Would you attend a yearly herp show in Minneapolis?

It would be nice if we could document the interest of a show with number of people willing to attend. It's also important that vendors would give their opinion and if they would support such an event with their attendance. Here's a poll that might help us demonstrate such things.

Regards

Eh....I don't see a poll?

But I would certainly attend one in Minneapolis..so count me as a YES.

Well WTF......I swear it wasn't there before.......I'm NOT crazy.

that you aren't a little crazy? LOL.
I definitely would support a Twin Cities show as a vendor and customer!

Maybe just a LITTLE Kare......but not THAT crazy.

I don't have much left to sell as a vendor this year.....but I'm usually a very good customer.

I might consider being a vendor but I definitively would spend quite a bit of money in a show like that. For us in the Midwest having a show towards the end of the year has its risks (weather wise). On the other side, and for similar reasons, it's also the time of the year when I'm more reluctant to buy animals over the internet and have them shipped. Same goes for shipping them out, too much risk involved for the animal's health. It would be nice if we could have some other potential vendors express their opinions in here. Maybe "we" could organize something ourselves without having to rely in someone else to do it for us. We should start by getting Bruce from Twin Cities Reptiles giving us local support. There are many other pet stores and individual breeders that might consider attending. The key is low table costs and high attendance, that means advertisement in magazines and word of mouth. Although I'm nearly 4 hours away I'm willing to be part of a committee to organize such an event. I'm in a crazy mood today!

Regards!

Well, I'm "only" 2 hours away.......but if there would be anything I could do to help get something like this going, I'm more than willing to help out as well!!

..."low table costs and high attendence, that means advertisments in magazines and word of mouth"...Um, magazine ads aren't cheap, how do you plan on paying for them? From the "low table costs"? A lot of the cost of a table goes to pay for the site rental...and what's left over might be thrown towards advertising. The best shows in the country have very high table costs simply because they are advertised like crazy! Take Tinley Park for example...the cheapest you can get in there is about $325 for one 8' table along an outside wall. But the Tinley show is very well advertised many months in advance and as such, draws tons of vendors and thousands of customers!

I was a vendor at the Mankato show this year and the Bloomington show last year. I thought Larry did an outstanding job of putting on the Mankato show in such a short time frame with limited funds! It wasn't bad for a first time show! Obviously, it could have had more advertising, but with limited time and funds, that wasn't possible. Next year should be better, with the lessons learned this year.

Hey, I'm all for a Twin Cities show...who wants to step up to the plate and try to organize one? Most people I know (me included) have demanding jobs that take up most of our lives....leaving what's left of our free time to take care of our reptiles.

As for a show later in the Fall...when? You talk about the dangers of shipping reptiles in the cold months...what about the vendor transporting hundreds of reptiles to a show in cold weather? That's no easy feat! If you have a show in September, you interfere with the other shows already going on in the Midwest...which would create a conflict for vendors and customers alike. If you go into November, you run into people busy with holiday planning and shopping.

Just my thoughts on the subject...and yes, I've been an on and off vendor at the Des Moines, IA...KC, MO...Mankato, MN...and Omaha, NE shows since 1999. I plan on getting a booth at Tinley next year if there are any openings.

Scott Nellis

Jodi Ahrens did a great job setting up the reptile show during last October's Midwest Reptile Symposium. Talking to him, he says it's practically murder to get a room to hold a sale in. Most places hear "reptiles" and freak out. Also, the room rental may be reasonable, but the electric hookups cost him and arm and a leg.

Say you find a good hall/convention room/gymnasium/etc. to hold the show at a reasonable price and have electricity available....when do you have it? The only options seem to be August and early Sept. or past the second week of October (after the NARBC in Chicago). Both have problems -
August = many animals just hatched in July and won't be ready for sale, yet. You could end up in conflict with those going to the Daytona show September = Labor Day then all the Midwest shows (Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska) start
October = already stated - weather!
So, unless you're willing to say "goodbye" to one of the established Midwestern shows, what do you do? A dilemma!

Karen,

How about november? Last year they did it at the Thunderbird motel and they didn't seem to mind.

Regards