Matt, the only question I have would be the cost to attendees, vendors and WISPs? I can attend computer shows all the time for $599 to $899 for a 3 day show. I never do. However, a $75 to $200 show I've attended several. When we were starting talking about the show on the promotions list it was a lot smaller and easy to price low. What is this new groups price structure?
Steve Barnes RC-WiFi Wireless Internet Service -----Original Message----- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Matt Larsen - Lists Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 1:31 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] [Wispashow] Decision on WISPA Show All due respect Marlon, but I'm going to disagree with your assumptions. I have spent the last three months researching the possibility of putting on a show and evaluating our options. Before I started on that process, I felt the same way that you do about WISPA putting on our own show. I thought that it would be some work, but doable, and had some potential as a fund raiser. What was truly eye opening to me is the amount of work that is needed to put a show on properly. IMHO, WISPCON got lucky on the first show and then it degraded when the organizational and sales efforts did not scale up to the potential of the show. The market is quite different right now, and I don't think that we would be as lucky as P-15 was back in the day. Ed's group puts on trade shows - that is their focus. They are willing to do it at no cost to us, and to help us build our membership up so that both sides will benefit. They don't know much about the WISP business, so we have an opportunity to work with them to design a show that our members would all like to go to. They are going to do it on a much larger scale than what we had planned on doing, so we can spread WISPAs message beyond our own little community. Those are strong positives. Most importantly, we will not have to commit our money or manpower to the project. Money is not that big of a deal, but manpower is. We will not be able to put on a show with volunteer manpower, and it isn't really a question of just hiring someone because the job requirements go far beyond just being an ED type or a sales person. These guys have a staff of people who specialize in this kind of work and can get it done more effectively and at a larger scale than we could ever dream of doing on our own. All this being said - if the show is a flop, there will be an "out" so that we can go back to plan A next year if that is what needs to happen. For 2010, it makes more sense to work with professionals to get a show put on. Matt Larsen vistabeam.com Marlon K. Schafer wrote: > forwarding to the list. > > Matt/Forbes, can someone please set the list to reply to the list rather > than to the sender? Thanks, > > Matt, understood. I'd disagree with that plan of action though. We need > our own show. It should be a fund raiser for WISPA. > > Near as I can tell Ed's planning on more of an ISPCon type of a show. I > believe we need more of a WISPCon kind of event. Lower cost, more intimate > etc. > > I'd suggest that we step back and set a show date for later in the year. It > shouldn't take more than a few months to put something together. We know > who the vendors and attendees would be. And we know, basically, what would > need to be presented. > > The members want a show. The vendors want a show. Someone just has to DO a > show. > > If we can't find anyone to run the effort that certainly changes things. > I'm not interested in that job (putting together a Dirtbike one for here > right now, it's not bad but does take time...) right now. > > laters, > marlon > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <li...@manageisp.com> > To: "Marlon K. Schafer" <o...@odessaoffice.com> > Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 9:53 PM > Subject: Re: [Wispashow] Decision on WISPA Show > > > >> Marlon, >> The tentative plan with Ed's group is that we will put our efforts into >> his show, and that we will not be doing our own show as long as both sides >> are happy with the performance of his show. >> Also, since we are not putting any money into it, there is no profit >> sharing. They put in the money and the manpower, they get the profit, if >> there is any. Our goal in this is to build up our membership numbers and >> leverage their promotional and marketing efforts to get the word out about >> WISPA and get people to the show so we can turn them into members. >> This is going to end up similar to our agreement with ISPCON, but we will >> have more say in the structure and educational parts of the show. Also, >> it should cost us little or no money. >> Matt Larsen >> vistabeam.com >> Marlon K. Schafer writes: >> >>> Hi Matt, In the end I still think we should have our own show. How clear >>> will it be made to Ed's group that we'll still be working to our own show >>> at a later date? Also, how are we going to insure that we don't end up >>> with the same problem we did with Charles for his first show? Where >>> there is no profit to split? >>> marlon ----- Original Message ----- >>> From: "Matt Larsen - Lists" <li...@manageisp.com> >>> To: <wispas...@wispa.org> >>> Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 10:59 PM >>> Subject: [Wispashow] Decision on WISPA Show >>> >>>> After our visits with the people interested in the trade show and >>>> evaluating our options, Forbes and I are making the decision to work >>>> with Ed Meek's group to help promote their wireless show, with WISPA as >>>> one of the "anchors" of the show. >>>> The details are yet to be worked out. What has been discussed so far >>>> is that WISPA will be featured prominently in the promotional efforts, >>>> we will provide the educational tracks for the wireless broadband >>>> section of the show and we will have considerable influence on what >>>> events, speakers and specialized sessions (ISP-CEO type discussions) >>>> will be conducted as part of the show. We will also be able to >>>> re-start the WISPA awards and present them at the show. There was >>>> also a discussion about substantial discounts for WISPA members to >>>> attend - enough to highly incentivise attendees to join WISPA before the >>>> show. >>>> Rather than putting on our own show, we will play a large part in this >>>> show. There will still be a lot of work to be done, and I will share >>>> details after we get them worked out with the promoters. >>>> Any questions or concerns, please submit them on the list and we can get >>>> them worked out. >>>> Matt Larsen >>>> vistabeam.com >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Wispashow mailing list >>>> wispas...@wispa.org >>>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wispashow >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wispashow mailing list >>> wispas...@wispa.org >>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wispashow >>> > > _______________________________________________ > Wispashow mailing list > wispas...@wispa.org > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wispashow > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! 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