Ventura show weekend thoughts?

[TRE Cup]

It was nice to see old friends, clients, and meet new ones- unfortunately the number of new people was pretty low
The organizers must have been pretty low on the $$ well to draw promo and organizational dollars from. Besides the video and excellence mag ad, was there any other ads anyone one knows about? The swap meet had some good deals here and there, was subscribed decently by sellers.
Vendors that we spoke to (including ourselves) were not happy with the turnout. It was worse than last year (which was a last minute save) . Saturday was a ghost town by early afternoon- the parking lot was empty.

Too bad, its a good venue for the fall, lots of space to do event related activities.

On the plus side; thanks go out to John Dilger, Mike Hammond, Chuck Miller, Lars Wikblad, and Mona for working on the Early S/ R gruppe social at the hotel= Very nice ! Sorry if i left anyone out- Tired from the long hours and being whipped by today's winds

[gsjohnson]

I bought the muffler from you on Sat. And thanks for the deal by the way. Don't get me started on my R Gruppe rant. It was not a pleasant experience. Certainly 3 years ago when I attended this event, it was huge...It is not helping that the PCA is now having their Santa Barbara Show the week after. I'm pretty busy and attending two weekend in a row get togethers is very difficult for me. So I would assume that we have lost attendees to this event. All in all, I had a great time. I loved the run from Woodland Hills to the Camarillo Airport for breakfast Saturday morning.

[BLAU 911]

Feels like maybe 1/3 of the people as a few years ago. What a shame to see the GAF wither from lack of interest and promotion.
Going to be mighty hard to justify charging money for nothing next year. Admission+parking=$17.00
Not even any tech seminars.

[Chris Tallon]

"Don't get me started on R Gruppe rant. It was not a pleasant experience."

What am I missing?

[Mr9146]

I loved the run from Woodland Hills to the Camarillo Airport for breakfast Saturday morning.

I hate to say it, but I think the Camarillo Airport WAS the show ... which is a true disappoitment as I really like the Ventura venue.

[NickP]

I agree wholeheartedly with all of Marco's comments. The reception at the hotel was the highlight of the weekend as far as I am concerned. I was a vendor, attempting to promote and sell about 40 vintage steering wheels and there just wasn't enough traffic.

A neighboring vendor said it best when he noted that it's not a good show (business wise) when your only visitors are people you already know.

Nick

[gwilliams]

IT WAS A BUST AT BEST IS THIS THE END OF THE VENTURA SHOW

[Eminence Gris]

Unfortunately, the show is unsustainable at the volume of attendees this year. Vendor count was down by more than 1/2 and I estimate attendees were off by 65-70%. The only area that performed close to last year was the swap.

You can blame it on the economy to some degree, but I don't think the show was well promoted or organized. Since business and marketing plans are my profession, I have plenty of ideas how the show could be improved, but at this point, it's probably too badly broken to recover.

Thankfully, I understand the February show will be expanded from last year and we should have at least one strong So Cal get together.

[Dan Byers]

Well from my viewpoint the show was a bust. I had not been the last 2 years and really was not prepared to see a ghost town. I was probably the norm in that I went only for a few hours and only bought some oil (thanks Dave!). I only went on Saturday but my impression is that Sunday was not any better even with the swap meet. There was very little promoting of the event that I saw and no real draw or "must see feature" for the turn out that I am sure the organizers and vendors would have liked to see.

The high point for me was spending some good driving time in my 71, sharing some pancakes with son and seeing some friends with my 5 year old in tow. Made my way back home picked up the wife and headed back for the reception. Saw lots of good friends and talked alot of BS. All of which could have happened with out the show.

[John Straub]

The Saturday night party was great...THANKS to all you that put it together!

I got some deals at the swap meet.

John