The future of wargaming shows...

[Tim]

Not sure totally relevant but I have now completed 1 year working full time back in the office with no ill effects. Shows should be fine.

[Prufrock]

I have now completed 1 year working full time back in the office with no ill effects.

Says you! 

[Denis Grey]

Purely out of interest, any idea how much a trader's table costs at a show nowadays?

I assume it must vary from show to show - and, of course, according to how big a stall one wants - but, I understand that at some shows £90 will get you an area 6ft square, with additional 6ft squares available at the same rate.

[Jim Webster]

Purely out of interest, any idea how much a trader's table costs at a show nowadays?

I assume it must vary from show to show - and, of course, according to how big a stall one wants - but, I understand that at some shows £90 will get you an area 6ft square, with additional 6ft squares available at the same rate.

Thanks, it seems variable, but it's good to get a feel for
Jim

[martin]

Assuming we talk about 12 foot.
£80 at a small show
£180 at a  large show
£380 at a very big show.

Those "8s"  are co incidental.

I would give an opinion that shows will find it difficult to free themselves from rules  imposed by well meaning venue owners.  e.g clean all seats between each person using them.
One big venue suggested a one way system should be in place. "darn, just missed the P Pig stall, better go around again."

martin

[Imperial Dave]

one does wonder if the cost effectiveness works these days for shows when you factor in petrol etc for especially the smaller trader. Thats an awful lot of sales to cover the basic costs unless part of it is to get a wider audience to your relatively unknown wares

[Jim Webster]

Assuming we talk about 12 foot.
£80 at a small show
£180 at a  large show
£380 at a very big show.

Those "8s"  are co incidental.

I would give an opinion that shows will find it difficult to free themselves from rules  imposed by well meaning venue owners.  e.g clean all seats between each person using them.
One big venue suggested a one way system should be in place. "darn, just missed the P Pig stall, better go around again."

martin

Thanks for that Martin. I agree with you about the difficulty of freeing themselves from the rules. Our village hall just hasn't reopened because with a small number of volunteers they cannot cope

[martin]

HelloJim
Yes a long tail of destruction.

martin

[Jim Webster]

HelloJim
Yes a long tail of destruction.

martin

Whilst it's a damned nuisance for the hobby, in the case of our village hall, there was a weekly coffee morning which always had over 50 people attending and in a village with no shops, you could order off the butcher and get a delivery later in the week after discussing things with him, there was a veg stall, the fish van called and there were a couple of craft stands and similar

[DougM]

Personally, I see no sense in taking unnecessary risks, and I am not keen on getting back into an office. I just finished a year's contract, and never actually met anyone I worked with. It didn't bother me.

Our club meets in a hall that is managed by the Girl Guides. So far, no one, including the Guides, is rushing back, though new flooring, sanitisers and warnings have been installed.

[Jim Webster]

Personally, I see no sense in taking unnecessary risks, and I am not keen on getting back into an office. I just finished a year's contract, and never actually met anyone I worked with. It didn't bother me.

Our club meets in a hall that is managed by the Girl Guides. So far, no one, including the Guides, is rushing back, though new flooring, sanitisers and warnings have been installed.

I am finding it interesting. Because the entire agriculture industry seems to have worked normally and that includes our suppliers, feed mills, hauliers, producers of veterinary medicines etc and our customers, the dairies, slaughter houses, retail etc (slaughter houses do seem to have been hit by covid, but they keep reopening and getting on with the job).
I cannot remember the last time anybody came into our yard wearing a mask, not postmen/women or contractors and most couriers don't bother any more. I'd go bail on there being nobody this year.

A comment I heard was that agriculture we don't feel locked in, but locked out.

With regards the guides, that chimes with a comment my wife (exguider) made. She wonders how many guide and scout companies will reopen? The volunteers who ran them have escaped for 18 months. How many will pick up the burden again or will they regard it as a chance to retire?

Back to shows

It's been interesting, there is a Yougov chat thing where they ask questions and I've been taking part in it during the pandemic as much as a way to get a feel for things
They display the results immediately, normally there are about 10,000 people who've responded and the results have shown that opinions have been drifting slowly over the months.
Last year there would normally be 70% or more rock solid for a stricter lockdown, pretty much whatever was happening.
That has dropped slowly since Christmas and today was something of a first, 50% wanted the lockdown to end on the 21st, and by end they largely meant end of all restrictions
So my gut feeling isn't that shows will not be viable because of numbers attending, but because of numbers allowed to attend.

[Erpingham]

I shall preface this by saying I don't get to many shows.  I have, however, read quite a few comments on whether the current show circuit has long term viability well before the pandemic.  Lots seems to depend on critical mass - lots of punters into a small space with as many traders as you can manage.  It's a self-reinforcing system.  If traders think they'll have plenty of custom , it will tip their marginal cost calculations.  If lots of traders are expected, more people will make the effort to travel from far and wide.  With the move to online shopping across retail, this was becoming more marginal.  What will be the impact of the acceleration of the trend due to Covid?  Large retail chains have struggled to maintain physical sales points, let alone more club led activities.

Perhaps circumstances will cause a re-assessment that will create a new model for when the shackles eventually come off?

[aligern]

Shows perform a vital function. Traders use them to meet customers and to show products.  If someone is launching a business in the market its a huge advantage to sell some figures to the punters because , hopefully, they will go on tompurchase the rest of the army from that trader.  Of course you can launch a wargames business just on a mail order basis, but tgat's cutting off a sales channel and losing thevadvantage of dealing with the person face to face.
Roy

[Imperial Dave]

effectively, shows are the modern alternative to bricks and mortar shops. You can get to touch and feel stuff rather than rely on the internet

[DougM]

Personally, I see no sense in taking unnecessary risks, and I am not keen on getting back into an office. I just finished a year's contract, and never actually met anyone I worked with. It didn't bother me.

Our club meets in a hall that is managed by the Girl Guides. So far, no one, including the Guides, is rushing back, though new flooring, sanitisers and warnings have been installed.

I am finding it interesting. Because the entire agriculture industry seems to have worked normally and that includes our suppliers, feed mills, hauliers, producers of veterinary medicines etc and our customers, the dairies, slaughter houses, retail etc (slaughter houses do seem to have been hit by covid, but they keep reopening and getting on with the job).
I cannot remember the last time anybody came into our yard wearing a mask, not postmen/women or contractors and most couriers don't bother any more. I'd go bail on there being nobody this year.

A comment I heard was that agriculture we don't feel locked in, but locked out.

With regards the guides, that chimes with a comment my wife (exguider) made. She wonders how many guide and scout companies will reopen? The volunteers who ran them have escaped for 18 months. How many will pick up the burden again or will they regard it as a chance to retire?

Back to shows

It's been interesting, there is a Yougov chat thing where they ask questions and I've been taking part in it during the pandemic as much as a way to get a feel for things
They display the results immediately, normally there are about 10,000 people who've responded and the results have shown that opinions have been drifting slowly over the months.
Last year there would normally be 70% or more rock solid for a stricter lockdown, pretty much whatever was happening.
That has dropped slowly since Christmas and today was something of a first, 50% wanted the lockdown to end on the 21st, and by end they largely meant end of all restrictions
So my gut feeling isn't that shows will not be viable because of numbers attending, but because of numbers allowed to attend.

I find that quite disturbing. It would seem a lot of people have swallowed the total BS that this is all over, and we should just go back to where we were. I wear a mask, so do 90% of the people I see in shops etc.

My nephew has been told to isolate as he had a covid positive contact, so my sister is now isolating, my dog walker is in isolation as her husband has tested positive, and I'm looking at numbers of new cases now trending over 6,000 a day, and deaths just starting to rise again.