RMweb Live - 13/14 September - Ricoh Stadium, Coventry

[PaulRhB]

 their riders for pasties delivered by local virgins (try finding those in Coventry .

aren't the riders in Coventry naked . . . . .

[Andy Y]

Andy, if you're looking for a smaller venue then there's my local village hall, you know - the one not long enough to erect all of BCB (Ooops).

 

If the venue we used down at Alsthom's Sports and Social Club hadn't disappeared I'd be back like a shot to do a mini-Ricoh.

[Huw Griffiths]

Andy, if you're looking for a smaller venue then there's my local village hall, you know - the one not long enough to erect all of BCB (Ooops).

 

If the venue we used down at Alsthom's Sports and Social Club hadn't disappeared I'd be back like a shot to do a mini-Ricoh.

 

I guess that rules out my local sports hall ... .

 

 

Changing the subject slightly, I hope the upgrades to the other BRM shows include seminars, aka RMweb Theatre - quite a few of these have been rather good.

 

 

Huw.

[wombatofludham]

If you want Fairbourne Village Hall you'd better let us know now as we'll need to ask Ban-Ki-Moon and a UN delegation to help us negotiate the moving of the Saturday evening Sequence Dance session (which I gather is an obsessive compulsive form of Strictly Come Dancing...).  Moving such fixtures has all the potential to go Palestine at a moment's notice. 

[skipepsi]

I was disappointed to put it mildly not to be at the Rioch  operating Ian's layout but that was the weekend for getting kids to uni, one first year of four and one second year of three so it will be ongoing for several years. I only attended one members day but stayed a lot, lot longer than planned much to MrsB's consternation.

 

A mini Rioch or an enlarged members day north of London but west of the M1 does that mean Stoke Mandeville again? I am not sure of the attendance at the P4 show but it is not massive.

[RJS1977]

Although I was perhaps one of the event's fiercest critics, I'm still sad that the event won't be happening again as I think the premise was good - but to me, it just didn't really work in practice.

 

As regards size of venue, I've been to school based shows (Wycrail, Alton and Basingstoke spring to mind) with a similar floor area but lower rental costs which may be a more cost-effective solution.

 

Location-wise, I agree that the West of England/Wales is particularly poorly served by exhibitions though partly this is cause and effect - if there are few local exhibitable layouts, the expenses aren't viable to put a show on. And if there are no shows in the area, the local modellers aren't going to build exhibition layouts.... 

[Andy Y]

 

Andy, I'm sure we have a suitably large venue over here, ....

 

 

Stuff me; it's tough enough to get people to go as far as Coventry.

[queensquare]

 

Location-wise, I agree that the West of England/Wales is particularly poorly served by exhibitions though partly this is cause and effect - if there are few local exhibitable layouts, the expenses aren't viable to put a show on. And if there are no shows in the area, the local modellers aren't going to build exhibition layouts....

 

 

Bit sweeping, what about;

RailWells

Larkrail

Trainwest Melksham

Thornbury

Taunton

Exeter

Cardiff

Swindon Steam

etc etc. I could go on.

I live in the West Country and exhibit all over and there are many others down here in the sticks - Gordon and Maggie Gravett, captain K, Brian Harrap again, to name just a few

 

Jerry in deepest west Wilts:-)

[ELTEL]

Such condolences should really be in respect of her 'lost' annual (she had come to think) few days in a nice hotel at Acton Trussell as a result of the Stafford event going the way of all good things.  No condolences need be offered to me on that account because while it was very nice there and the Stafford event was most enjoyable my Bank Manager has seemingly expressed considerable relief at our no longer partaking of several nights in the Moathouse establishment at Acton Trussell .

Please do rebook yourself a room at the Moat House at Stafford and visit the Stafford Railway Circle exhibtion over the weekend 1st Jan & 2nd February 2015

 

Full details at www.staffordrailwaycircle.org.uk

 

Eltel

[RJS1977]

Bit sweeping, what about;

RailWells

Larkrail

Trainwest Melksham

Thornbury

Taunton

Exeter

Cardiff

Swindon Steam

etc etc. I could go on.

I live in the West Country and exhibit all over and there are many others down here in the sticks - Gordon and Maggie Gravett, captain K, Brian Harrap again, to name just a few

 

Jerry in deepest west Wilts:-)

 

I meant poorly served by comparison to the SE/Midlands/North.... (though of course population density comes into this).

[Andy Y]

I'd say the West Country punches above its weight in the number and quality of exhibitors; our reader survey showed Devon and Somerset's a bit of a modelling stronghold too.

[Huw Griffiths]

I'd say the West Country punches above its weight in the number and quality of exhibitors; our reader survey showed Devon and Somerset's a bit of a modelling stronghold too.

 

Just out of curiosity, i wonder how South Wales fares.

 

I'm aware of a number of people in the Cardiff area who've built (and exhibited) micro layouts - a number of which are rather good.

 

I don't know what the score is with regard to the major "crowd pleasers" - most of the ones I know about have been around for a number of years (and may - or may not - still be on the exhibition circuit).

 

As for demonstrators, I haven't heard many Welsh accents at the big shows I've been to. I'm not sure whether this is a true reflection of the current situation - or whether I've missed them because I've been looking for other, specific, exhibitors at the time.

[Andy Y]

Just out of curiosity, i wonder how South Wales fares.

 

 

Local clusters of exceptional talent interspersed with lots of green and hilly bits.

[Huw Griffiths]

Local clusters of exceptional talent interspersed with lots of green and hilly bits.

 

... very hilly, in my experience.

 

 

The word you're looking for is oasis

 

... although some of the locals might prefer watering holes of a different type.

 

 

Talking of water, there often seems to be rather a lot of the stuff in the air round these parts - which might explain why my coat is made of waxed cotton - that and the fact that I wouldn't wish to be described as an "anorak".

 

 

Huw.

[Sidecar Racer]

 over the weekend 1st Jan & 2nd February 2015

 

 

 

 Wow , that is a long weekend .   

[The Stationmaster]

Please do rebook yourself a room at the Moat House at Stafford and visit the Stafford Railway Circle exhibtion over the weekend 1st Jan & 2nd February 2015

 

Full details at www.staffordrailwaycircle.org.uk

 

Eltel

I did it as a day trip this year although the 'bus ride from the station was a bit wearing.  Good show although the temperature variation in the venue lay somewhere between 'amazing' and bl**dy h*ll'.  And don't worry, I'll probably come again in 2015, weather permitting.

[Mark Forrest]

If the venue we used down at Alsthom's Sports and Social Club hadn't disappeared I'd be back like a shot to do a mini-Ricoh.

Burton Town Hall seems to do ok for both DEMU and the 7mm NGA.  Could that be an option?

[2ManySpams]

Burton Town Hall seems to do ok for both DEMU and the 7mm NGA.  Could that be an option?

Apparently there's a pub or two nearby as well...

[chris p bacon]

There's an element of a legacy in there that makes it appear A1/ECML centric in so much as existing events at Doncaster and Ally Pally happened to see another event added which happened to be halfway between the two, close to base and coincidentally close to the A1. From my point of view it would make sense to spread the geography but again it depends on venues/dates. I'd say Coventry is as good as you can get in terms of a location. If you had a rigid map of the UK and stuck a 1g weight on for every modeller and balanced it on a spike I'd hazard a guess that the centre of gravity would be pretty close to Coventry. In that sense Coventry made sense; it's a good venue too and I'd have said it was just about on the Anglo-Saxon/Danelaw border.

  Wouldn't Coventry have been in the Kingdom of Mercia ? IIRC the capital of which was Tamworth.

 

Back on Topic.

 

Shame it's not proceeding as I got a lot from it and thought it worthwhile, if lessons learnt are applied to existing exhibitions then it has certainly proved worthwhile.

[The Stationmaster]

  Wouldn't Coventry have been in the Kingdom of Mercia ? IIRC the capital of which was Tamworth.

 

Continuing OT - it was indeed in the Kingdom Of Mercia and what of it there was back then (mainly a monastery or similar) was sacked by the Danes.  (no madam, not Heljan)

[Revolution Ben]

Hello all,

 

I can understand the hard commercial realities of running a show, and how decisions need to be taken with the head, not the heart.

 

However, I would also argue that a "big" show takes time to build awareness and establish itself.  The N Gauge show at Leamington (ironically the show I was committed to attending the weekend of RM Web Live) started off biennial, then became annual as its popularity grew.  However, it was fairly quickly after the first show the organisers made it known that it would be returning in two years.

 

I would encourage Warners to consider a similar approach.

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[nickwood]

57 pages on this thread and counting, 3 of them in one day since Andy announced that RMweb Live was not going to be repeated suggests to me that there is enough interest. Having exhibited at the Ricoh in September I have to say it was the best facilities, the best accomodation and the best organisation that I have the pleasure of experiencing and it is a real shame if it disappears from the calendar after only event.

 

Everyone I spoke to thoroughly enjoyed the experience and it was great to be able to spend more time chatting with people about my layout than is normally the case. Yes, this was perhaps because the footfall was lower than expected and if more had come along then things would have been a little different on that score. What wouldn't have changed though was the generous amount of circulation space around the exhibits which was appreciated and the general ambience which was very different to any other exhibition I have attended either as an exhibitor or a viewer.

 

My personal view is that attendance was affected by other major shows on the same dates, the football match on the Saturday which was not expected when Warners booked the venue but maybe the most important factor was that most folk in the local area who might have paid a visit wouldn't have a clue what RMweb represented.

 

I hope Warners reconsider and think again about the marketing.

[ELTEL]

Wow , that is a long weekend .   

Ups - 31st January & 1st February 2015 Stafford Railway Circles Exhibition

[Mike Bellamy]

Burton Town Hall seems to do ok for both DEMU and the 7mm NGA.  Could that be an option?

Both of these events are held in June - should we be looking at moving away from the traditional 'winter' exhibition season and having the show mid summer with less chance of clashing with any of the more established shows.

 

As one of the organisers of the 7mmNGA show, we have recently had a letter from Burton Town Hall to say that the large office block next door has been sold to Burton College along with half the car park and so in 2015 there will be building work going on which will restrict the spaces available. Plenty of space on the roadside as long as you take note of the restrictions and other Pay and Display car parks available nearby. Another big advantage is that the station is only a few hundred yards away.

 

Of course the Mickleover Community Centre is still available where we had the very first Members' Day back in 2007 - problem is that the RMweb membership was about 250 back then - now it's 25,000 ! !

 

 

.

[Re6/6]

............... I have to say it was the best facilities, the best accomodation and the best organisation that I have the pleasure of experiencing and it is a real shame if it disappears from the calendar after only event.

 

Indeed it was the best on all counts that I have ever attended.