Transworld Show 2010 ... Your opinions

[N2SPOOKINU]

I like that idea Shane. keep it in a host city for two years and move to another city as long as the new city is offering deals on hotels and convention booth prices are reasonable. I love to see other haunts and I have had my chance to show Fearfest so if another haunt in Mo. or another state wants to show off their haunt this would be a perfect way to do it. I loved the convention in St.Louis and it was a great show but the opportunity to see other haunts is inviting.
Greg
Fearfest

[spookologist]

Compared to Las Vegas and Chicago, we loved the St Louis location. I wasn't sure what to expect but overall it had a nice feel and was very convenient (until we missed our connecting flight in Chicago).

As others mentioned, I would also like to see it moved every two years from city to city just as long as its convenient for the vendors.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10-2:00 would be good, the extra time would allow us to finish up some last minute ordering and attend seminars. (We did not even get a chance to see many vendor booths due to lack of time) I have a feeling that in a year or two this show is going to be a lot bigger.

I think we should stay separate from the retail show and if they (the retailers) choose to attend our show that would be fine. I like the January/March separation of the 2 shows.

It was great meeting many of you.

Wayne

www.trailofterror.com
gallery.trailofterror.com

[Brandon_K]

Seeing as how this is my first Transworld (I'm usually in the UP of Michigan snowmobiling), my opinions may not be the most valuable, but I'll toss them out anyhow.

Close the show earlier, noon Sunday sounds like a nice time. I talked to a few vendors who said that it was just dead on Sunday, the only business they got was cash & carry that would happen regardless of when the show closes. As a buyer, it sucks for us that the show closes so late. We bought a number of demo items (Mike Fox's Ghost Busts for example) and we couldn't leave until he was shut down. We ended up not getting home until 2pm Monday and incured another hotel bill (only drove halfway through) when we could have been home late Sunday, no extra night, etc if the show closed earlier.

As far as opening on Thursday.. meh, I don't know. Do you really NEED 3 days to do a show? Sorry, this isn't Comdex, the show just isn't THAT big. It gave us plenty of time to network though. That all being said, I didn't take any seminars, nothing there floated my boat, so that may have something to do with it.

No offense to anyone that calls St Louis home, but the city sucks, sorry. It seemed like it was a hole in the wall or a $80/plate resturant, didn't seem like a whole lot of in between. I'm an easy going guy, give me a freaking Fridays or something. The nightlife was a huge disappointment, thank god for the CV party! And do you know what it takes to find a liquor store on a Saturday evening, without getting shot?

I vote for moving the show every 2 years. Larry, of course you're against it, you live there, we understand that. I like to travel, I like to see different cities, I like to party in different cities. I have friends that I still talk to today from trade shows in other cities (non-haunt), it's nice to move around and see some new things.

The hotel was nice, no complaints there. The weather could have been nicer.

Regardless of all of the negatives, it's f'ing Transworld, how can you not have a good time?

[Grimley]

South WARMMMMMMMMMMM

[The Parker House]

My Vote for 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DALLAS TX

All you need is in the Big D baby!

Marc

[Darkangel]

Dallas would be great, or anywhere in the South. Also, what about the east coast for a change? With so many haunts around it offers many options up and down the coast.


Darkangel

[Grimley]

Dallas would be cool. It was 75 degrees here.

[Barry]

I really have not composed my thoughts into a cohesive post so let me bullet point some things good and bad:

1. St. Louis overall was very nice. It was my first time there. The parking garages were strange though. Restaurants were good. I wish I could have visited Laclede's Landing during nicer weather. I did see a cool looking oyster bar down by the stadium that I want to visit next time.

2. Transworld put on a very good show and I congratulated Jen when I talked to her today. I was very happy to see the TW management have a very high visibility during the show. I think that type of customer service is invaluable.

3. Ren was a nice place (we stayed at the Hyatt) but it is not the Crowne. I don't think there will ever be another Crowne. The Ren is not nearly big enough and the atmosphere was not anywhere close...

[trahancj]

Transworld '09

The general agreement among my crew (Nightmare on 19th Street) was that the show was ok. This was our third Transworld. There were enough haunt vendors in St. Louis to keep my crew entertained for a day or so, which I thought was a pretty good turn-out. I too would like to see retail there, however. Usually, most of my large purchases are made well before Transworld, so we go for the community and to see whatever haunted houses the tours allow (since we do not get to see them during the season). The favorite so far was Dreamreapers in Chicago, by a long shot. Last year in Vegas was a pretty bad tour (so bad, I forgot the name ... trailer haunts??). While we were pretty impressed with the visuals in the Darkness, the acting left us wanting and the big question of the weekend was ... why was the ticket price doubled?

St. Louis was not a bad location ... a bit warmer than Chicago. Dallas would be better!!!!

[Spookyfinder]

Louisville?

Just a hair more south than St. Louis... PLENTY of haunts... cheaper all around... great convention center with LOTS to do... and closer to all major vendors!

My vote... Louisville, KY. -Tyler

[poison]

Saint louis

I really liked Saint Louis myself. Even though VEGAS was close enough to drive for me.
The Hotel across the street is a HUGE bonus! When your done setting up your booth and being on your feet all day it was so great to just walk across the street and have a beer and take a load off! Simple, convenient.
Just easy all around. And the fact that we had a GENERAL meeting place in the HOTEL BAR AREA was great too. It was easy to meet new people.
So unless there is another Convention Center that has a Hotel and meeting place that close my vote is for Saint Louis.

[Nicole]

Here's my 2 cents on TW in St. Louis:

LIKES:

- Service at badge check-in was fast and friendly
- New vendors there were the biggest +, want to see the show expand (not by consolidating retail side in again).

DISLIKES

- The Princess Leia reject (exposed breast woman), want to see NONE of that.
- Food court was extremely too small/not equipped to handle crowds booked at convention center (at least on Saturday).

WISH LIST for "TW FUTURE"

- Would like to see expanded vendors/products relating to haunt, as well as smaller amusement/entertainment venue and agritainment industry.
- Would like to see more makeup, costume, special fx vendors
- Would like to see FREE demos by vendors (like they used to provide when haunt/retail was together)

OTHER

- Location: No city is perfect. Weather: We're from the area between Chicago/Milwaukee and joked the weather followed us. It's the midwest in early spring - weather is going to be unpredictable. We had to walk 2-3 blocks down Washington for a restaurants/bar district and harassed by 2 crackheads on 2 different occasions - not to mention harassment by Baptist Youth (no offense to Baptists).

- Hotel: We stayed at the Holiday Inn Select FOR FREE using Priority Club Points and we agreed WE WOULD NOT stay here again (even for FREE). Overall bad service, broken equipment, maid service came extremely late in the day, fire alarms going off at 2a.m. and continued to go off throughout the night. No thank you. We'll pay to stay across the street next time.

- Getting around - cabs are pretty cheap, but driving/getting around seemed harder and more of a hassle vs what we had in Rosemont.

I didn't mind St. Louis, but still preferred the atmosphere of Rosemont. Still can get a decent/quality hotel and a fair price, dining options close, easy to get around, and hotels across the street and/or attached to convention center. I can do with or without having the party retailers attached, but would PREFER to see the haunt industry continue to grow/develop it's own show - all around, that would be better for the industry. Put the show where it is a more viable option (economic factors?) to attract new vendors and grow the haunt show.

[RJ Productions]

I see alot of pros and very little cons. This should make TW happy and hopefully observant. They need to address the requests of the vendors and participants to remain viable. A few points...

COMBINING: ... unless you own a costume shop, totally useless. Several have main comments on missing walking the rest of the show??? Sure the models at Legs Avenue are great, but really? Seductive costumes, kids costumes, foam retail props??? Nothing that a haunt needs. Costumes? There are very few of the costume vendors that have a minimum small enough for a haunter to order from. IF anything we need to combine with a show like Fun Expo. There are vendor that service FEC's that are more useful that me trying to justify a $1,000 minimum to get a foam tombtone! How about a self contained oven that you can provide your own food service and increase your bottom line several thousand dollars a season? How about a self contained cotton candy vending machine?? How about owning your own ATM machine and charging people $2.00 a transaction to get their own money to spend at your haunt???

TIME: ... January? NO WHERE north of the 40th parallel!! March? MUCH better choice no matter where you go!! You have to remember wether in general, not just at the host site. You can be in the Bahamas.. but if the participants are snowed in the OWN airport and can't leave, you still have a terrible attendance!

LENGHT: ... 3 days is tight, especially as the show grows. To everyone who does the show is 3 hours.... do you even stop and talk to ONE Vendor??? Sure anyone can run the show and grab catalogs, but ot actually stop and SEE the props, possible talk to the vendor, visiualize how you can utilize that vendor into your show, No way 3 hours!! What I didn't like was the seminars DURING the show!! TW needs to wise up. Hauntcon does it, it doesn't work! If you are a convention and the focus is the participants you have seminars and functions throughout the entire event. In that scenerio the vendor is just an add on, NOT the focus of the show. This is a TRADESHOW, the whole point is to see the VENDORS. Other functions are the add ons! Go back to having the seminars the day BEFORE the show. This is the first show that I didn't see one seminar! Not smart to pull participants OFF the trade show during the vendor's "face time". I actually saw a haunter talking to a vendor, he had returned twice to ask the vendor specific questions then looked at his watch and went.."S*%T!! I have to leave for my seminar!!"

LOCATION:... Hey I like Chicago! I used to live 2 miles away from the Rosemont!! I have brothers there, my daughter moved there, and they have Italian Beef!!! But January?? no way?? March??? still iffy! St. Louis was good. Hopefully they learn a few lessons beofre next year. I actually like the idea of roving. Couple years, move, couple years, move, find a real good spot...visit it again! Maybe like the Olympics....the host city has to bid on the show!! We know years in advance where to plan!!!

So in a a nutshell... put the seminars before the show, keep it warmer-maybe even rotate it, keep it seperate, work on attracting a variety of vendors. At least with it in St. Louis 2 years, maybe we'll get a chance to get to the top of the Arch NEXT year!!!

[Spookyfinder]

^Agreed! If it were me... I would NOT move the show any more north than Columbus and any farther west than St. Louis! This keeps the show closer to the majority of top vendors, easier for them makes a better show! -Tyler

[Monster-Tronics]

Adding more days to the show at this point would be a huge mistake. Every vendor that I spoke to liked the fact that this show is shorter than the Halloween show. All it would do is add more costs to everyone. It’s a no brainer that when you add more cost to the vendors, the price of their products go up.

The STL booth cost was a little lower not because STL is cheaper it was because it was less days. Each day adds more costs to the booth, likewise all other expenses, food, lodging, employee wages, truck rentals, etc… Our little booth had 5 people there so 5 times all of that $$$

Do you want the cost of the products to go up just so you can sleep in till noon?

Some simple math says that you could spend about 20 min’s with each and every vendor on the show floor if you came when the floor was open.

There were a lot of start up vendors there this time and history tells us that many of those will not be there next year.

Increase the show days when it makes sense to do so, not just so Larry can sell you more tours to his haunts! lol

What I didn't like was the seminars DURING the show!! TW needs to wise up. Hauntcon does it, it doesn't work! If you are a convention and the focus is the participants you have seminars and functions throughout the entire event. In that scenerio the vendor is just an add on, NOT the focus of the show. This is a TRADESHOW, the whole point is to see the VENDORS. Other functions are the add ons! Go back to having the seminars the day BEFORE the show. This is the first show that I didn't see one seminar! Not smart to pull participants OFF the trade show during the vendor's "face time". I actually saw a haunter talking to a vendor, he had returned twice to ask the vendor specific questions then looked at his watch and went.."S*%T!! I have to leave for my seminar!!"

I agree with Rich! The vendors asked TW not to have the seminars at the same time as the show hours or at least mix it up. This year at TW the show floor stayed pretty busy but like Rich said, HC & MHC vendors stand in an empty show floor while the seminars go on all day long, then there is an hour break in the seminars and you get flooded. I understand haunters love all of the extra stuff at theses shows but is TW going to be another convention??? I’d like to see the show floors go away at HC & MHC and make them fun and not dilute the buyers from TW, and keep TW a “Tradeshow”.

Most vendors can not afford the time and cost to show at all these ever growing conventions. SF only does one show – TW because they don’t have to do any others, Unit-70 does none because they get great business with-out doing any shows. We have all heard that some vendors spend from $5,000 to $60,000 (maybe more) at one show. Does anyone think that does not affect the cost of the products you buy???

The majority of the big haunt vendors are located in the Midwest, like wise the majority of the haunts in the US are in the midwest. (Example – Just SE Mich has well over 70 haunts).

Lastly, another fun fact. Half of the USA deals with cold weather each and every year, we don’t shutdown the country because we see a snow flake, I never heard so many crybabies! Lol You don’t hear us northerners complain about humidity, sweaty armpits, and humongous cockroaches do ya!

My 2 cents for the day……….

Regards,
Jeff Londos
Monster-Tronics
Innovators in Haunt Technologies
www.Monster-Tronics.com
Proud Member of the Halloween and Haunt Vendor Association
www.halloweenhauntvendors.com
www.youtube.com/MonsterTronics