Greater Nashville Reptile Show?!?! Warning / Potential problems.

For anyone considering exhibiting at this show I would like to clarify a few things that are misrepresented on the show site,

1] The site does a poor job of explaining just how restrictive our "native" animals laws are. You will need a $275 permit to sell ANY kings, corns, ratsnakes, garters, racers, pinesnake, etc. Native species are only defined to the species level; so an albino Cal king or a Florida blue garter are native even though they're found nowhere near TN.

2] The site mentions turtles as being excluded, but makes no mention of tortoises. Neither are permitted in TN. You may not possess chelonians. This is a long-standing, strictly-enforced HEALTH department regulation. It is not covered by Fish & Wildlife regulations you are more likely to investigate.

3] The site claims that except for the aformentioned restrictions anything else can be sold ["Everything else can be sold without restriction or permit"]. That is false. All crocodilians except for caiman are prohibited in TN. Venomous snakes are also prohibited - the state does have permitting criteria, but they are impossible for any private individual to meet.

4] Claiming that there is a possibility of 15,000 spectators ["This looks to be a large show possibility of over 15,000 spectators"] is absurd. There's a possibility that there might be 150,000 too; but it's not going to happen. There are established professional promoters who spend $20,000+ to promote shows that have yet to crack 15,000 people. New people in a town where no reptile show has succeeded are not going to sell anywhere near that many tickets. There's a reason that a pro promoter like Tony Cueto hasn't expanded into TN. There is a long-running bird show held twice a year at the same fairgrounds and I would guess that they bring maybe 1500 people through the door. When I was at the last show it was early afternoon on a Saturday and there were more vendors in the room than spectators and the show had moved to a smaller building.

5] The exhibitor table prices are ridiculous. A show of this stature shouldn't be more than $40 a table. Also, not requiring table covering gives me the impression that this will be a very unprofessional looking event.

I am a professional breeder, broker and importer of herps and inverts in Nashville and there has been no promotion that has crossed my desk or that I have seen or heard anywhere. I am not wishing ill will on a show; heck, I'd love for there to be a successful exotic animal show in my backyard. If the tables were appropriately priced I would attend just to support the slim possibility of the birth of a herp show in TN. It's just that after exhibiting at herp shows since there was such a thing and being in the business for over twenty years, I feel a responsibility to alert potential vendors or spectators traveling some distance that reptile shows don't work in TN. You leave out colubrids, chelonians, hots, etc. and you lose a lot of potential dealers and customers. And although the promoters are pointing out that its Fourth of July weekend as if that will attract more people, my experience of many years has been that sales and attendance are poor during any holiday weekend, including the Fourth or Memorial Day.

Regards,

Michael Jacobi
owner: Jacobi Herpetoculture, Spider Shoppe and Exotic Fauna Press
editor and publisher: Arachnoculture magazine

Michael

While Im not planning on vending at this show, I have to say I appreciate the heads up on the event. When we decide to do a show, we generally have to travel some distance to do so. As such our overhead is very high, and one or two bad shows in a season can ruin the whole year (of shows that is). I truely wish others would give heads up in situations like this.

Thanks again.

There is a Shows and Events forum on this site that was put in place to address these kinds of issues. http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...play.php?f=458

Personally, I would like to see feedback about the shows from people attending as walkins and vendors. Of course, this will all be subjective, but still, a good amount of feedback will certainly help people make decisions about how they manage the business aspect of being vendors at shows. For instance, if 30 people post complaining that there were no chameleons at such and such show, that would be a clear signal for SOMEONE to attend that show next time as a vendor who has chameleons for sale.

BTW, expect this thread to get moved to that forum sometime in the real near future.

For the record, the TN state fairgrounds website makes no mention of this show, which is very curious. Come to your own conclusions...

It's not at the fairgrounds. It's at the I-24 Expo Center in Smyrna.

Originally Posted by Sherry Howell

It's not at the fairgrounds. It's at the I-24 Expo Center in Smyrna.

My apologies for my error. Somehow I read the site wrong and got confused.

The show's promoter left me a voice mail claiming to have pre-sold 6000 tickets. I find that very hard to believe, but as I mentioned before I hope the show does succeed and I have nothing against the promoters, whom I do not know of. I have only tried to caution vendors and attendees about the show from both the standpoint of Tennessee's restrictive exotic animal laws and strict enforcement (and the promoters inadequate addressing of the issue on their website), and the fact that the show hasn't been publicized well and there is potential for failure. I receive emails every week from promoters around the country asking me to vend at their shows and I had heard nothing about this show until a guy who works for me learned of it from a vendor who will apparently be there. I'm sure many vendors in the southeast or east haven't forgotten about the disaster of a show that was put on in Bristol, VA; intentionally on the TN border. I won't get into the specifics now, but it was a wake-up call to be cautious when dealing with a new show or new promoters.

Cheers,

Michael Jacobi

I understand your reservations. I have some myself. We were contacted about it because, in addition to our small business, we also have a reptile shelter and we do educational problems locally. Since we live in Clarksville, it's not a hardship on us to drive to Smyrna to check it out. We won't be selling anything but they asked us to do a presentation. We'll give it a shot because they're donating a table for us to use. But, as you pointed out, Tennessee has some very strict laws concerning reptiles and, as such, I don't see where anyone who sells colubrids could possibly sell enough at this show to even break even. It's just cost prohibitive. And heaven help anyone who shows up with turtles and/or tortoises. I hadn't heard about them preselling 6000 tickets. If you go check it out, maybe we'll see you. If not, I'll post my experience with it after the show.

For the record, I just visited the show's site again and see that they have made some corrections and additions to their information that I brought up in my original post. Their site also now mentions the 6000 pre-sold tickets. The promoter left me a voice mail, which I have returned via email. I again want to stress that I would love to have a show succeed in Nashville and have no feelings one way or another regarding the promoters. The only thing I know about them is that they used to have a retail shop in the area, but that may have been before I relocated to Nashville four years ago. I may reconsider vending at the show since my overhead would be low or may just attend as a spectator/spy . Then again, I'm always more likely to stay in the shop and care for the critters!

Let me just reiterate what may still be unclear:

Do not bring or expect venomous snakes.
Do not bring or expect turtles or tortoises.
Do not bring or expect most colubrid snakes unless you have or purchase a very expensive permit. The definition of "native" is very broad!
Do not bring or expect alligators or crocodiles (caiman may or may not be allowed).
Do not bring or expect wild caught/imported dart frogs (captive bred only).
(It is unclear whether roaches and phasmids are permitted, I would err on the side of caution).

Do bring or expect boid snakes, other exotic snakes, lizards, amphibians, invertebrates, etc.

Cheers, Michael

I have spoken with the promoters. They assure me that they have been in constant contact with our primary wildlife guy and all vendors are well aware of the restrictions that TN imposes. There are supposed to be several colubrid dealers there who have purchased the necessary permit. If that's the case than there will be plenty of stuff to interest everyone and other activities as well.

After our discussion I decided that I would do what I could to promote the show and have signed on as an exhibitor. I will be displaying the finest collection of tarantulas and other arachnids you have seen and will also be selling Phelsuma & Rhacodactylus geckos, some other reptiles, books, drygoods and my new arachnid hobby magazine, ARACHNOCULTURE.

I hope to see y'all there. Cheers, Michael

Thank You to all that support the show as this is going to be a great event. For all that Can not attend This one There will be another second weekend in December IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CALL ME 931-639-3905