The Hamvention should consider Louisville, KY. The Kentucky Fair and
Exposition Center offers something like 5 million square feet of sparkling
clean exposition area, meeting rooms, banquet facilities and parking for
something like 25,000 vehicles less than a mile from Louisville
International Airport.
KFEC is home to the Mid America Truck show (the Dayton Hamvention of
industry trade shows...I engineered a remote broadcast for Sirius Satellite
radio there this Spring), the North American Livestock Exposition and the
Louisville Cardinal basketball team.
A little 'ol ham radio convention for 25,000 HT jockies? a drop in the
bucket...you could schedule Hamvention here in one corner of the South Wing
and have plenty of room left for Billy Bob's Gun & Knife show, Aunt Bee's
Quilting convention and the AKC All breed dog show on the same weekend and
have room for a Trekkie convention.
Of course the major challenge would be having the Hamvention organizing
committees pulling together an event from a distance.
Honestly, the facilities at KFEC put HARA to shame, hell the local Greyhound
bus terminal puts HARA to shame.
Criteria should be: midwest region location, accessible by air, close
proximity to major interstates and reasonably vital, active metropolitan
area with some alternate destinations, decent restaurants and attractions.
KFEC is about 5 miles from Churchill Downs, there's a triple A ball park
downtown, etc, etc and a Waffle House within 3 miles.
Will it happen? Naaaahhhh.
Just my 2 cents worth.
73,
Mark, K9GX
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Robbins" <w4pa@yahoo.com>
To: <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 9:42 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Dayton and the forum issues
>>>If the organizers really do care about keeping attendance up and
> bucks flowing from contesters' and DXers' pockets into the vendors'
> pockets, maybe they need to be a little more accommodating in the
> assignment of meeting rooms next year.<<
>
> At root of this whole discussion is really this: Dayton Hamvention
> needs to ditch Hara Arena and move this national event to a different
> venue, in a different city. Major shows like Comdex and NAMM change
> cities every so often because it keeps the show fresh and gives people
> another reason to continue to attend each year.
>
> Each year, with rare exception, we see the post-Dayton handwringing
> over show attendance dropping, sales flattening, venue issues,
> organization issues - and yet THE thing that would revitalize the show
> is never considered - namely getting the show into a different venue
> every third or fourth year, a venue that can or will accomodate the
> entire needs of the show, the vendors, and the attendees.
>
> What kind of national trade show (and that's what Dayton is, a full
> blown national trade show for amateur radio) blows the organization of
> the event to the point where forums of strong interest to the community
> involved have to be moved to an off-site hotel ballroom to accomodate
> the necessary crowd? That's absolutely pathetic.
>
> Scott Robbins W4PA
>
>
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> http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
>
>
>
>
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