Now ya tell me! Sorry, just saw this after posting 78 show emails to the public list............ :)
Bob- -----Original Message----- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 12:00 PM To: WISPA General List Cc: wispas...@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] [Wispashow] Decision on WISPA Show Hi Matt, I'm moving this back to the show list. I still request that wispashow emails reply to that list not the public one :-). Anyway, I understand what you are saying. As our local Chamber of Commerce president here's my latest project: http://www.odessachamber.net/bikeweek Almost all I'm doing is managing the folks doing the leg work. Herding the cats as it were... It's certainly quite a bit of work. We're expecting 200 to 400 people to show up during the week. On the weekend the 40th annual Desert 100 race will bring in roughly 6000 people. http://www.stumpjumpers.org The race takes nearly an entire year to pull off. There is a race chairman and a vice. This year's vice becomes next year's chairman. Much of the physical work involves marking the track, a task that has to be done all over every year because the ground is normally a production cattle ranch. I certainly agree with you that the lack of a very dedicated team of 2 or 3 people would certainly hurt our chances of success. If we can't get the help, have no one ready to step up and take ownership of the event etc. we need to find a different way. So far, however, this hasn't been hashed out on the show list. Perhaps we do have the people ready to dedicate themselves to the effort. Also, one thing that it seems to me that needs to be done is setting some kind of show expectation and outline. How many people are expected, how many vendors, do we want more training or display? How many speakers do we want? Who should speak? Much of the planning we'd have to do will be the same for our own show or one done by someone else. I've been to the big shows (WCA, ISPCon, and others). I've been to car shows and gun shows. By far, my favorites are smaller more intimate settings that are not making any real effort at playing the big shot. I don't care about fancy hotels, convention centers, NFL cities or any of that. I want to see new product, learn from people better than me, and spend time with my peers. My fear with Ed's group is that they will try to put on a fancy schmancy show in which the vendors will have to pay so much for floor space that they'll demand access to the podiums and we'll end up with a "teaching" track that's always slanted in the direction of products rather than the overall nature of our business. Having said all of that. My plate is already as full as I want it. I'll not be putting my time where my mouth is. grin I'm here to help with thoughts and opinions via email but I'll help out as I can which ever way the rest of the committee wishes to see the show move. Thanks for taking the lead on this! marlon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Matt Larsen - Lists" <li...@manageisp.com> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 10:31 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] [Wispashow] Decision on WISPA Show > All due respect Marlon, but I'm going to disagree with your assumptions. > > I have spent the last three months researching the possibility of > putting on a show and evaluating our options. Before I started on that > process, I felt the same way that you do about WISPA putting on our own > show. I thought that it would be some work, but doable, and had some > potential as a fund raiser. > > What was truly eye opening to me is the amount of work that is needed to > put a show on properly. IMHO, WISPCON got lucky on the first show and > then it degraded when the organizational and sales efforts did not scale > up to the potential of the show. The market is quite different right > now, and I don't think that we would be as lucky as P-15 was back in the > day. > > Ed's group puts on trade shows - that is their focus. They are willing > to do it at no cost to us, and to help us build our membership up so > that both sides will benefit. They don't know much about the WISP > business, so we have an opportunity to work with them to design a show > that our members would all like to go to. They are going to do it on > a much larger scale than what we had planned on doing, so we can spread > WISPAs message beyond our own little community. Those are strong > positives. > > Most importantly, we will not have to commit our money or manpower to > the project. Money is not that big of a deal, but manpower is. We > will not be able to put on a show with volunteer manpower, and it isn't > really a question of just hiring someone because the job requirements go > far beyond just being an ED type or a sales person. These guys have a > staff of people who specialize in this kind of work and can get it done > more effectively and at a larger scale than we could ever dream of doing > on our own. > > All this being said - if the show is a flop, there will be an "out" so > that we can go back to plan A next year if that is what needs to > happen. For 2010, it makes more sense to work with professionals to > get a show put on. > > Matt Larsen > vistabeam.com > > > Marlon K. Schafer wrote: >> forwarding to the list. >> >> Matt/Forbes, can someone please set the list to reply to the list rather >> than to the sender? Thanks, >> >> Matt, understood. I'd disagree with that plan of action though. We need >> our own show. It should be a fund raiser for WISPA. >> >> Near as I can tell Ed's planning on more of an ISPCon type of a show. I >> believe we need more of a WISPCon kind of event. Lower cost, more >> intimate >> etc. >> >> I'd suggest that we step back and set a show date for later in the year. >> It >> shouldn't take more than a few months to put something together. We know >> who the vendors and attendees would be. And we know, basically, what >> would >> need to be presented. >> >> The members want a show. The vendors want a show. Someone just has to >> DO a >> show. >> >> If we can't find anyone to run the effort that certainly changes things. >> I'm not interested in that job (putting together a Dirtbike one for here >> right now, it's not bad but does take time...) right now. >> >> laters, >> marlon >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: <li...@manageisp.com> >> To: "Marlon K. Schafer" <o...@odessaoffice.com> >> Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 9:53 PM >> Subject: Re: [Wispashow] Decision on WISPA Show >> >> >> >>> Marlon, >>> The tentative plan with Ed's group is that we will put our efforts into >>> his show, and that we will not be doing our own show as long as both >>> sides >>> are happy with the performance of his show. >>> Also, since we are not putting any money into it, there is no profit >>> sharing. They put in the money and the manpower, they get the profit, >>> if >>> there is any. Our goal in this is to build up our membership numbers >>> and >>> leverage their promotional and marketing efforts to get the word out >>> about >>> WISPA and get people to the show so we can turn them into members. >>> This is going to end up similar to our agreement with ISPCON, but we >>> will >>> have more say in the structure and educational parts of the show. >>> Also, >>> it should cost us little or no money. >>> Matt Larsen >>> vistabeam.com >>> Marlon K. Schafer writes: >>> >>>> Hi Matt, In the end I still think we should have our own show. How >>>> clear >>>> will it be made to Ed's group that we'll still be working to our own >>>> show >>>> at a later date? Also, how are we going to insure that we don't end up >>>> with the same problem we did with Charles for his first show? Where >>>> there is no profit to split? >>>> marlon ----- Original Message ----- >>>> From: "Matt Larsen - Lists" <li...@manageisp.com> >>>> To: <wispas...@wispa.org> >>>> Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 10:59 PM >>>> Subject: [Wispashow] Decision on WISPA Show >>>> >>>>> After our visits with the people interested in the trade show and >>>>> evaluating our options, Forbes and I are making the decision to work >>>>> with Ed Meek's group to help promote their wireless show, with WISPA >>>>> as >>>>> one of the "anchors" of the show. >>>>> The details are yet to be worked out. What has been discussed so far >>>>> is that WISPA will be featured prominently in the promotional efforts, >>>>> we will provide the educational tracks for the wireless broadband >>>>> section of the show and we will have considerable influence on what >>>>> events, speakers and specialized sessions (ISP-CEO type discussions) >>>>> will be conducted as part of the show. We will also be able to >>>>> re-start the WISPA awards and present them at the show. There was >>>>> also a discussion about substantial discounts for WISPA members to >>>>> attend - enough to highly incentivise attendees to join WISPA before >>>>> the >>>>> show. >>>>> Rather than putting on our own show, we will play a large part in this >>>>> show. There will still be a lot of work to be done, and I will share >>>>> details after we get them worked out with the promoters. >>>>> Any questions or concerns, please submit them on the list and we can >>>>> get >>>>> them worked out. >>>>> Matt Larsen >>>>> vistabeam.com >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Wispashow mailing list >>>>> wispas...@wispa.org >>>>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wispashow >>>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Wispashow mailing list >>>> wispas...@wispa.org >>>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wispashow >>>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wispashow mailing list >> wispas...@wispa.org >> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wispashow >> >> > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > WISPA Wants You! 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