What if you only want to attend the show one day, does one have to still spend 10 bucks? I can't see spending 10 dollars for one day. What can you possibly see in 3 days that you can't see in one day? The venders/exhibitors should be the only ones that should pay. Why should us woodworkers pay - to spend our own money? We are paying for their advertising/space, not them. To begin with, the vendors have there advertising costs already built into the cost of their product before they ever get to the show/s. My 2 cents worth.
IIRC it used to be $10 per day per person. Now you can bring a spouse for free on 1 day. IMHO the parking fees should be removed. Also IMHO having all the vendors showing their products in 1 place is well worth the expense of getting into the show. Beats the heck out of spending a few day driving all over town to see each product individually.
Agreed--it's entertainment so I compare it a movie that costs $8 a ticket, plus the obligatory popcorn and cola. Often these shows are held in a private hall that makes its revenue from parking and concessions, so I don't begrudge them that. Besides, where else can you go for 4 hours of fun at those prices? Especially if you don't go to spend money but to hit the free seminars, demos and product showings. Buying clamps is discretionary, but fingering a Felder is just fun.
If they hall didn't charge for parking and the show didn't charge addmission, there wouldn't be any show. In my real life I have a long history of exhbiting and hosting events like this and trust me, nobody is getting rich on this.
As long as we are willing to pay, they will keep having the shows. I went to my local version and was mostly dissapointed, I was hoping for more commercial grade stuff. Anyway, even though dissapointed, I think I'll lilely go to the next one. Cost me about the same as two copies of FWW mag, and probably got about as much from it.
I tend to go just to see the new stuff. The cost is the least important part of my decision to go. The prices are usually better on terminal supplies and I generally spend more that I should anyway. Sometimes the heavy stuff is priced to sell as well.
At least one benefit of it is that it keeps away the people that shouldn't be there. This was a problem with Comdex (computer show) in Vegas - it was much too easy to find free tickets and any joe schmoe got in there and clogged up the aisles for those who really were in the trade.
I pass on woodworking shows. It was just too expensive to look at vendor displays. It had a $8 admission, $7 for parking, 85 miles round trip driving, plus I'd have to take a vacation day. I do enjoy the free local craft and arts street fairs, where you get to watch some woodworkers in action.
I spoke to my local Rockler manager about a week ago and the topic of the woodworking show came up. She told me that they made a grand total of something like $40 at the last show. So, as someone else mentioned, nobody's getting rich.
By the way, for those attending the Chicago show, there are a couple of changes for this year. First, it's being held Feb 4-6, instead of in April. It's also moving from the Odeum in Villa Park to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center (formerly the Rosemont Convention Center). That doesn't bode well for me, since I lived close to Villa Park and would just have the little woman drop me off and pick me up again. I hate paying for parking, and the $10-15 it's going to cost to park in Rosemont might get me to stay home.
If you have ever worked trade shows you will quickly learn the worst show in the world is the one with free admission. Every jerk, bum and weirdo with nothing to do attends a show like this. I can remember the first, last and only free boat show I worked at. The standard reply to a sales picth was:" Those are really nice but I don't even have a boat." The admission fee not only helps the promoter make a living but qualifies most of the attendees. Leigh @ MarMachine
I am looking to purchase an Incra setup in the near future. Anyone know if they discount their product at the show? It's not a short trip for me to get to one but this would certainly make it more worth my while.
They can only hope that people saw what they had to offer and will patronize them during the years.
Exhibitors pay to exhibit at the shows and often have hefty expenses for lodging, shipping displays, etc. If they need electrical hookups other than for a light, they pay extra, possibly hundreds of dollars.
Some have product to sell at the show and I did get a good deal on the Ridge Carbide 40T blade and the 8" dado. If what you are interested in is exhibited, it is a good opportunity to see brand X and then see brand Y and go back to compare brand X again and not have to drive across town. Last year, there were no Delta or Jet saws that I saw.
There are discount coupons available in many cases. Figure 48 each to get in, $5 for parking. breakfast on the way, lunch/dinner on the way home, and a stop at the mall so your wife can buy something because you just spent $400 on new toys.
Will I go this year? If the sun is shining, too cold to work in the shop and nothing else pressing.
Not a good place to pick up chicks though, but if you are into middle aged balding guys with a gut, this is the place to be!
Hurl! You had to go and throw that last line in there, didn't ya? Well, on second thought, we do seem to have attracted a new poster from the softer side of life, so maybe Glenna will find that meaningful...
It's been a couple of year since "The Woodworking Show" was in Buffalo. The last time the show was help the major tool vendors decided the show wasn't promoted enough in the area and boycotted the thing and held their own show on the same days at one of the local tool distributor's location. "The Woodworking Show" hasn't been back since.
-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)
LOL!!! So you've been watching my bathroom scale creep up over the last
20+ years! Softer, indeed.
Actually, I would enjoy it somewhat, as I would enjoy a heavy equipment exhibition (used to want to go to the one in Las Vegas). When I first started building cabinets (1978-ish), guys just didn't take us gals seriously. When I was remodeling my kitchen, I was buying the standards (steel strips) for the cabinets when the guy at the lumber store realized
*I* was the one doing the work. He thought it was my husband even though he never saw my husband. Geez. I met very few other ladies who did any woodworking, but they were around. I mention the heavy equipment because when I first started working in a construction office, men just didn't want to talk to "a woman." My first two long-term (for construction) jobs were working for men who realized how beneficial the attention to detail a woman (not necessarily all women!) can bring to the job. No one talked to the boss without talking to me first, both of them would just give the phone back to me if someone got through to them without talking to me; some men were quite offended but it surely helped pave the way for females who came after.
It's not at all unusual now for men to fully accept women in construction related activities which was *not* the case 20 and 30 years ago. All of this said because some of us get quite a kick out of attending something like that and knowing what is going on (at least in some areas) and seeing some ol' timer eat crow after trying to make us look dumb in front of his buddies. (Yes, I do admit to baiting a particularly disagreeable individual from time to time.) Last spring, I dragged a friend to the Toyota dealer to look at the Prius and test drive it. When the salesman was done making his pitch (giving out misinformation quite plentifully), after the drive, he asked me (thinking I was the "little woman") what I thought of the car. LOL - When I got done with about half a dozen sentences, he said, "You know more about this car than I do, you ought to be selling them." I told him to never, never underestimate his customers, male or female, that it was best to not be condescending and to be aware that women do, indeed, control a great deal of buying power in our country. It's usually the young ones, or the real old-timers, that are like that. My boss who died in 2000, was like that the first few months I worked for him. When he died, his daughter told me, "You are the only woman my dad ever respected," which was a major compliment for an old-time general contractor (though it took years for him to accept me as an equal). He used to delight in attending construction meetings and turning to me when he was asked a question, just to see the expression on the questioner's face when I answered. There's an art to remaining feminine in what is primarily a man's world and not develop a hard edge.
Come to think of it, a lot of those contractors are balding middle-aged guys with guts. LOL
But, no, thank you, not interested except for possibly amusement by asking questions and see what kinds of answers they give, and their attitude towards "the little lady" asking. I'm not an equipment operator, but I could do an earth take-off as well as bombarding the engineers asking for details omitted from the drawings and asking exactly where the 10" sewer pipe does connect to what catchbasin, and where is that elevation anyway. (They love that when it comes from a woman! Not.) I truly enjoy working with wood, but my knowledge is limited (just learned what I needed for the project at hand), a finish carpenter I am not, strictly utility woodworking, for now but someday . . .
Then when I have my yard and house the way I want it, I'll meet Mr. Wonderful and move to Australia for the rest of our days (as if I could "change" to live with another person at this stage of life). I've already had the love-of-my-life (twice) so the shows wouldn't be a meeting place. 'Sides, grocery stores are better for guys to meet gals, my ex met all of his girlfriends at grocery stores. LOL
Seriously, it's nice to see there are other ladies reading the group (and posting sometimes as well). Like digital video, they are there, they just aren't as visible.
After seeing that absolutely beautiful jewelry box one poster made his daughter, I think perhaps by the time my granddaughters are old enough to appreciate something like that, I will have the skill to make one a bit less grand. My first future high-quality project will be a cedar chest for my youngest granddaughter, hopefully with her name and birthdate inlaid on the top. But that's a long way off and many questions away (and sandwiched in between all of my other interests).
Glenna totally fascinated with many of the projects by this group (and, darn, it's tooooo cold to work in the garage this week!)
You should come to Long Island. We have a handfull of female woodworkers in the club, but I'd always like to see more. There's a group of us that have taken restoration classes at FIT in NYC. May of the classes have more women than men in them. The ladies are all ranges of skills, but there are some that are serious craftsmen (sorry, just don't know another word for it.). I think in fine woodworking its more of one's ability to develope hand eye skills than one's bruit force. Granded when it's time to pick up a 4x8 sheet of 3/4" MDF, the bruit force helps, hahahaha.
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