To show organisers

showcrop

Well-known Member
I was at a show/pull yesterday and went to look at exhibits around 1:30. Many had left, others were packing. This has come up here many times. I recalled when the kids were showing in 4H that there were usually limits on how early you left. If you left early you forfeited premiums. I suggested to the organizer that he give attendees, as they enter, a ballot to vote for their favorite exhibitor. The ballots would be deposited at an appointed place, then tallied at the time that appears to work best. There would be a worthwhile prize, $200 - $500 for the winner, that would be awarded at an appropriate time, probably around four PM. Every exhibitor would have to decide weather or not to try for it based on their own situation, but I expect that it could help a lot to retain exhibitors which would help a lot to keep Sunday attendees coming back, which would help the viability of the show significantly.
 
A lot of the best shows we do tell you up front that they will not let you in to load out till a certain time, sometimes if there are a lot of people still in the show they keep gates closed till most are gone. safety is the main reason and it is only fair if someone is paying to get in a show that they can see all of the show.
 
A number of the farm toy shows I've been involved in have a rule that if you leave before the posted closing time, you won't be allowed to come back the next year.

That works sometimes.

Stan
 
Part of it depends on other factors though.

We met a couple at a show who bring their tractor and some other machines every year... but they live about a 6 hour drive away. I"d rather see them leave at noon, that not come at all.

My husband would also be one to leave early afternoon because on Monday morning we get up at 4:20 a.m. for him to head to work (you can change that to 3:20 a.m. if he happens to be working over-time).
 
That's just it. Lot of folks have to travel a great distance to show stuff then work Monday morning. I can't blame them for leaving in time to get back early enough to get a good nights sleep.

This topic comes up from time to time. If I were showing something and I was to be penalized because I needed to leave early I just wouldn't show. Fact is, get me mad enough and I'd take whatever I was showing and destroy it before I got rid of it. I'm willing to do the work and pay for a restoration. I'm willing at my expense to share my whatever. And you are going to dictate when I can leave, threaten me or penalize me? I'd take a super rare tractor to the crusher. I figure if you can't see that I have a life other than an old tractor, you know, a family, a job, maybe a farm or business that supports and pays me some I can do things like shows then I don't need to share anything with you. Now you want the local club to start paying me to be there and I'll stay the required hours. But then expect them to raise the cost of admission to cover paying me.

Sorry for the rant.

Rick
 
JMS/.MN,

LOL! I'll have to ask him - that's a good one. Will wait until the weekend though... don't think he will see the humor in it tonight - they are working nearly 12 hours days, plus 10 on Saturdays. Heck of a schedule for a guy in his 50's.
 
How about just scheduling the show until 1 or so on Sunday? Or do like an annual old car swap meet does here- admission is free on Sunday, but they warn that many exhibitors leave early, so you takes your chances on Sunday.

For that matter, why does everybody have to have shows for 2 days, anyhow? I'd be much more likely to participate if I was only wasting one weekend day instead of both. Annual hot rod show here is scheduled for 2 days. Everyone leaves the fairgrounds on Saturday night, many for their motel room, many heading for home. Sunday is a much smaller show, but still big enough to make a showing.
 
(quoted from post at 08:33:55 07/29/13) JMS/.MN,

LOL! I'll have to ask him - that's a good one. Will wait until the weekend though... don't think he will see the humor in it tonight - they are working nearly 12 hours days, plus 10 on Saturdays. Heck of a schedule for a guy in his 50's.


LOL, find a younger man! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Rick
 
Most exhibitors hate shows with alot of rules,just come on Saturday to get to see everything.I went to a 3 day show this past weekend it was about 100 miles from my farm so I went for one day Saturday loaded up and came home Sat night I'm not going to spend the night or go back on Sunday so some clown that has
no exhibits and hasn't put out any effort can see things when he wants to.
 

You seem to have already known that would be the case. It was up to you to get there in time to "see it all".
As for me I am tickled to death to get what chance I have to see whatever little I can when I can.
 
(quoted from post at 05:27:00 07/29/13) I was at a show/pull yesterday and went to look at exhibits around 1:30. Many had left, others were packing. This has come up here many times. I recalled when the kids were showing in 4H that there were usually limits on how early you left. If you left early you forfeited premiums. I suggested to the organizer that he give attendees, as they enter, a ballot to vote for their favorite exhibitor. The ballots would be deposited at an appointed place, then tallied at the time that appears to work best. There would be a worthwhile prize, $200 - $500 for the winner, that would be awarded at an appropriate time, probably around four PM. Every exhibitor would have to decide weather or not to try for it based on their own situation, but I expect that it could help a lot to retain exhibitors which would help a lot to keep Sunday attendees coming back, which would help the viability of the show significantly.

The shows I go to generally start thinning out about 2 oclock (both exhibitors and attendees). When the exhibitors are volunteers and coming to the show at their own expense it's hard to place any demands on them. I stay as long as there is a good amount of people coming by.
 
Another thing that would help. Is to advertise the show. Stopped by a show when I was on the road. Very few people were there. Turned out that just about the only ones that knew of the show. Were the vendors.Even some of the locals didn't know about.
 
As Stan in Florida mentioned- That's the way it 'became' when I was doing gun shows. Some places were 5 to park, 8 to get in, everyone coming in after noontime Sunday just wasn't getting their money's worth. So, the promoters came up with the same rule, and no vendor wanted to be barred.
I went to a pull a couple years ago, watched some one with a tractor just like one of mine, take it off the trailer, get in line, do the pull, then drove straight up the trailer ramps again. And leave. Must have been a grudge thing, but admission buying people did pay to see tractors....
And yes, there is a safety issue when hauling tandem trailers down rows of pedestrians. So depends on the layout to allow early leavers at all.
 
(quoted from post at 13:24:28 07/29/13) Another thing that would help. Is to advertise the show. Stopped by a show when I was on the road. Very few people were there. Turned out that just about the only ones that knew of the show. Were the vendors.Even some of the locals didn't know about.

That's true around here too. Some of the shows are stealth shows unless you are in the loop with the local tractor crowd. I know when I first got into it I always heard about how good a show was last week. I don't know why the the organizers don't post notices on this and other tractor sites and get the word out better.
 
You simply cannot hold the people who bring items to a show entirely on their dime, and therefore help to make that show worth seeing, hostage at that show. If you padlock the exhibitor gate until 4-5pm Sunday and let nobody remove their exhibits, you will have considerably fewer exhibitors at the next show. If you tell the exhibitors this beforehand, you'll have fewer exhibitors for that show.

Even vendors don't want to be forced to hang around if they have a wonderful weekend and don't have alot of their load left or a miserable weekend and not much of anything is moving. When they want to leave, they want to leave, too.

A bonus to entice exhibitors to stay, such as you suggest, would likely have a positive result as far as more exhibitors hanging around. Some might be offended too, as they might see it as a bribe to keep exhibitiors around when they are willing to hang around simply because they want to. Maybe a compromise would be better: a few small prizes/certificates [5 at $25 each, for example] are drawn at random from all exhibitors who, along with their exhibits, are present and accounted for at 1pm +/- an hour or so Sunday that are only good towards the purchase of items from vendors, including food, who are still at the show, with the show organizers footing the bill.

From what I've seen, exhibitors at smaller, local shows don't clear out nearly as early as larger regional or national shows. People that come from longer distances have a longer trip to return home. Some people farm/work/etc., and simply can't spend an entire weekend at a show, even they would really like to.

AG
 
At our three day show (Fri, Sat, Sun) we don't have any restrictions on how long an exhibitor can stay. A few exibitors come to see the show for the day and they bring a tractor along with them. Some exibitors who live a distance away have to leave on Saturday evening so they can be home by Sunday night and at work Monday morning. A few leaving on Saturday eve or Sunday morning actually helps reduce the mayhem when the show gets over on Sunday. Jim
 
Simple solution - if the show ends at 4:00 just change it to 6:00.

Everyone will scoot out "early" at 4:00 and nobody's the wiser. :)


Though I do think your idea is a good one. We do plenty of 4h shows with time restrictions. I wouldn't mind some kind of incentive for voluntarily staying to the end.

Describe the prize that way, as an incentive to get people to stay the full time, and it'll help everyone understand that it's important to stick around.

Much better than a mandate stating "you HAVE to stay, or else".
 
After reading all the posts I reallize that like a lot of bussinesses now-a-days , everyone seems to forget who the "customer" is. Without a "gate" revenue and the "customers" comming in and spending money , there is no show. Ever stop to think that the "customer" has a 6 day job and family and has to get up early also? You accuse one of being "late" because his job/schedule prohibits him from attending the show until Sunday. Bottom line is this, the end user ( customer) pays for everything. Without his dollars there will be no show. They take his money, he should see what anyone else paying the money at anytime during the show sees. Again, who is the customer here? I really do see the other side and have been there , done that. If I can't commit to leave my tractor there for the whole show then I won't take it. At the end of the day, the show/exhibiters don't set the rules , the customer does. He has the money and the show needs it. So go ahead and blame the customer for showing up late. How mny can you afford to lose??
 
There is a realy nice show every spring in Columbia sc. The
times are 10-5. The organizer does a good job with it, he
works on it year round. He gets really good raffle prizes, and
cash, some worth up to $200. At 445 he starts drawing exhibit
numbers and you have to be present to win. Almost everybody
is still there. If it wasn't for that everyone would be gone at
2:00
 
You got it wrong the 'customer' at shows are the exhibitors that haul their exhibits for FREE for everyone to see.I spend $100 in fuel to take a tractor to a show and people that pay to come into the show pay $5 they are going to have to be there when it suits me.
 
It all starts at the gate, whether it's the exhibitor's entrance or the visitor's entrance. The show needs to be friendly and accommodating to the exhibitors so they will want to stay for the duration. The show needs to have people available to help the exhibitor find his spot and possibly help unload his machinery. If the exhibitors are in a friendly, helpful environment while they exhibit they will be friendly to the show visitors who walk by their exhibit. If the gate fee paying visitors are given a smile when they cross the gate they will be in a good mood for the exhibitors.

I was the one who lined up the tractors at our show for maybe ten years. I was there for them all day and night for two or three days before the show. When someone came in with a tractor on a trailer I'd have a good comment about their tractor. It might have been a rusted pile of junk that barely ran but I'd say to him "my neighbor used to have one of those. It served him well for many years" and that made him smile and start talking about his tractor. If I'd be riding around the show on my cart and see him I'd give him a smile. I could almost guarantee he'd be back next year and during that year he'd be saying good things about our show to others.

Phew, got long winded there, but to sum it up, the show organizers can decide whether or not they want a friendly environment for the exhibitor. And that determines how long the exhibitor wants to stay. Now I've said it several times. Jim
 
(quoted from post at 10:58:02 07/29/13) If I were showing something and I was to be penalized because I needed to leave early I just wouldn't show.
You have a good point here Rick.
I made three round trips hauling tractors to our local show this year.
And three round trips to get them back home.
I had to touch up paint on two of them from the kids climbing on them.
I don't mind the kids climbing on mine, they are free to do so, but
it is an added expense that I don't "have" to put myself through.
Our show runs Friday through Sunday. I take my tractors down
Thursday night and don't leave until Sunday afternoon, but I do
have to work on Monday so it gets to be a long weekend!
Most of the vendors are gone way before I am and I'm not
making any money off this, in fact, I'm spending quite a bit!
Of course that's my choice, but I would choose otherwise if
I was told what hours I had to be there and on what days.
 
i can see both sides of the issue but you cant hold people at the show on sunday some of these guys have many many miles to run to get home and maybe someplace they have to be on monday it might be possible to extend the hours sat nite so people who work the weekend can visit the show, also depending on who you know with one, having a rollback truck or a rotating boom truck handy to aid in loading/unloading is really nice
 
Show content is not my problem.

It's my time to hook up and load. It's my fuel that's burned to haul to the show. It's my $10 entry fee for the "privilege" of displaying my tractor.

How is it fair to me to spend all that time and money, then be told when I can and can't leave? Especially, if I have a perfectly legitimate reason to do so?
 

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