Thread: Melbourne 2019 - Timber & Working with Wood Show | 23-25 August

Originally Posted by TimberToolsArt

HI ubeaut
etc etc

11 days to respond to ...uhhh....the forum owner, and uhhh, long term exhibitor
and
19 days to respond to robbygard (just a mug punter by his own description)

Yep. You're busy organising. So set your notifications to come via email then. That allows you to respond when notified so at least it looks like diligent attention to this new venture
Yep. This is your biggest captive audience.
Yep. Ignore them at your own peril in this transitionary period.

Can I suggest that a little more diligence in responding to
posts in your own damn thread
might be in order and convey a a slight feeling of caring whether people attend or not?


Just sayin'. Enthusiasm is contagious.

But so is not caring much one way or the other.....(which is where the previous show ended up being viewed)

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Yep. You're busy organising. So set your notifications to come via email then.

But to be fair, there have been no emails from the forums in what feels like months since the last round of upgrades, so even that isn't going to help them....

But yes, this is as captive an audience as they could find, and an easy way of getting good numbers of people to attend - or not, depending on engagement level...

Email notifications are not something I use (but I think I may have read that there were current difficulties with them).

However, whether I set them or not, if I hard started a thread to promote a large venture of mine you can bet I would be all over the thread waiting to see responses....there would be a window permanently open and set to reload every 10-15 minutes.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

... if I hard started a thread to promote a large venture of mine you can bet I would be all over the thread waiting to see responses....there would be a window permanently open and set to reload every 10-15 minutes.

To be fair to the organizers once again, Brett - You have a point that the woodwork forum has been a great marketing tool for the Show for the previous organizers, but:

1. the forum is nowhere near as active as it used to be, many have run away to facebook groups.

2 The previous organizers failed to realize the potential of the forum to support their show and have therefore reduced the benefits.

3. The show is no longer just about woodworking. The new owners had to widen the appeal to remain viable. You can blame the previous owners stupidity if you like or blame the woodies for not supporting it, either way doesn't really matter which to the new owner. they just have to deal with the reality of what is happening.

4. Because of the widening of the appeal and the original target audience being fragmented into little pieces scattered over Facebook, they have a lot more areas to concentrate on, which would require a lot more effort to reach as many people. I know of a number of Facebook groups the organizers are posting in.

5. Look at the workload to bring in the demonstrators and retailers for the additional crafts. They have to build up a clientele from scratch. It's not just a case of a quick phonecall asking if they are coming again. They need to sell the benefits to new exhibitors. I also dabble in some knifemaking/blacksmithing and have not seen any names for exhibitors in these crafts on the lists yet, but I bet the organizers are out there trying to get some even at this late stage. The same applies to a number of other new crafts that have been invited to exhibit.


I asked on a knifemaking forum where the Wood Show was promoting itself, if anyone knew of any knifemaker or supplier was exhibiting. A business owner told me that he had exhibited at the Sydney Wood show a few years ago and will never go back due to losing more stock to shoplifting to the school groups on the Friday than he sold for the rest of the weekend. He said he will never go back. This show has one hell of a history that the new owners need to rise above. I bet this is taking up more of their time than they thought it would.

So in reality the Woodwork Forum might not actually be as important to the Wood show organizers as we might believe. But hey, at least the new organizers aren't coming on just to fight wit us and tell us all we are wrong like the previous owner did.

I have already got my ticket and hope to be there on the Friday when it opens, with an open mind and a loaded wallet. It's then up to the exhibitors and organizers as to whether I go home with an empty wallet and a full ute or a full wallet and an empty ute. I don't think I can be fairer than that.

Well said Doug. I think this forum is only a very small part of the whole picture and the so called captive audience doesn't appear to even attend judging by the responses on the Sydney show thread. Plenty of negative comments before the show but nothing much during or after it.

Yebbut why start a thread (in fact about 4 or 5 threads - confusingly - for the Sydney show) if you are not going to respond to questions in it for 3 weeks?
Set and forget rarely works unless you have covered absolutely everything, which was clearly not the case. The time devoted to starting so many threads would be better spent answering queries promptly in just one thread.

As I understand things the Sydney show was still something like 80% or so Woodwork, but I didn't attend this year.

My overall point is - no attention for nearly 3 weeks shows a couldn't care less attitude, intended or otherwise.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Yebbut ...

Originally Posted by doug3030

Brett - You have a point that ...

Like I said Brett, you have a point.

EVERYTHING you said is true. I just felt a little dose of perspective was needed to balance it up a bit. The show organizers aren't exactly quick to respond to questions in the Facebook groups either. I should know - I've asked plenty.

Brett, You have seen me take the fight up with the previous organizers in the past, I'm sure - when they were doing stupid things and not responding to our concerns and requests, but I can at least see that the new organizers are trying to make a change. If you had been to the Melbourne show last year, under the new management and compared it to the swill we have been served up for years prior to this, you would have seen the difference too.

I'm certainly not saying that the new organizers are perfect or that they are doing all that should be done, but they have definitely started the uphill climb and they have a long way to go and a lot of baggage to try to cut themselves loos of on the way. I don't envy them their job but at least they are trying.

If I am looking at the map properly Building 4 is accessed from Epsom Road gate 18 but you are saying to access from gate 5 or 7 langs road at the other end of the venue

Originally Posted by Jim Carroll

If I am looking at the map properly Building 4 is accessed from Epsom Road gate 18 but you are saying to access from gate 5 or 7 langs road at the other end of the venue

I noticed that as well. The venue, Building 4 is diagonally opposite gates 5 & 7, at the other side of the Showgrounds.
I think what he was trying to say (but not clearly) was entry from the car park is through gates 5 & 7 (which are not adjacent) to building 4. I would hope that there is at least one public gate open closer to building 4.
I guess traveling there by train will not be an option, but will an Epsom road gate be open for those coming by tram?

Originally Posted by Handyjack

I noticed that as well. The venue, Building 4 is diagonally opposite gates 5 & 7, at the other side of the Showgrounds.
I think what he was trying to say (but not clearly) was entry from the car park is through gates 5 & 7 (which are not adjacent) to building 4. I would hope that there is at least one public gate open closer to building 4.
I guess traveling there by train will not be an option, but will an Epsom road gate be open for those coming by tram?

Good question , hopefully someone can give an answer

There has been up until this morning at 12:42 AM there had been 5,921 to the 3 threads currently running plus another 1,126 on a thread I deleted.

So all up well over well over 7,000 views which I would think isn't all that bad.

Just because they aren't all members viewing the thread doesn't mean other interested people aren't viewing it.

I sent a pm to TimberToolArt last week asking them to stop posting the same thing as it was considered spam (1 thread and two posts deleted and 1 edited) and suggesting they actually took the time to respond to questions,etc as this would get a better response.

Looks like they must have got the message (not that I got a response to my pm) but they have done the right thing and stopped bumping their thread(s) by posting the same information into them and actually interacted with members.

Well done with the interaction. Keep that up an you should get way more views and interest in the shows. You have a great resource at your fingertips here, use it wisely and it can be your best friend, use it unwisely and it can be among your worst enemies as the last lot found out.

Cheers - Neil

_____________________________________________________________

For discussion elsewhere NOT HERE:
As for getting emails, we send out well in excess of 500,000 emails every month and very few of them bounce so they are either getting through or being stopped by service providers or spam filters, etc. So even thought there may not be the same amount of online activity from members past and present all who gave permission to receive emails when they registered will still be sent them. So this is still a major resource for information.

Newsletters/updates are currently on hold until we get a new mail service up and running which can handle the amount of traffic that goes out.

Please DO NOT respond in this thread, to the info in blue above.

I see from the organiser’s post that parking is $15. Does anyone know if there is a cheaper alternative near the venue - street parking for example?

Also - does anyone know if Carbatec, Timbecon, Lie-Nielsen, Veritas, Vesper or HNT Gordon will be there? I’ve looked at the organiser’s website this morning and none of these are shown.

Thanks,

Brian-

Would also be nice to find out about wheelchair/disabled access to the venue (as mentionad by Doug3030 in post #16 -12 posts ago and not yet responded to) also the same for toilet facilities, as it looks like you have to leave the building to go to the loo and this could be a problem for wheelchairs, and other visitors, etc.

Not trying to be dificult, but for many visitord these are reasonably important thing to find out about especially if mobility is a problem. Bearing in mind that there is a always a large number of aged visitors to these shows.

Neil

Originally Posted by homey

I see from the organiser’s post that parking is $15. Does anyone know if there is a cheaper alternative near the venue - street parking for example?
-

Street parking is pretty limited from my recollection of that area.