In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, gwicks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
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As has been noted before the attendance at the US QL show is no better than other shows and people from areas far outside the normal cachement area for the show do not often attend. When we had a show on the East Coast and a show on the West Coast we saw a whole different bunch of people.A similar thing would apply to shows. One well run UK show a year on the American model was all that was needed.
Trying to get people to talk or demonstrate anything was always a problem. When I arranged the first Hove QL show there was not enough time to fit in the talks. TF Services, Miracle and Qubbesoft had new products, We had the SuperBasic Manual. When it came to this year at Hove everyone said they had nothing new to say or sell. We did have the colour WMAN to show to people but I could be get enough info to give a talk and really it should be Marcel or someone else with a bit more programming knowledge to do this. We have lost the prolific talkers, Ron Dunnett and Stuart Honeyball and even TF seems reluctant to stand up. If I could have got Nasta and Jim Hunkins over to the show they would have given talks but can you name one piece of hardware or software that has warranted a talk in the last three years (apart from your own - and you did not approach me to ask to give a talk at Hove and you had Q-Word- again in previous years we had to fight for a slot to demonstrate our wares.)It is about three years since there was a formal talk or demonstration at a QL show in England. Are we really saying that for three years nothing has happened in England worth talking about?
I agree that a two day show is usually a waste of time on the second day but the lack of a profit from a show does not make it a bad show. I have not made any kind of profit from a show outside Hove in the last two years but I still attend all of them. I sold nothing at all in Italy last time but I am going again this year and I will continue to do it for the foreseeable future because I enjoy it.It was the Manchester AGM that directly led to my decision to leave the QL world. First it took ages to get the date and place out of QUANTA. Then it was a two day show, which, apart from dinner, will be the same old hall, tea and coffee as before. I thought about it a long time. I have never enjoyed the second day of a two day show. Commercially it is always a disaster and by then I have spoken to most of the people I needed to see. I had a choice. Go only for the Saturday, This I could do as cheaply as £5 and for the first time in years I would make a profit at a show. Or go for both days. This would be at least double the travel costs and there would be an overnight hotel bill all for the second day in which I had no interest whatsoever. Goodbye profits. Goodbye a good feeling from a QL show.
I am not prepared to subsidise inefficiency.
What inefficiency - I do not understand this. -- Roy Wood Q Branch. 20 Locks Hill, Portslade, Sussex. Tel: +44 (0) 1273 386030 fax: +44 (0) 1273 430501 web : www.qbranch.demon.co.uk
