I’ve been out of town for a few days, as we just had a show this past weekend in Ft. Myers. After reading through the most recent posts, I’m hesitant to ad much, as I hate perpetuating threads like this. With that being said, here a few additional thoughts from my perspective.
First, to Scott, I do not remember you, but I do apologize for your negative experience at our show. Tallahassee has proven to be our most challenging show over the years, and this show was no exception. For our 2007 show, we unfortunately had to contend with last-minute cancellations by a few of our regular vendors within two weeks our show, and, as you mentioned, the early departure of vendors during the show. This put us in the position of trying to scramble to fill tables quickly, and of course impacted the quality of the show that we were able to present to the public.
I also apologize if I failed to return your calls in a timely fashion. As many of you are aware, in addition to promoting shows, I also teach full-time, which sometimes makes it difficult for me to return calls at a reasonable hour. Most vendors who communicate with me regularly use e-mail, as I am able to return e-mail late in the evening or early in the morning without intruding. After becoming frustrated last Fall with my own inability to return calls as quickly as I’d like to be able to, we made some changes to our business. We brought my wife Patty on as a full-time vendor coordinator, so that calls can be returned in a more reasonable time-frame, and I think we’ve made great strides in our call-back time as a result.
That being said, I can certainly believe that I failed to return your call in a timely manner, and for that I apologize. We are in the business of providing reptile vendors with venue in which to offer their animals to the public, and failing to return the call of a potential vendor quickly was unprofessional on my part. The fact that we have subsequently worked to fix that problem does not remove the fact that in this case, I was at fault, and I am sorry.
Beyond that, I have very little to offer regarding last year’s Tallahassee show, and I will not devote a great deal of my time or energy to a “he said, she said” almost a year after the fact. We work very hard on our shows, but not every show comes off the way that we would like. That’s the reality of business, and it just serves to strengthen our resolve to tackle it even harder the next time around. It sounds like you have chosen to stay away from our shows in the future, and that’s probably a good resolution for both of us.
To everyone else who has posted with different perspectives on our shows, thank you very much for offering your thoughts. It is very easy for discussions such as these to dwell only on the negative, and I truly appreciate everyone taking the time to share their views on our shows. So again, THANK YOU.
Billy Healy
www.Repticon.com
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