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Originally Posted by RawAlex
Okay, here's my take... and I have seen both sides of the story:
Sponsors seem to forget that show attendance is what they are buying. The chance to meet webmasters that you might not otherwise reach, and get them to send traffic / trade traffic / exit links / do whatever business it is that you do. Without attendance, things really suck.
Without the RIGHT attendance, thing really suck. The last year I helped Fay run Adultdex, the attendance in Vegas wasn't very high, but we had a good group of people and business got done. It happened because we could offer a hotel at a decent price, and even with the last comdex running, vegas wasn't that expensive overall and not that crowded.
If you are going to do a big show, you need to get the biggest attendance, you have to make it worth the effort for people from all over the world to make the trip. AVN has proven conclusively that not enough people really want to go to sweaty Florida in August, and now they are starting to see that not as many people want to fight the crowds and spend the major bling to wrestle a hotel room away from a CES attendee.
Until the "winter" show moves from January, you cannot look at fixing the date of the "summer" show. Nobody wants to do two shows in a couple of months, not enough of the "general webmaster crowd" has the cashish to pay for a major hotel and airfare back to back (especially with the long reserve ahead times that these shows are starting to require). If you move the winter show to March (example) then you could easily move the "summer" show to the fall, say, first week of October? I think plenty of the northern types would be more than happy to shuffle off to florida (or similar sunny climes) for a show in October, and Vegas is a much more enjoyable place in March compared to January... airfares are cheap, hotels are plentiful, and no major holiday period is infringed on (don't do it at easter, that's all).
Back to the point. If AVN doesn't work their shows to bring people in the door, then the companies paying for the booths, the sponsorships, and the attention at the shows won't be seen, and the value of that booth or sponsorship drops in their mind. As companies shy away from having that booth, the show floor continues to drop. As the show floor drops, the value of the show badge drops, and AVN's income fades.
Fix the problem of how hard (and expensive) it is to attend the show, and the rest follows in line.
Alex
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