TW combining shows for 2011

[kpolley]

Everybody keeps talking about how great this is...but can't anybody see the writing on the wall? City blood sees it. We are second class again. This year it's JUST the haunt show...but we're FEATURED. As opposed to what? They are already setting us up to be the sideshow to the Halloween guys. This is going to mean higher prices and essentially no bargaining power for the haunt vendors anymore which were the two main factors that launched the haunt only show 2 years ago. I don't mind having the Halloween people come to our show...but that's not what's happened. The Halloween people brought their show to St. Louis and now WE'RE going to IT! Think I'm crazy? We are the featured ones. What about "The Haunt and Attractions Show featuring the Halloween Show"? Or better yet...how about "The Halloween and Haunt Attractions Show" and we all have an equal part in all this?

I know I may be rant-venting...but I'm been a bit pissed about this since I heard rumblings about it months ago. Just my thoughts...

[MDKing]

I don't know as much about this situation as you vendors, but wouldn't all the Halloween vendors have realized their show has been dying since our departure and ours has been going strong? They know now THEY NEED us, it's no longer we're second class breaking apart and being successful should have killed any belief that we cannot do it on our own and be as strong as them. They know what we are all about now I'm not going next year feeling second class, if anything I'll go in thinking we're stronger then them as far as tradeshow attendance goes. Their adversary is the Houston show, they should be counting their blessings to have the haunt show with them now. This time, they followed us, they brought their show to St louis because we are there, this time their on our coattails.

Allan

[Matt Marich]

I knew this was happening, but he only thing different i heard was the two shows would overlap a day or so, to let people see both shows. the real tell would be if the Haunt Shoew was first, and was full the first day and the wholesale show was vacant!

You go brother Kipster, we will be paying higher prices I'm sure.

Larry, St. Louis is Union, they are just as bad as anywhere else, stop using your home town as a selling point. Their goons tried to man handle us last year and did have their way with several vendors. Ask Kip about the airline contraversy, or me about the 20amp circuit debacle. It's all the same in the end.

St. Louis is fine by me, but ultimately, we need to move the show around every once in a while.

Matt

[graystone]

Matt

Here, Here ,I said that many times. If we move the show around we can see other haunts, other cities, hopefully TransWorld will listen to this as well. I am telling you guys The Opryland Hotel is and would be an awsome place to see it move to. Again just for one year and then move it to a new city! Shane and its come on guys lets get her moving! Shane this time.

[hauntatorium]

Last year was our first Transworld as a vendor, and we certainly learned a few things for sure, for those of you who dont know, NEVER ship anything to the convention center. We had a box of catalogs and a very small box of business cards sent there, and it cost us $150 for the guy to put them on a cart, move them from the dock to our booth...$150 for about 5 min of work...there were a few other instances of "surprise charges" that came about, so definitley be sure that you have all of your ducks in a row before you get there, for us, it was an expensive lesson...St. Louis is a cool place, I agree with Shane though, maybe the show can go to different places and venues ever so often, to give people the opportunity to check out other cities or haunts that they otherwise may never have a chance to do. Just my 2 cents worth...Russell

[drfrightner]

I will agree with Kip... I don't want OUR INDUSTRY show to be overshadowed by the need to fix the retail show. The haunt show will never be some multi million dollar money maker for anyone, and the retail show was. Keyword WAS... no matter what TW does they will probably not get Rubies back and Rubies will continue to work against them.

The only way you can truly get everything back the way it was is to get that group to give up and I don't see that happening. I don't want TW to forget that our show is now a success on its own and it needs to be promoted on its own and now with the shows together half the work could go into this.

I will work hard to make sure it doesn't.

Me personally I know some are happy to see some Halloween retail but if you really wanted to see Halloween retail then you would have been down in Houston a few weeks ago or you would have been in Chicago this weekend... I guess most people really don't.

Larry

[Jolly Pumpkin]

Haunts attending the show are going to benefit the most from the combination of Halloween and Haunts. They will no longer have to spend money on attending both shows since they will be conveniently in one building. Vendors selling scary music, makeup, masks, costumes etc will do great no matter what side they choose because these products are essential to both industries. Unfortunately vendors selling high end animatronics will not benefit as much. Halloween stores attending the show just for the Halloween side will more than likely not purchase haunt specific products from the haunt side. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

The haunt section will be up less than 10% in profits. The main reason for this is because Transworld realizes that the Halloween industry is much larger than the haunt industry so they are going to spend most of their advertising money on the Halloween side. Next year you won't see a huge improvement in haunt seminars, workshops, events, etc since Transworld will have the Halloween section to deal with also. There will be an increase in costs for vendors of the haunt show, but not a massive increase in profits from when the show was haunt only.

People need to realize that Haunts and Halloween go hand in hand. If you remove one from the equation one section is bound to fail. Transworld realizes this and now they are trying to build back their customer base for The Halloween Show since they feel the haunt show is already established enough. But this is going to backfire on the haunt show.

[dawn408]

I agree with Shane. The Opryland Hotel is huge with lots of convention space. The hotel is beautiful and shares the property with a huge mall that has some great themed restaraunts. There is lots to do in Nashville. We also have at least 3 haunts that stay set up year round. Death Row is a gigantic haunt with some great theming. I think at least one of the haunts would agree to open for the show.

[michaeldavy]

How can TW just "invite " themselves and bring a new segment to the preexisting haunt show?

Sounds to me they do not have the intrests of the Haunters in mind - only how they can make a buck off of the success in St Louis. Dr. You are right when you say that the retailers would have been in H or Rosemont.
The haunters need to protect their intrests and just say no to the combined show unless they want to relenquish their independance to only try and re-establish a ruined commodity from Rosemont.

They undermined the St Louis Show when they con-vinced me to go to Vegas. Now as I see it they are undermining the St Louis Show by forcing the Haunters to take the Rosemont Show - which will only draw the focus away from the Haunt operators.

I guess the issue is do the Haunters welcome the retail side?
Personally I sell to retailers and I have never had a problem going to Haunt shows and making sales. Haunters buy from me as much as the retailers. It's the party/paper side that seems to favor the retail show over the haunters market.

I know nothing about whatever rubies or tw did or who said what to who or who got pissed off at who but I am tired of accomodating my schedule to the whims of whatever TW decides to do or not do this year or next year. I need to budget a year in advance and I need to count on consistancy. It looks like St Louis has been consistant (up until this little modification), TW was consistant, until they blew it up, Midwest is consistant as hell! It looks like Houston is going to be consistantly buisy and HauntCon has been consistantly popular, even moving as they do.

Now consider - if TW has partnered with Haunters to produce what has been a successfull franchise in St Louis, why would they risk it's success by changing it ........in any way?

[mechanicalape]

I don't see a lot of the retailers wanting to open the gates to 16 year old haunters on the Halloween side side of the show. Will the retail side have a different age limit? If so, what happens to the age limit at the haunt show next year?

It doesn't impact me directly, but, I figured it would be good to get out there for disussion if it ends up impacting haunters next year.

[xxxdirk]

"How can TW just "invite " themselves and bring a new segment to the preexisting haunt show?"

Ummm it's their shows and they can do whatever they want... To me it makes perfect sense on the one hand. Less work frrom them having to produce two seperate shows in two different cities, why not combine and have everything in one city. Gonna be hard for me and a few other people out there that own a retail store and run a haunt. How to cover both shows?


As far as how the whole thing will be done from a logistics standpoint, they will most likley only allow legit buyers into the costume show. Like you have to havea retail sellers permit, or a store front etc.

[drfrightner]

From my understanding anyone with a Haunt badge can enter the retail show and vice versa... so if you get a badge to one you can enter the other. We'll see how all this folds out.

Way to early to speculate I think.

Anyway I know some are very happy about this me personally I'm not a fan of it, because I don't want the FOCUS OF GROWING the haunt show to diminish.

I also understand this is a business and TW needs to do what they can do to save this retail show, I would probably do the same thing if I was them, but that doesn't mean I would be happy about it.

Its going to be a mixed bag of opinions on this matter. Bottom line is we as the haunt industry needs to keep our eye on making sure our show is the priority!

Larry

[Dalloween]

I attended the Vegas show year before last, and the St. Louis show last year... I have to say last year was far better than the combined show. I hope they will treat them as two different shows that happen to be going on simultaneously in the same building. I guess we'll see how it goes.

I'll also say, as a foodie, the restaurants around the hotel last year in St. Louis were pretty great (and certainly less expensive than Vegas). There was a tapas place down the street from the America's Center that I can't wait to go back to this year.

[spookhaven]

Ok, my first year attending a show was Las Vegas and because of that show, I opened a store front. I for one am in supporting the combined show to cut my expenses but lets look at it this way (I was a haunter first).

They separated the shows for two years. Obviously since they are bring the show to St Louis (which is the home of the stand allow Haunter Show) means that our show brought more people than Rosemont. If attendance wasn't the case, then bottom line is the Haunt Show did better in location for one reason or another.

Comments from vendors was the Transworld show boomed when Houston took off. Not to mention they are doing showings in NYC in December and February combined with the Toy Fair.

I personally think that we should be of the opinion that it wasn't the Haunt Show that needed the retailers but the retailers needed the haunter, which were not treat so kind in Las Vegas.

I don't think that we will allow Transworld to treat us as second rate haunters. I think we should wait and see how they separate the shows. This might wake up the retailers to not be so rude just because we might not want to order 1,000 or more.

I think we will be in the drivers seat on this up coming show in 2011.

[Grimley]

And for those of you that complain about minimum orders at these shows you do have the power to negotiate quantity and price. Walk up tell them what you want give them a card and tell them to call if they change their mind. They almost always call.