HOBART WWW Show

[reeves]

Justa few thoughts on Neils comments.

I was at the show before it opend on friday and there were poeple waiting to get in, demand seemed pretty good. I did not see the whole weekend but in Tassie with less population u r gonna get less people.

It would seem that having it on the same weekend as the Deloraine craft show would have limited some participants and visitors. Making sure it will not conflict with with other major events in the future will help make it a success.

One thing I did notice is that a lot of people aroun Hobart, in galleries , at the markets etc, people innvolved in woodcraft, had no idea it was on and had no idea that people like Richard Raffan were demonstrating. I could not go into the reaosns for this but it was obvious that on the ground level in Tasmania there was not a strong awareness of the event in the community.

I think particpants expectations wre formed by the mainland shows and that a Hobart show by its nature will have different dynamics and outcomes.

I think there would need to be

- greater advertising and promotion of the event on the gorund in tasmania
- greater invited participation from tassie based people, companies and organisations
- reduced fees for mainland stall holders to help with costs and getting level
-greater co-ordination of resources, asi some people from WA and NSW had brought a fair bit of wood to tasmania to sell, this is great but there is heaps of wood available in tassie and i doubt whether they sold much of non tasie stuff it all wodd avilability is good.
- Prices of wood, if the event is to become a place where people get a strong supply of fine timbers i think the pricing could be more competative to encourage this, more market like, more haggling, more bidding for price etc.

I think that if they had someone form the local wood community in Tassie working on it before hand ( dont knowif they didnt) then it may increase participation.

What i really enjoyed was the demonstratiosn and seminars, tho i think it better to have less going simultaneously and more co-ordination in terms of them being really useful.

More of a community feel, in terms of meeting, sharing and innvolving in all things wood.

I hope i can amke it next year

cheeeeeeeeers

[TassieKiwi]

Neil

Another clash was that there was a public holiday for the NW coast, which may have robbed you of potential visitors- traditionally the 'first' summer long weekend, maybe everyone was at the beach. It was the ONLY reason that I didn't attend. I promise to come next year, and bring all my friends!

[Neil]

One thing that was commented on is that many people who attended thought it was only demonstrations etc and were for some reason under the impression you couldn't buy things. A definite advertising problem.

Everywhere you went in Tasmania there were large banners proclaiming the Deloraine Weekend, even outside the venue for the WWWShow and until the Thursday there was only 1 sign for the WWW Show which was at the venue and easily missed. A promotional problem.

Many of those who attended were there for an outing and had little or no interest in woodwork. Bad targeting of advertising.

We personally found that a lot of the people we demonstrated to were very parochial and wouldn't buy from us, saying they would get it from a distributor. It seems the ones who did the best at the show were either locals or had a product that wasn't readily available in Tas. (It costs many thousands of dollars to do one of these shows, especially if you come from the mainland to Tas. Lack of support for exhibitors won't encourage them to come back again.)

One exhibitor who regularly sells 40-50 units at a local monthly market had only sold 14 by the end of the weekend. His comment was that next year he would give the WWW Show organizers $2,000 and stay home, that way he would save over $5,000. We watched as he worked his guts out talking to every person who passed by his stand. He went from bright and cheery at the start of the show to downcast and despondent by Saturday night. On Sunday it was a real drag for him and even feeding him red lollies didn't help in any way. I understand his sentiments.

Cheers - Neil

PS As I said earlier, we did better than anticipated, we would have loved to have done more and at least cover our costs, but never really thought we would. All in all we were happy with our preformance at the show, but disapointed that it was so poorely attended.

[Stephen H]

I visited the Hobart show on the Friday (thinking I'd be able to avoid the crowds, but sounds like that wasn't a problem).

Never having been to such a show, but I did have some expectations. I wasn't anticipating seeing wood (plenty of that down here) rather I wanted to see all the nice toys we see in the catalogues but don't get a chance to see in real life. As for myself, I went hoping to compare and buy a table saw but aside from the Jets there didn't appear to be any others (at least none for the home user). So my money stayed in my pocket.

If I recall, I think the jig sellers etc were very popular - I certainly slathered over some of them (the jigs - not the sellers ).

I found those who used amplifiers to be a bit off-putting - but understand the reason.

[Stephen H]

Oh, while I'm thinking about it, if I were advertising it for an audience that doesn't see this kind of show very often, I think I'd promote not simply that there is a show, but the types of businesses who will be there, and the amazing demos, jigs, tools, machinery etc (ie the woodworking worlds' equivalent of circus advertising - "come and see the amazing bearded lady / amazing all-in-one dovetail, dowelling, coffee making band saw" etc)

Also, it might be a good marketing idea if the bigger businesses sent out a show catalogue to the Tasmanian residents on their mailing lists a couple of weeks before. The catalogues would show the special prices etc and give people time to figure out what they want to get.

Anyway, my 2c worth.