Second Blade Show?

Bladegunner said:
The Las Vegas valley has well over 2.5 million for population, long drives for anyone not local really? have you heard of Southern California? Inland Empire?, San Diego? 5 hour drive from San Diego tops. San Francisco a better choice? Have you been there lately with the homeless shitting on the streets, shooting up in public? Not sure what a "Pretty Bad Poverty Level"is but I would be willing to bet Atlanta or San fran sicko is worse not to mention the ATL's gang problem. There is a reason Vegas is the place to go for conventions they know how to do it. You can have the convention, stay at the same hotel, eat there with multiple options from coffee shops, buffets to world class dining and then go see a show with out ever leaving that hotel. Rooms are plentiful and cheap, every airline flies here and a easy drive from so cal.
SHOT show will be here again next month I wonder why they keep coming back? I would say that is a pretty successful show would you agree?
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Obviously your from or endeared to vegas, i did not mean to offend, was just stating reasons why some cities be better than others. In response to your reasonings.

2.5m population isnt that big, at least for a west coast metro area... Atlanta is double for blade show baseline, la 10x vegas, sf triple, seattle even a bit larger. My point was a show needing sales needs as large a local population as possible... and yea, socal is only 3-5hr away. But thats enough distance to detract huge amounts of people. Just look at how many people attend blade who live in atlanta metro area, now imagine that effect in say LA with almost triple atl local population. That's what a good show needs, and cities like portland and vegas would struggle to provide. Its not knocking the cities, its just demographics.

As to sf, yeah im there once a year. lower poverty than vegas, and sf has an economy that makes vegas look like a dime store.. Which was my point, expensive knives should try and be sold where money is... why not host it where incomes are one of highest on the planet. Not saying vegas is some podunk poor house or anything of the sort, but compare it to other west coast metro areas and its lacking the wealth that a show for expensive shiny things would benefit from by being in other cities.

And yes, shotshow does great in vegas, most trade shows do, as its a bunch of people flying in on their companies dime. its a non retailing , not open to the general public trade show... blade is the exact opposite, sales occur, everyday people attend, collectors attend. And the larger and wealtheir the host city is, the less venders have to rely on people making the trip.

Again, not knocking vegas, just like I wasn't knocking the nw either, i live here. But its a no brainer that one of the big metros in cali is the best choice for a west coast blade to succeed. Id totally prefer portland or seattle, id just drive to it, save money and time. But for longevity, blade west needs to be where more people and more money are located. Its exact same reasons i wish okca would move from eugene to portland. Show would thrive much more with larger population and more affluent city.
 
Aidenag, I get the size of Los Angeles and Seattle I just don't know how many of the general public are going to purchase a ticket and throw down $200 to $1000.00 bucks for a knife on a whim. I don't know the demographics of Blade but your reasoning is that the show is mostly attended by locals and not knife people? I just can't believe that's the case. Yes there are going to be more knife people in cities with bigger populations. San Francisco is a expensive city to live obviously people make more money as the cost of living is very high might as well have a blade show in Hong Kong lots of people and a expensive place to live. I wonder how the USN show went in Vegas this year anybody attend?
 
I agree with the above post only knife nuts in the know attend knife shows. How much advertising does the average local get exposed to knife wise? Zilch I would say.
 
A couple of times, the fares were a LOT cheaper. You saved like 40 or 50 Eruos right off the top just on the fees and then more on the fare. Brussels is one of the best places to use as a point of entry for Western Europe IMO because of that alone. the Problem with Amsterdam and Paris is that Air France-KLM and Delta have kind of a mortal SkyTeam lock on the transatlantic market, so deals can be kinda hard to find. That used to be the difference between Heathrow and Gatwick, but the UK fees are very high now, like $100 above and beyond the ticket price.
erik markman said:
Brussel and Dusseldorf are cheaper but I live 15 miles from Amsterdam airport.
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There is a difference between local attendance and paying customers, at least as far as the custom market goes. The Belgian Knife Society Show at Gembloux draws a big local crowd on Sunday every year, but they are there for the good beer and cheap lunch for the most part. Going to the local hall for a Sunday outing seems to be a regular thing for the families and college students in that town and if you ever had the beer, you would know that they probably don't really care much what the event is as long as admission is cheap. :D Point being is that while you may get a bunch of locals though the door, how many of them will ask you "who made your blades" or tell you that they can get the same thing at Wal Mart for $10? ;)
 
Bladegunner said:
I wonder how the USN show went in Vegas this year anybody attend?
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We've had a booth at every USN Gathering. The last show, like all previous shows, was excellent.

The USN show is the best managed show we've attended.

Chuck
 
jdm61 said:
There is a difference between local attendance and paying customers, at least as far as the custom market goes. The Belgian Knife Society Show at Gembloux draws a big local crowd on Sunday every year, but they are there for the good beer and cheap lunch for the most part. Going to the local hall for a Sunday outing seems to be a regular thing for the families and college students in that town and if you ever had the beer, you would know that they probably don't really care much what the event is as long as admission is cheap. :D Point being is that while you may get a bunch of locals though the door, how many of them will ask you "who made your blades" or tell you that they can get the same thing at Wal Mart for $10? ;)
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Impossible to compare Gembloux to any other show.
Last time we had a visitor walking around with a fullgrown eagle on his arm.
The bird did shit over my friends table full of knives and him.
Only at Gembloux.....
 
LMAO. And who is going to argue with an eagle? Yeah, that show is different. At Blade, people walk out with bags full of knives, wood, stag, knife cases, etc. At Gembloux, they walk out with blurry eyes, a red nose and bags full of 750ml bottles of strong beer. I remember that first year I went in 2008, you guys laughing at me for unwittingly eating the horse sausage at the Friday night reception.:D
erik markman said:
Impossible to compare Gembloux to any other show.
Last time we had a visitor walking around with a fullgrown eagle on his arm.
The bird did shit over my friends table full of knives and him.
Only at Gembloux.....
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Alpha Knife Supply said:
We've had a booth at every USN Gathering. The last show, like all previous shows, was excellent.

The USN show is the best managed show we've attended.

Chuck
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Chuck, how big is the Gathering? I have never attended, but it strikes me as a show with one of the more highly “prequalified” group of attendees/ buyers out there. That is never a bad thing.
 
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