I'm not sure how long NAMES has been around, but I grew up west of Detroit in Livonia and way back when in the 70's my Dad, a retired machine shop teacher, took me to a model show that was very much like the NAMES show. But I could have sworn that it was in Farmington Hills or some other place on the north or northwest side of Detroit. Perhaps it was the Detroit Light Guard Armory on 8 mile. I should ask him where we went, as he probably still remembers.
The idea of having a model show on plywood over ice seems like a really bad idea. Southgate on Ice would probably be my last choice for a modeling show location. There is a lot of empty space (factories, large ex:retail store locations ) in and around Detroit without having to resorting to using an ice arena! Geez.... Dave Jon Elson wrote: > Dave wrote: > >> Any idea why they moved it to Southgate? I thought the Seagate center >> was pretty nice. >> >> > There have been warring parties within the NAMES leadership for a number > of years. > The only reason they moved to Toledo was that Barbara and Truman > Parkinson got in > charge of selecting a venue, and I think they sprung the Toledo thing on > the rest of > the leadership as a done deal, with a several year contract. The > Parkinsons live East of Toledo, > so it was a great thing for them. The rest of the leadership is from > the Detroit area, very > hooked in with the auto industry. I also heard (from Barb) that Toledo > gave them a deal that > was too good to pass up. Anyone who went to the 2006 NAMES knows that > Toledo was > ABSOLUTELY DEAD that year. It was just eerie to walk out on the streets > during the day and > there were NO, ZERO people out. I was glad to see this had REALLY > changed this last year, > there were all sorts of night spots open, etc. A lot of the perks the > hotels were giving away in the first > years have gone away, too. My guess is part of it was the Seagate was > asking for a lot more money > for next year. > > > My first visit to NAMES (2001?) it was in the Yack arena, which was > literally a Quonset hut that > looked like it was used to store feedbags the rest of the year. They > packed 1000+ people into > the area of a big basement! It was AWFUL, you could be marooned in a > sea of people for 15 minutes > until a couple people all moved in the same direction at the same time. > Fortunately, that was the LAST > year for the Yack. (Well, OK, the Yack Arena is actually big enough to > fit a regulation hockey rink, > but I guess the extreme crowding just made it seem half that size or > even less. The poor lighting also > made it seem smaller.) > > So, they were in the Southgate Civic Center from 2002 through 2006. The > first year they only had > one rink and the lobby area, later they got both rinks. One big problem > is they usually have a hockey game > Sunday night, so they have like FOUR HOURS to tear down the entire show > so at least one rink can be > used. That is an insane mess for the NAMES crew. A lot of people > didn't like standing for 8 hours on a > sheet of ice, even with a little plywood on top. The warped plywood was > pretty bad to roll heavy gear on, > also. There is also a dearth of hotels in the Southgate area, including > some really BAD ones. > > > Jon > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA > is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your > developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay > ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
