Re: Re: UKHA2003 - key learnings?

[Tony Butler <lists@xxxxxxx>]

> plan ahead...surely most of us can.  We had the date set 5 or 6 months
in
> advance.  If it was a friends wedding or something it would just go in
your
> diary and you'd be there.

In fairness though, you can't really expect that many people to commit to
an
event when they have little or no idea of what might or might not be there.
Sure, there are a core of people who will go to anything and/or who have
been
before and know what to expect, but there a lot of others who won't.
I know you were adding things on the day etc, but the list that was on the
website did not appear until farily near the event, and the schedule of
what
was on when was only published a day or two beforehand, and that IMO, makes
it
difficult for ppl to decide to go.
As you have said, this is not the ideal homes exhibition, and getting
companies
to come and demo is difficult, (though hopefully less so each year), but
equally, it is not just a few blokes down the pub....

Certainly this year I think the difficulty has been that it outgrew it's
pub
roots where a handful of people was enough to pay for a room and so what if
nobody turned up, but it is not yet at the level where you have companies
falling over each other to exhibit at it.

Perhaps looking to next year, you can try to get early commitment from some
of
the companies there this year and the whole thing can be
"marketed" more
effectively.  As someone said in another thread, do not underestimate the
number of visitors to automated homw who are not on the mailing list. 
Several
times, I went to the site looking for the demo lists etc and had to search
for
the event to find the relevant articles.
As a new visitor to the site, if I didn't know it was on, then I would
probably
never have found details of the meeting.
IMO it really needs to have a prominent position on the site at least 3
months
prior to the event and right up to the end of the event, to maximise the no
of
ppl who might decide to turn up on the day.

> Here's the thing.  12 weeks away from the event Graham still didn't
have
> enough money in to cover anywhere near its costs.  This was entering
the
> period where you have to pay proportionally the nearer you cancel.

Hopefully, with the spare cash from this yeah, and you being pretty much
guaranteed to get say, 50 people each day, you should be able to cover the
cost
of larger premises for next year.
You could also look at maybe a small charge for having a stand, or trying
to
get one or two companies to sponsor it.
It's still at the level I think here the losses if it all went titsup.com
would
be small enough that, say, Laser or LA or Simply would underwrite the risk
because they would get a lot of exposure for not a lot of money - UKHA2004,
sponsored by Laser.com or whatever.

I know a lot of effort went into the weekend, and it was thoroughly
enjoyable
and I am grateful for it - please don't see this as a slagginng off of the
event (it's not), just an attempt to offer suggestions for improvement next
year.  Mark, maybe you are just too close to the whole thing,  (as
godfather of
UKHA then of course you would be!) to be able step back and see why ppl
might
be reluctant to commit early - when of course we all know that anyone in
their
right mind would jump at the chance to go to an event like this!

I'll crawl back under my rock now.....

Tony