Kansas City

[David Andersen]

>
This was sent a few days ago by our friend Jurgen Goering; my reply  
is below.
Kent Swafford, Joe Garrett, Alan Gilreath: please read my reply--- 
it's strong, but honest and true for me---and tell me and us what the  
deal is; communication goes a LONG way to fight confusion and doubt.  
I hope we can pu this on the table and talk about it......
With respect,
David Andersen
Malibu, CA


> Piano Forte Supply will not be exhibiting at the National  
> Convention in
> Kansas City this year. The exhibit hall was sold out in 19 hrs,  
> about 4
> months before the event, and anyone who came later came too late.   
> I among
> others.  I am sorry for the many of you on this list who were  
> counting on
> visiting my booth.  Needless to say, I am also disappointed at not  
> being able
> to show all my new items.
>
> Responding to exhibitor complaints that not enough technicians were  
> making
> their way over to the exhibit hall in 2005, the decision was made  
> to move the
> exhibit closer to the main  convention activities.  However, the  
> only room
> available is 40% smaller than the hall previously used.  I haven't  
> yet fully
> understood how this can contribute to the biggest and best ever  
> 50th annual
> convention.
>
> Home office told me that 120 booths could have been sold, but the  
> exhibit
> hall only has room for about 70 booths. (The size of every booth  
> had to be
> reduced by 20% to accommodate even this small number.)  So, at over  
> $600 per
> booth, that amounts to a lost potential revenue of around $30,000  
> (!) for the
> convention.  I could imagine that with $30,000 a lot of enticements  
> could
> have been afforded to draw technicians across the way into the the  
> exhibit
> hall.  Let me see:  free food? how about caviar canapes, or perhaps  
> a $1,000
> door prize every hour of the exhibit?.... Maybe a grand piano as a  
> prize?
>
> I can't help but wonder if enough thought was given  to the drawing
> technicians to the large exhibit hall, instead of opting for the poor
> compromise of the smallest exhibit hall in years. (The breaks between
> sessions in '05 were far to short, for example) I don't know why  
> there always
> seems to be such a huge problem surrounding the exhibit hall in the  
> last few
> years.  I don't want to bring up past mistakes, but they were  
> surely made,
> and one important lesson doesn't seem to sink in: a good exhibit  
> hall is
> vital for the success of a convention - it draws technicians to  
> attend.  I
> cannot count the number of technicians who were full of  
> disappointment at the
> Rochester convention, saying to me that they would not have  
> attended if they
> had known there would be only one tool and parts supplier from whom to
> purchase. I know many will be disappointed with the exhibit hall  
> again this
> year.  It is a real pity.
>
> Oh, well, here's hoping for Burbank in 2008.  See you there!
> Jurgen Goering
> Piano Forte Supply
> www.pianofortesupply.com

Jurgen----Let's go outside the box and figure out a way you can be a  
presence there, with all your rockin' merchandise.
Email me privately.  It's just not right. I'm positive there are  
other small exhibitors we could work something out with vis a vis a  
suite or something. Let's do a little pushing and see if these guys  
can actually serve their members with some respect.

Why are we always making excuses for and bitching about the national  
convention leadership? Why isn't this, in every way, going to be the  
biggest and best? Who made the decision to----at the BIGGEST and BEST  
convention---
cut the exhibit space in half? It's breathtakingly short-sighted and  
disrespectful, in my opinion; especially after the miserable  
experience with tool-sellers in Rochester.  Do you leadership guys  
have a passive-agressive issue with us, the membership? Do you  
secretly want to alienate us and piss us off?

  I'm  teaching a total of 11 hours class time in KC; plus, at my own  
expense, I'm bringing some hi-def film equipment to interview some of  
our legendary elders before time runs out; my intention was to offer  
the film to the PTG Foundation for museum/archival purposes---and to  
use it for my own marketing purposes, naturally. The point is, I'm  
giving very freely of my time, energy, resources, and reputation to  
shine a light of excellence and positivity on our craft and our  
organization. Why do I feel so unmet, unseen, and underseved by the  
leadership of PTG? Really.
David Andersen
On Apr 16, 2007, at 12:06 AM, Jurgen Goering wrote:

>