Our Industry Trade show open to the public? Don't think that would be a good idea. The SBE is a great place for cue and case dealers to deal direct with the public. That is the majority of the vendors there. The SBE is for the Players and BCA is for the business owner. I am a former poolroom owner of 13 years and still a fulltime pool table mechanic. A couple of years ago I became partners in a Billiards and Gameroom store. I would also like to see more billiard related items at the show, but the gameroom themed items which can be sold with pool tables is logical to me. I think if the BCA needs changes then let's come up with some ideas and present them to the powers that be.
Mr. O'Donnell,
With all due respect the industry trade show as it currently exists may be great for you as a visitor but it's terrible for the exhibitors.
It is no coincidence that even the largest exhibitors have cut their display space in half. At the same time that they were allowing changes that destroyed the show's and in my opinion, the industry's integrity, they also realized a simple economic truth, less buyers equals less revenue equals less ability to incur expenses.
When you as an exhibitor have to spend upwards of $50,000 to attend a show and have to compete with a lot of domestic and foreign competition for a much lower amount of qualified buyers in a shorter span of time then the end result is that each exhibitor ends up with less. Some exhibitors don't even get to SEE most of the people that do attend because the show hours are so short that the buyers are spending most of the time they have dealing with the companies that they have always dealt with.
As for the related items that can be sold next to pool tables, I am in favor of those things, posters, bars, gameroom furniture (except poker tables), etc... I am NOT in favor of allowing the sale or promotion of ANY OTHER activity that competes with billiards.
Where is the sense of allowing poker related items to be sold at the BILLIARD Congress of America's trade show. Last year or the year before someone was selling a poker video game that allowed two players to play heads up poker and it seemed as if the seller was doing very well.
It doesn't take a math genius to figure out that the more dollars that flow into the poker machine are less that goes into billiards.
I don't know, maybe I am wrong about this but do you think it would be wise for a travel industry organization to allow a lot of videoconferencing companies to come in and exhibit at the travel industry trade show?
The fact of the matter is that the show used to be in June/July and it was perfect there. The pool rooms and billiard supply places were in their slow season and could make time to attend, the cuemakers could build more cues after the SBE and have stock for the BCA Expo, foreign buyers didn't have two shows back to back with the SBE and the BCA Expo. The BCA expo didn't conflict with major event which allowed for professional player attendance.
The result was that we had more exhibitors and more attractions for visitors and those visitors weren't leaving their stores in the busy time.
But the largest exhibitors complained that they wanted the show to be earlier in order to facilitate their manufacturing, mostly their overseas manufacturing to accommodate the orders that they received at the show.
So just like that the show was moved to April and it
wiped out a 50 booth block of domestic cue makers. Bad for them great for the big exhibitors with less competition for their cue brands.
Just like the visitor attendance dropped off sharply.
The members of the BCA VOTED overwhelmingly to have the show MOVED back to June/July. The largest exhibitors then threatened to pull out of the show and just like that the inmates took over the asylum.
The BCA
MEMBER vote was disregarded in favor of tailoring the trade show to fit the largest exhibitors and what has been the end result?
The largest exhibitors have cut their booths in half, overall booth sales are down, and the good old boys control the show - they get the prime spots, work to keep any opposition off the board of directors, and of course in this situation of less visitors they still get the lion's share of the business.
Instead of seeking to grow a larger pie they have elected to shrink it and do whatever it takes to protect their slices.
If by contrast a show like the Super Billiards Expo were the main industry show then the INDUSTRY would benefit by the vendors getting a firsthand taste of how their products are received by consumers. Prospective dealers could witness the popularity and put their orders in.
Case in point: At the SBE we sold out of one of our lines of cases. We sold a lot to consumers - I say we sold at least 1-2 every 15 minutes that the show was open on average. As a result the dealers that were there saw how the cases were received and we sold out the remaining stock to dealers and took more dealer orders on top of it. We did MORE dealer business at the SBE last week with these cases than we have done in the past TWO YEARS at the BCA Expo.
I am just throwing it out there. Because the current situation is broken.
