Re: [AGA-mcm] Re: AGA convention 2K5

["S. Hieber" <shieber@yahoo.com>]

Some of the vendors reps got called in at the "last minute"
and weren't too happy about missing whatever elese they had
lined up. Not so hot having disgruntled reps in the vendor
room. We've got a great person, Phil Edwards,  maintaining
contacts with vendors -- the long-term relationships really
make a diff with those folks. Whoever is onthe team dealing
with vendors should be in close contact with Phil. That
would lend a lot of the background and help coordinate
efforts.

Vendors are hit up for TAG ads and for contest prizes and
convention sponsorship and convention donations. It's best
not to hit the same folks separately for diff things.

I think SF is one of the two best towns I ever lived in.
But it's easy to undrestimate the work involved in
marketing effectively. Even the best-loved products have
well-planned advertizing campaigns. You'd think a thing
like, say, beer would sell itself but. . . 

sh

> > It's not a hard place to sell or promote.
> 
> Some words of caution:
> 
> The problem is that a convention like this can't really
> be held in a 
> vaccuum, without support of vendors (who are often
> booking out their time 
> a year or more in advance), speakers, and even the
> non-local attendees 
> (some also planning their vacation 6 months or more in
> advance).
> 
> Even though the Bay Area is a great draw, there is
> already one strike 
> against anywhere on the west coast, which is that most
> aquarists are 
> concentrated on the opposite coast.  The American Cichlid
> Association last 
> had its annual convention in San Jose back in 1995, and
> it was one of the 
> worst attendances ever.  Good show, but not the highest
> attendance (and I 
> think it lost money).  Yeah, plant folks different from
> cichlid folks, and 
> there isn't the same heavily reliance on boxes of fish
> driven in for the 
> auctions, but just worth thinking about.  Personally, I
> think that lower 
> national support can be overcome with heavy PR locally,
> making the locals 
> WANT to come.
> 
> I would recommend you guys have a talk with Scott or me
> or any of the 
> others who worked DC at some point about lessons from
> that convention... 
> it too should have been a "shoo-in", between being "The
> Capitol", the huge 
> amount of interested regional membership, and having
> Amano *and* Jan as 
> speakers. It was not a hard place to sell or promote
> either (once the 
> hotel deal was worked out).  But it definitely could not
> promote itself. 
> It needed a plan of attack for promotion, a good
> coordinator, and 
> follow-through during the entire year, and sadly none of
> this occurred. 
> Vendors were asked for support too close to the actual
> convention.  Local 
> clubs (other than the plant club) weren't brought in, and
> felt slighted. 
> It was a good convention for those who were there, but an
> incredible 
> strain on all involved, and took a lot of damage control
> with the 
> vendors... it could have been so much better.

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