Another Great Show!

We wrapped up our Washington season yesterday with our show at the Dulles Expo Center.  Attendance, while not a record, was very strong and larger than last year.  The aisles and the parking lot were crowded all day (we'll work on that parking lot next time).  Overall it was a very smooth running show and exhibitors seemed to be very pleased with the new venue.

We had a couple of special guests who presented seminars at the show, and more importantly, did some television and radio interviews to help promote the show.  We also received some nice post-show coverage on WUSA-9.

A Great Season Thus Far!

Our Washington areas shows are off to a great start!  On January 13th we were at Martin's Crosswinds in Greenbelt, and this was our largest show there since 2004.  On January 20th we were at the Bethesda North Marriott.  Attendance at that show was even with last year, which is a great achievement since our primary competitor held their show on the same day just a few miles away.  Having competing shows on the same day is never a good thing, but I'm glad that the brides chose to come to our show instead of venturing downtown.  We even had brides who went to the other show, stayed only a little while, and then joined us at the better show :-)

This week, we're at the Dulles Expo Center for the last of our Washington area shows of the season.  With 294 exhibitors, this is our largest show ever.  On February 2 and 3, we wrap up the season with our show in Baltimore.

27 Dresses - Movie Promotion

Every year, there seems to be another wedding-themed movie. Unfortunately, the timing usually isn't right for a cross-promotion, but this year we hit the jackpot!  The movie 27 Dresses just opened, and right in the middle of our show season.  Our friends at Mix 107.3 have a special screening of the movie this week and all attendees of the screening will receive free passes to our show.  Plus, we'll be giving away lots of 27 Dresses prizes and promotional items at our shows. Who knows, maybe the DVD will be out in time to give away at our Fall shows.

What if it snows?

As I sit here watching it snow (if I never saw snow again in my life I would be happy), I thought that it might be a good time to discuss what happens in the event of bad weather on the day of a show. If the weather is bad, we really have two choices, and neither is perfect. We can go forward with the show and hope that the attendance is not impacted greatly, or we can postpone the show knowing that we will lose a lot of advertising momentum.  Every show involves a lot of preparation and investment by both show management and by the exhibitors, so it's a decision that we take very seriously!

Luckily, we have insurance that covers us and protects your investment in your booth space. Over the years (and 150 shows), we've only had 3 shows impacted by weather.  The only show that we ever canceled was not because of snow, it was because of Hurricane Isabel that knocked out the power to our show location.  It was impossible to reschedule that show and our exhibitors received a full refund. Prior to that, we had a case where it snowed in the middle of the day and this resulted in a 40% attendance drop. The brides who braved the weather were very serious buyers, so the exhibitors still had a productive show. Even so, we produced another show a few weeks later that was free for exhibitors. In the third case, we had a smaller decrease in attendance and everyone received a credit toward a future show. This insurance gives us options while at the same time protecting your investment.

If bad weather occurs (with "occur" being the key word, as we don't base decisions on forecasts) we will keep you posted on the status and let you know as soon as a decision has been made.  You can check our web site, call our voice mail or watch your email.  It's unlikely that we would make a decision any earlier than the evening before the show, and perhaps not until the morning of.  If you're thinking about calling us two or three days before with a "what if" question, consider holding that thought!

One Down (Actually, One UP!)

The first show of our winter show season was yesterday (January 6th) at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.  With nearly 3000 attendees and more than 1000 brides, this was our largest show ever in Richmond, and an attendance increase of 20% over last year.  It is always rewarding to see brides lined up three or four deep at every booth, and the resulting smiles on the faces of our exhibitors.   What a great way to kick off the season!

The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a nice article about the show in the January 7 issue.  You can click here to read it.

New Year's Resolutions?

It's the time of year where we all make resolutions.  Normally, I don't use this blog to stray into personal things, but I wanted to share something with you in case one of your resolutions for 2008 involves your finances.  A few years ago, I came to realize that while I was pretty good at making money, I was pretty clueless when it came to investing it.  I started working with Dave Spence, a financial planner with LPL, and he has steered me into good investments and helped me save on taxes.

Last week, Dave showed me a new online planning tool that allows me to pull together all my investments, credit cards, mortgages, even frequent flyer and rewards accounts, into one secure database.  This service will not only make it easier to keep up on my finances, it will save me lots of time.  You should take a look at this!  You can click here to email Dave, and he will give you an online demo.