little point in staying but do so to retain a good relationship with the show organisers.

Yes as you probably won’t get invited back so you have to weigh up is it a poor show, in content or situation, or a poor day. 
Certain traders ask, sometimes demand, certain things and throw the toys out of the pram if they don’t get it. I’ve been party to arguments over spots, who’s ‘allowed’ to use a kettle behind the stand amongst others while other traders deal with what they get and the same happy attitude draws customers to them.
I’ve also pointed out that we need our club show to avoid clashes with other localised big shows that have a 360° catchment compared to our 180° reach as we were near the coast. You have to consider which is going to be better for traders? 
When I helped a friend regularly with his trade stand you had good days and bad days, you also had busy periods at various times of day. One show we did 90% of our sales in the last two hours as people who’d been prevaricating or not wanting to lug it around all day came over near the end. We always looked at the shows as a good shop window and even quiet times can lead to big orders afterwards if you have a supply of business cards on the front. Even when I worked in retail sales I got some of my biggest sales by not being pushy and in one case sending them to another business who could fulfil their main purchase much better as we didn’t stock the kit. He came back and spent £5k the next day on fitting out the rest of a big house! He became a regular because he trusted the advice, so I made far more in the long term too. 

[009 micro modeller]

On 03/10/2023 at 09:40, Pete the Elaner said:

 

I have been to shows where the last hour is ridiculous. These are usually ones which stay open later.
The CMRA one at St Albans stayed open until 6pm in January. I was there a few times as an exhibitor & it was often totally dead from 5pm, with nobody other than exhibitors wandering around waiting for the show to close.
I also exhibited at the Bristol (Thornbury) show once & that stayed open until 6.30pm. Like St Albans, after 5, it was only exhibitors walking around.

Some organisers need to realise that most exhibitors are volunteers & exhibiting can be tiresome but socialising is an important part of the weekend. Staying open late when they are not getting any more visitors can put people off from exhibiting (I have refused for this reason before now).

It works differently for different shows though. I have exhibited at Warley, GETS & Modelrail Scotland, all of which do stay busy until 6.00, but most do not.

If the last hour is that quiet I would also be wondering about the venue costs (presumably slightly more, unless the venue only does whole days). But the last hour could also provide an opportunity for exhibitors to meet and see the rest of the show, which adds to the social aspect, although it would mean they’re not always operating their layouts if any public are still there.

[Chris M]

For over 40 years I have been dealing with trade exhibitors and I have always found them to be a (mostly) friendly bunch. I have never found them to be unreasonable. 

 

I first met Roger Lewis, owner of Squires, 40 years ago and in my experience he is one of the nicest guys on the exhibition circuit. Squires would always be high on the list of traders invited to any show I put on. By the way I don’t run any exhibitions and don’t plan to ever again.

 

I did look after the trade for shows for some years and during that time we had plenty of banter but only one trade exhibitor was given a life ban for giving

me too much grief. That trader no longer exists.
 

 

 

[Buhar]

27 minutes ago, Chris M said:

That trader no longer exists.

That sounds incredibly ominous!  Were the Dinsdale Brothers members of the exhibition committee?

 

Alan 

[kevinlms]

We did have one exhibition where some accusations were being made by our exhibition organiser.

 

The hall had a group of exhibits in the centre, which wasn't served by any power points at all. He had run an extension lead up, across and down into the centre. Then everyone plug their gear into power boards etc and it was then turn on at the power point on the outside wall and BANG. All power in the hall went out.

 

It was a big problem, because the distribution box, was behind a locked door, for which we had to call the caretaker out for. Meanwhile our organiser went around telling this group of exhibitors that one of them, must have dodgy equipment to do that. All denied it, mostly saying that there was no problem with their stuff and indeed had been electrically tested (our hall owner insisted on it) recently.

But no, it must be one of you!

 

As the person for the club that actually does testing, obviously I took on the task of investigating. Didn't take long to do a number of quick tests, to reveal that all these exhibitors stuff tested fine. So where was the fault? Was it with the switchboard? Don't know because caretaker still coming.

 

That left the long extension cord belonging to the organiser. A test of that revealed that active and neutral was reversed. Told him that his own extension lead was dangerously wired and had to taken out.

He refused to accept that, claiming that there can't be anything wrong, as he's been using it for 5 years - right!!!

 

So he went off in a tantrum taking his lead. Luckily I had one in my vehicle, so tested that and all good, so hooked that over to the centre and by then the caretaker had arrived and reset everything. 

This time I carefully plugged in everything one at a time and all good still by the time I got to the last item.

 

All resolved and apologises all round to those that had been accused, as clearly not them. But yes some exhibitors were clearly not happy!

[SM42]

We only banned one trader  as they cost us a significant amount (for us) by requesting a service at the show and then denying they ever had, despite it being in writing, and refusing to pay 

 

As for the show, we used to try and incorporate best practice we found whilst visiting other shows. 

 

We would allocate rooms by room number at hotels so the hoteliers knew how to fit everyone in ,( one went off piste once and had an awkward bit of shuffling to do) it also helped us track down those yet to check in. 

 

Saturday social evenings were organised with a bit of a fun quiz thrown in.  

After all, you've gone to a strange town, you've spent all day in a sports hall, you don't know where's good to eat etc, so the social is the option. 

 

We even ran a coach from the hotels to the venue and back 

 

Set up access was time was strictly enforced after letting people in early once nearly jeopardised the show layout. People grumbled, but it worked every year and if we were ready for them early we let em in.

 

On breakdown the barriers were out of the way in less than 10 minutes to allow unhindered access for taking things apart. 

 

What killed us was loss of venue one year,  cancelling the show,  and it never really recovered at the alternative venue. 

After two years we called it a day to save the club financially. 

 

Shame as I miss it, but I don't miss the months of stress and the thousands of miles every year looking for layouts.

 

My record for number of shows visited in one year was 42. 

 

That can really put you off modelling. 

 

Andy

[Chris M]

The Wyre Forest show used to be a nice one.

[Chris M]

Last minute change of personnel can be a nightmare at the hotel - nowadays I just give them the name they were expecting rather than try to explain that there has been a change. 

[Chris M]

It’s a whole week before we set off for the exhibition but the fleet has been serviced. Basically pickups decruded, wheels cleaned and gears very lightly oiled. Especially in N gauge checking the cleanliness of the pickups is crucial to good running. They had all been running on the layout and they will all get a lap of the layout again just to make sure I haven’t bu&&ered them up while servicing. I think this is a basic if you are going to be up and running quickly at the exhibition.

 

i only need 12 working locos so i have plenty of spares.

 

Edited October 6, 2023 by Chris M

[kevinlms]

6 hours ago, Chris M said:

It’s a whole week before we set off for the exhibition but the fleet has been serviced. Basically pickups decruded, wheels cleaned and gears very lightly oiled. Especially in N gauge checking the cleanliness of the pickups is crucial to good running. They had all been running on the layout and they will all get a lap of the layout again just to make sure I haven’t bu&&ered them up while servicing. I think this is a basic if you are going to be up and running quickly at the exhibition.

 

i only need 12 working locos so i have plenty of spares.

 

No spare DMU then? 😇

[Chris M]

1 hour ago, kevinlms said:

No spare DMU then? 😇

Yes - in the form of a class 22 and a couple of coaches. 🙂

[RedgateModels]

 

All set up and ready, no hassles with an hour to go today show start 😁

[SR71]

Time to go for a walk around and then either;

a) spill your cup of tea 5mins before doors open

Or

b) find they have put you in slightly the wrong place and a trader has arrived last minute and blocked access to one end of the layout.

 

It's not going wrong (though some probably would regard it as such) but I can't believe no one has mentioned that the last hour should be silly hour. Get all the wagons into one train and see what will pull it. Send a bigboy into Ashburton with an autocoach. Run the turbo fan car up shap. While this is going on others can of course be packing away surplus.

[kevinlms]

5 hours ago, Chris M said:

Yes - in the form of a class 22 and a couple of coaches. 🙂

I thought the DMU was a replacement for a Class 22 and a couple of coaches!

 

🙂

[Penrhos1920]

On 10/09/2023 at 22:42, Lemmy282 said:

Back in the 1970's I was part of the team exhibiting a very large 3 rail layout at the York show in the De Gray rooms. Next to us was an LNER branch terminus layout, possibly Em or P4, anyway the exhibition was over the Easter weekend, and as far a we could tell not a train moved at all. For the first day feverish attempts were made and lots of solder smoke was evident, slightly less activity on the second day. On the last day there was no one with it all day, and after we packed up our layout it was still there!

 

I remember that model.  It was of HS2.  Didn't it get cancelled before construction was complete?