1st Impressions Of St Louis Show

[Haunting Copy]

The show was packed and had that atmosphere that it had years ago. The vendors I talked to were mixed about the results as three said it was great and the other two said it was ok. I am glad the show was well attended but I would still like them back together again. Just not in Chicago. They need to go somewhere warm dammit. Blizzards and snow suck.

I would like to see them in Dallas or Austin - and not just because I live in Texas!

When I got back to Texas from St. Louis, it was chilly, but sunny. Mahvelous!

[drfrightner]

My view...

I loved the fact that more vendors than ever showed up for the show. There was just so many different vendors to choose from it made it harder to figure out what you wanted to buy. It was a bit overwhelming to be honest. I thought for the most part the vendors knocked the ball right out of the park with new products and services!

So from that end it was a success!

I also have it with good report that drayage a big beef in Vegas was CHEAPER for vendors, and the unions where nice to work with and tried to be reasonable on fees.

Overall I feel this was the best haunted show EVER!

Now on the negative... there was too many buyers and the floor wasn't big enough to handle them. On one side I'm saying the floor had to many vendors but on the other there wasn't enough booths bought to stretch it all out for the amount of buyers.

Sometimes it was hard to walk up and down the rows because there was just way too many people! The show needs more booths or at the very least wider lanes or something.

Secondly because there was so many people at the show it made it hard to place orders because the owners where always busy.

I have a couple suggestions...

1) Start the show on Thursday rather than Friday and make the show on Sunday end at noon. We see this time and time again people leave on Sunday, so start the show on Thursday and end at noon on Sunday.

2) I was pretty busy at the show so I didn't get to walk the floor until Sunday. Once I went out about or almost 2 hours before the show ended many vendors packed up, and that snowballed before I knew it seemed like half the vendors where boxing up at least 1 hour before the show actually ended.

So go back to point one here and start the show on Thursday end it on Sunday at noon to avoid these problems!

With all that being said this show was just unreal... who could have EVER expecte all those people to show up? I know many vendors where nervous about the event, worried after seeing the reports about Vegas and Houston but let me tell you the retail vendors heard about all this and are already planning on coming next year!

Larry

[JamBam]

Show report

The show location was good. The hotel across the street was nice, and thanks to Steve from hauntedhouse.com for giving me the scoop about $ 55 room before it ever hit the blogs. The floor was crowded. The vendors put out a good mix of new products. There is room for expansion if needed for next year. The TW staff was visible, in fact their office was opposite the registration similar to MWH so they could be found if needed.

Spent a decent amount of money with some of my key people. They got some neat stuff they are eager to build and install. We had a seven hour meeting (in the van ride home) that put a ton of ideas to paper for our 2009 saeson and beyond based on our pruchases. The floor plan is done and after our Spring Break Ghouls Gone Wild, we are ready to redo several rooms and detail, detail, detail our haunt. That was the plan, but they now have seen it and understand.

There were great networking opportunities. The hotel next year should open up their lower court area with a bar downstairs so it could be more friendly to hanging out. Made several key contacts with some cross promotion prospects.

The seminars I attended included one of my heros, Randy Bates, sharing his ideas and sucesses.

The HHA meeting went well. Now that Ben is President and a board is in place, Larry can get back to his own business and can be assured good people have taken it over. The membership levels do seem to appeal to all like the other group that started ten some years ago. I renewed and will continue dual membership for many reasons.

Met many from this board including Shane, Kelly Allen, Sarah, Ben, and many other new ones as well.

Went to the IAHA meeting/dinner and the Creative Visions party. Thanks all around there. Neat old buildings and atmosphere.

Missed Shane's unmentionable dinner for a highly detailed Darkness tour. Two of my staff got to then go to the Sat tour.

Went to Jake's for steaks with my crew and RY on Saturday and was not disappointed!


Drum roll please..................

And I will put my claim in now for the MILLION CHICKEN BUCKS as I got the one and only SHANE next to the one and only LARRY and got a picture of it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[drfrightner]

Brett,

Share your photo!!! C'mon now SHARE THE PHOTO!

I want to see it!

Larry

PS: What are chicken bucks?

[JamBam]

My artist has it in his camera

He will be emailing it to me today and I will post it.

[Motograter]

I loved the show from when I first arrived all the way until check-out time. The vendors had some really cool stuff and I met a lot of really nice people which I made new friends with and I also learned some stuff while I was down there. The Ren Hotel was awesome too! Very very clean and very nice staff. I couldn't have even asked for better staff. I even tipped the house keeping lady as we left. The bar at the Ren seemed to be a great hang out for all the haunters and vendors to hang out after hours. That place was packed every night. I got sooo drunk Friday night lol. The Darkness tour was out of this world! Very nice haunt larry I liked it a lot. I already look forward to next years Transworld.

[Haunting Copy]

I agree that the floor was crowded. I'm getting pictures from others of things that I never even saw at the show. There must be a whole row I missed!

The weakest link, to me, was the bar (go figure). The Ren needed to be a little more prepared with enough staff and alcohol (they ran out of amaretto).

The poor guy who told me they were out of amaretto offered me an apple martini at the amaretto sour price - and he said he wasn't even a bartender. That was one very, very strong apple martini!

They also needed more chairs.

That (the bar) would be my only "complaint," if you can call it that at all.

[PsychoMania]

Aok Except for minimums

We had a really good time and the show was pretty much as big and as crowded as those I have seen in Chicago. St. Louis is a little closer to us so that's nice.

We went and ended up buying from some of the vendors.

I would have bought more except some of the vendors had minimum purchase amounts (names removed). This caused me to not buy more (and we are haunters, we are not buying for resale) I wanted to spend $175 on something and they wanted a minimum of $300.

Well, a sale is a sale to me. I don't bar people from a haunt if they don't buy
$300 in tickets at a time. I could understand if this stuff was for resale. They told me to go on their website to purchase items. Well, we wont be going to the website. This represents lost sales at the show.

I wonder how many other lost sales?

[brad]

I wonder how many other lost sales?

Now granted, I didnt buy from every single vendor, but every one that I talked to said there was no minimum purchase amount. I'm surprised you had this problem. But hopefully they learned their lesson.

[Haunting Copy]

We had a really good time and the show was pretty much as big and as crowded as those I have seen in Chicago. St. Louis is a little closer to us so that's nice.

We went and ended up buying from some of the vendors.

I would have bought more except some of the vendors had minimum purchase amounts (names removed). This caused me to not buy more (and we are haunters, we are not buying for resale) I wanted to spend $175 on something and they wanted a minimum of $300.

Well, a sale is a sale to me. I don't bar people from a haunt if they don't buy
$300 in tickets at a time. I could understand if this stuff was for resale. They told me to go on their website to purchase items. Well, we wont be going to the website. This represents lost sales at the show.

I wonder how many other lost sales?

No one I talked to mentioned this problem. I'm surprised vendors were doing that, especially considering most of them were offering discounts for purchasing at the show.

Maybe this is why they wanted a minimum purchase?? When shipping products, some businesses mark up the shipping costs to make a small profit. I hope that is not what they were trying to do.

[PsychoMania]

I don't see what difference it makes.
You would end up paying for shipping either way (inflated or not).

I was really surprised they turned down business at the show. My partners were equally shocked. I certainly will not turn around and buy after the fact.

[damon carson]

What was the total attendance for the 2009 St. Louis Haunt Show Larry? Did you hear the final stats? And I read in another post of yours its a given it will return next year that is great!
Damon

[SteveR]

Minimums

I didn't run into minimums either. Even Morris dropped their usual 500 minimum.

Oh well, too bad for that vendor, they lost sales, and I hope they will learn.

[damon carson]

So what is there minimum now? They make you go through more red tape than anyone Ive ever dealt with.
Damon

[Kevin Dells]

TW of past 2004-2006 the make up vendors were doing minimum sales, not going to name names.

The problem with that was we don't run a make up store yet we still spend a pretty good buck on enough make up for 100+ actors for the month of October as most haunts do. 2500-3000 dollars and part of that is usually towards a new airbrush system and paint supply for the month so there goes 500 easily on that.

Now one can consider that 500 for make up in expenditure is easily covered, it is if you are buying from just one company, we mix it up quite a bit with different brands as most haunts do.

I can easily think of five different company's that have what we need yet not one exceeds 500 dollar minimums. Cinema Secrets we probably spend the most on and they are really good about open amount minimums and decent priced shipping.

As the make up manager at our haunt walking into TW with my list of goodies i found it very frustrating! Trying to order the months worth of supply's i just couldn't pull off.

Graftobian for example sells a lot of pretty make up for modeling agencys and the such but i still HAVE TO HAVE their blood powder and thats usually all i need from them. Thats the best blood powder in the bussiness hands down! Yet i have to order it online from an aftermarket company.

I think it would be much easier to send in your make up department heads with their list and what they can spend and knock it out in one weekend, this is not the case.

Seeing that i wasn't at this years show i am wondering if make up companys were even present? And im really interested in how other haunts do this every year?? Any advice gang?