In case anyone's interested...

[Penners]

... you can get free tickets at the website below to the Homebuilding & Renovating Show, 18th - 21st March at the NEC.

No personal recommendation for the show from me. I think it's rather more aimed at the self-build market than at our kind of period property project. But just in case you have plans to go....

http://www.eventdata.co.uk/Forms/Hom00Visitor.aspx?FormRef=Hom30Visitor&PageNo=1&AffiliateCode=BuildstoreEmail

 

[FamilyWiggs]

That's a saving of £14 per head on the door... wonder if anyone ever pays full price?

 

[AMc]

That's a saving of £14 per head on the door... wonder if anyone ever pays full price?

If you walk up on the day you will pay the full ticket price.

From my days as an exhibitor at Computer Graphics shows the exhibition market is kind of auction between the exhibitors, organisers and the audience. Initially the organisers have to guarantee a level of visitor interest to get exhibitors to provisionally book space and confirm the venue. As the number of "presold" (freebie) tickets goes up then they can set higher prices on the remaining space and firm up commitments from the exhibitors to pay for space. Once they have the costs covered and most of the space booked the freebies and 2 for 1 offers disappear. You can usually still get free tickets or offers from the exhibitors themselves who need to guarantee interest in their stand and they're bundled with the space.

I've seen Grand Designs (IIRC) offering prebooked internet 2 for 1 on the day before - buy your tickets and collect at the door - presumably they had some spare capacity and any money is better than no money.
This year's Gadget Show Live is sold out so they're opening up a preview afternoon (a.k.a. as press day) to the public to get more money in - I bet the exhibitors are delighted about that one.

In the end if the show doesn't have enough exhibitors you won't sell tickets next time and you won't be able to sell space. If the show doesn't have enough visitors the cost of attending will stop people booking space and hit your ticket revenue as well as your space booking. Get the trade off wrong and you won't have a show the next year.

We successfully got all our money back on a show we attended where we were stuffed in a side hall and got almost no visitors. The cost of attending - all the sales and most technical staff for 3 days - was massive and the tiny number of sales leads meant it cost a fortune even with the refund.

Exhibitions are incredibly hard work, you're usually standing from 8am to 6pm grinning and answering odd questions that have nothing to do with your products. The oddest experience I had was at a Neurology Conference in Lisbon, watching the worlds most eminent brain surgeons trying to blag free T shirts and Yo Yos - very, very odd.

 

[Penners]

Exhibitions are incredibly hard work

Tell me about it! For virtually my entire working life I organised and manned exhibition stands at least once a year, and frequently three or four times. The Royal Show, The Smithfield Show, The Furniture Show, The Construction Exhibition... and so on. As you say, it's exhausting work during the show itself, but when you add in the set-up and the break-down...

It's no wonder that I'm a pale shadow of my former self.

But I bore it with fortitude.

And I never talk about it.