A vistor told me the management should reduce the vendor
fees and raise the admission fee ($7.00) so more exhibitors would
attend. He wasn't complaining about a lack of vendors but though more
whould make the show more interesting.

Well, since the admission fee is charged to exhibitors (and that is
ALL they have to pay to exhibit their work), this would not help.

Perhaps this is a case of mistaken terminology. There are three
groups of people at these shows: Vendors, Exhibitors, and Visitors.

Vendors (such as us, Meridian, MarMachine, Shooting Star etc.) pay the
highest fees. Booth fees for Vendors at the various shows can run
$150 to $500 and up, depending on booth size and other options.

Exhibitors are those who show their work. At least with the Cabin
Fever run shows, they are not allowed to sell goods. They pay nothing
other than the entrance fee, and can stake out a location and show off
their work. IMHO, the Exhibitors are what will make or break a show.
I have been talking with Gary, and we are working on ways to make it
more attractive for Exhibitors to show their work, and to stay through
the whole show. These plans may include gifts, drawings, or perhaps
refunds of admission fees. When these plans are worked out, it will
be announced here and elsewhere.

Finally, the visitors. Somewhere around 2000 attended this show,
which was thought to be pretty good for a first show. Certainly
better than the early Cabin Fever shows, and look at what those have
grown into.

I hope everyone enjoyed the show, and invite you all back next year.
If you have something to show, models, tools, engines, etc., please
bring them, and a friend. Get a space, show your stuff, and have the
friend along so you can switch off showing off and visiting the rest
of the show.

Scott

In error I slipped into my me/they vernacular. The fellow that made
the "complaint" meant that it should be cheaper to sell stuff and more
expensive to attend thus making the event bigger. I used exhibiter and
vendor interchangably which in this case is incorrect. The most
important attendees were the exhibitors, those that brought an engine
or other to display. Without them there wouldn't be much reason to
attend. The second most important group were the attendees that paid
the princely sum of $7.00 for a solid day of great entertainment. The
lowly souls at this event were the peddlers like Scott and myself.
Scott has done other shows like this and I now know that my
presentation has to be adjusted as this is a different group then I am
used to dealing with at the auto swapmeets. I'd rate this group as
pretty upscale and defintely on the very intelligent side. To sum it
up I'd have to call it a great experience and one that I want to
repeat frequently. BTW Totally unrelated to this show, my sales of
machines took off this week leaving me in in a very upbeat mood.
Leigh@MarMachine