Midlands Model Engineering Show at Warwick

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

This Fri, sat, Sun, Mon and Tuesday.

 

Anyone going ?

 

We will be there on the Arc Euro CNC stand all show, so anyone that owes me a pint call in or failing that the White Hart at Upton after the show.

 

John S.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

See you there on Friday John

 

Terry

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

Sunday for me. I’ll come say hello.

[Anonymous]

Hi John,

 

I’ll look in on the Saturday.

 

Andrew

[Laurence BParticipant @laurenceb]

I went yesterday as part of the ‘set up’ day for our club,and indeed many other clubs and traders.Naturally one simply had to have a sneak preview of the show,and from what I saw it looks like it will be very good indeed,with some fantastic pieces of model making on show,and plenty to spend one’s money on too!

[John Wood1Participant @johnwood1]

Hi John, be there on Monday to say hello.

 

Have fun

John

[Charles 2010Participant @charles2010]

I went Friday and had a very good time … and I was able to buy all that I wanted …. Already looking forward to next year if it is there again

 

Charles

[Charles 2010Participant @charles2010]

I must get a sat nav set properly to get me there directly

 

Charles

Edited By Charles 2010 on 16/10/2010 18:32:46

Edited By Charles 2010 on 16/10/2010 18:34:04

[Charles 2010Participant @charles2010]

I was able to see an Economy engine close up and take pictures  so very helpful

 

Charles

Edited By Charles 2010 on 16/10/2010 18:31:17

[ChubbsParticipant @chubbs]

Hi all.

I attended the show as per usual on the Sunday, and the first thing i noticed as i got inside was the size of Warco, s stand to what they mostly have, and as i walked around i saw that a few more Companies had down sized there stand. Also a few that are normaly set up wert even there.??????

Is this a sign of the times or are the fees getting to big for the stalls to afford . ??

Any body else notice this.

 But on the whole a good show.

                                                                          Chubbs.                                                                 

[Billy MillsParticipant @billymills]

One exhibitor told me that his 10’x10′ stand cost him £1500 for the 5 days, this is around the same rate as we pay for the NEC!. So if you have a normal retail margin you have to take £4500 to break even on the stand alone, add in 5 days stay with food, staff and travel costs and you might begin to understand why some exhibitors are no show at all. We did not show at WEC, we are in a different but simular business.

 

We also show in Chicago, Holland and Germany. The cost of a stand in these places is ONE THIRD of UK costs. At the NEC we pay £50 for a two day 250W electric supply- we get free electricity in the USA, Holland and Germany. Sales are 130-210% GREATER in these countries than in the best UK shows. The facilities for visitors and exhibitors are better too.

 

The out of UK shows  are attracting more exhibitors and visitors, when there is more to see more go to show and more go to see. In the UK we are up to our normal business practice of  stuffing ourselves.

 

Alan.

 

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

My initial plan was to go on the Sunday but ended up going on the Tuesday. First impressions from my first ever visit to the show is that it is was smaller than I was expecting and a couple of dealers I specifically went up there to see weren’t there. I bought very little except for a few impulse buys. Had I travelled more than two hours to go there, I may have felt disappointed. One of the plusses though was talkng to John who patiently talked me through the basics of Arc Euro’s CNC mill. I’m very tempted.

Edited By Chris Trice on 20/10/2010 09:21:57

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Perhaps the show promotors are getting too greedy and next year there will be even less traders.? 5 days is far too longfor such a show, I do  not expect there are enough visitors available and that they are merely spread a little thinner. Personally I would not go again having been there few years ago.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

I still feel the best show in the UK is Harrogate in May. Usual 3 day show but they get double thru the door what the Midlands show does in 5 days.

 

Stand prices are lower, more room and this has a knock on effect in that more traders want to go and more customers want to see what they have all under one roof.

 

Five days is too long, some traders went home Sunday night as being away from base for those extra two days costs more than they can take back at base, so in effect the punters for Monday and Tuesday were being short changed.

 

My chief gripe is you pay for the stand and they charge extra for the lighting on the stand.

 

Met a lot of people from this and other forums and it’s nice to put names to faces, even our esteemed Mr Clark was there on the Friday having a wander around.

 

John S

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi John

Good to see you again  – on Saturday.

regards David

 

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi There

I am not sure the people running the show are greedy.

It cost about £35,000 to hire Ascot for an exhibition.

I expect Sandown is comparable.

The midlands Agriculture centre is about £15,000 for a day.

 

regards David

 

.

 

[TrevorhParticipant @trevorh]

I was there on the Saturday and was able to purchase all the items on the wish list, there seem to be a good turnout as well.

The weather held off so was able to go see the dispaly outside, all in all a good show, hadn’t really noticed that some of the stands were smaller than last year.

 

bring on the next one – but not too quickly – need to save up again

 

cheers

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by David Clark 1 on 20/10/2010 09:56:20:

Hi John

Good to see you again  – on Saturday.

regards David

 

 That proves it, 5 days is too long – you get days mixed up !!

 

John S.

[BogstandardParticipant @bogstandard]

I would have loved to have gone, but ever since they moved it from Donnington, it has never been the same.

 

They have tried to make it disabled friendly, but the design of the place just means that it will never happen. I had to come home after being there only an hour the first time I went as it was just too cramped and upsy downy for me to get about with a stick.

 

I suppose Harrogate will have to do me now, as that is great, I can get about on my small electric buggy with no problems, plenty of room, to meet up with all my old mates. Except for the ignorants of course, a facefull of heavy rucksack is no joke as they push in front of you in the queues, just as though you don’t exist.

But they always leave with a few choice words they very rarely hear, plus I also managed to get a few shins as well.

 

Bogs

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Bogs, I agree with you that Donnington was a far better venue, but I still went again this year. I never have a rucksack BTW, do usually have a small camera bag with my SLR in it which I don’t like being bashed about. I hate carrying to much clobber around with me.

 

Regards Nick.

[CliveParticipant @clive]

Hi all,

 

Well I went on Sunday and had a great time and spent way too much money. This was my first ever show so I have nothing to compare it to. The quality of the work on show was just amazing!

 

I’m fairly new to this hobby. I’ve been using a small bench top lathe and mill for the last three years to build the detail parts and landing gear on 1/4 scale aircraft. I enjoy this so much that I’ve now decided to buy a bigger lathe and mill (hence the visit to the show) and start building some other stuff. The only fly in the ointment is that it will take me a year to save up the cash plus sell what I’ve got to finance the purchase

 

 Re the show,  I guess when I’ve done a few more then I’ll be able to choose which ones are best for me, but being able to talk to the guys at Warco and Chester face to face on the same day and compare the machines under one roof was really helpful for me in making likely purchase choices.

 

Clive

 

 

[Billy MillsParticipant @billymills]

I would love to see  larger shows with more small stands as well as the larger ones. However it is a chicken and egg affair, high stand prices stop smaller people who often have the interesting bits.

 

Many locations are grossly overcharging, one London location doubled their two day hire rates from one year to the next. So the show went from two days to one day to never again.  All shows have best days and dull days, Fridays and Saturdays are generally good, Sundays around 30-40% of Saturdays, Monday and Tuesday are time to be elsewhere.

 

My experience in a related market is that the traders are too worried to speak out against rising costs,when they have had a few bad shows they pull out or show wherever else they can. The traders will not admit that they had a bad time for fear of not being offered a stand next time so the whole structure can fall apart very easily because people don’t speak out.

 

Anyway it was great being a buyer for a change, there were some good bits to be had  and it is always nice to actually see the stuff in the metal instead of pictures. Meeting Sir John and Adam Stevenson was great as was looking at the work of real craftsmen.Good show but concerned about the future.

 

Alan.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Clive, if that was your first show, you have not seen anything yet! If you can make Harrogate in May 2011 and/or Sandown this December you will gain a great deal from such a visit.

 

ps lots of planes at Harrogate!

[SpurryParticipant @spurry]

In years gone by, it was always traditional to go to the shows to ‘grab a bargain’. Many of the traders used to have special show offers etc.

 

I was very disturbed to find a new phenomenon at Ally Pally – prices increased! The prices referred to were in comparison to the trader’s Internet site. As there were no prices displayed on the stand, I have to admit to not adding two and two together at the time.

 

When I later questioned the trader about his charges, he trotted out the usual excuses – high cost of stand, electricity and so on.  I wonder how many others he caught.

 

Pete

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