Upcoming Lotus Show - Donington Next Year? Your views wanted

PostPost by: elanfan1 » Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:18 am

Just spoken to Jane at Club Lotus and Ive been told that the Malvern Parts Fair for 9/10/10 has been cancelled seemingly due to a lack of support.

Shame.

Steve
Last edited by elanfan1 on Thu Oct 14, 2010 9:45 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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PostPost by: TeeJay » Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:03 am

That?s a great disappointment, was looking forward to going. :(

Do you know if the lack of support was from Traders or Visitors??
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PostPost by: elanfan1 » Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:40 am

I'm not wholly sure of the reasons perhaps it would be better if Alan Morgan gave the full story rather than me.

I had heard that Chris Neils had intended to go but could not due to a prior family committment and that S West Lotus centre weren't going but not sure why (though it is one hell of a drag for them and they always took a lot of stock and cars).

Have also heard that other car clubs parts fairs have suffered and its probably down to one thing - ebay! and I'm afraid I'm guilty of that one!
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PostPost by: elansprint » Fri Sep 17, 2010 5:51 pm

I have been to this a couple of times & was not impressed the cost for entrance & fuel as generally it is not elan weather in october. I have always attended donnington which has now changed to Malvern & this seems to get less & less each year if it was not for the fact there was a classic car show on the Sunday when we went it would have been quite disappointing. Traders who pay to attend spend a couple of days before preparig stock to take two days after putting unsold parts away & pay staff over the weekend plus accomodation bills. These people need to see a return for this effort & i suspect many are not i will have to think twice before heading for Malvern next year all IMHO of course
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PostPost by: TeeJay » Fri Sep 17, 2010 6:56 pm

Thanks for your comments.
It does look like the number of traders is getting less year on year. Talking to some of the Traders at the Lotus Show in April, they were stating that the takings did not support the stand costs. Others made the comment that taking part was all about putting their company into the publics? eye and orders resulted after.
I think that the classic Lotus suppliers are well known to most and that their main consideration to Parts Fairs is their margins.

I use the shows for many different reasons, getting parts, talking to other owners, looking at all the cars and it?s always a good day out.

Well now I need to make other arrangements for all the parts I was hoping to collect and make more use of this great forum for some off the questions I was going to ask.

Interestingly I?ve just been looking at some of the photo?s I took at my first visit to Donnington many many years ago, it was full of traders and also included a free track side visit.
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PostPost by: bcmc33 » Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:48 pm

Some interesting comments to which I can relate. I've attended all the Lotus parts fairs over the past 5/6 years - never with the specific object of buying anything, but, of course, I have bought things.
I always go specifically to meet and talk to people of like minds and look at their cars.

Malvern is 10 miles further than Donnington from where I live, so its not the travelling, but I still prefer Donnington Please don't ask why.

On reflection I guess I prefer Donnington because I can get there using mainly country roads. To do the same to Malvern would probably add a further 20 miles or more.
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PostPost by: elansprint71 » Fri Sep 17, 2010 8:42 pm

Perhaps they should come to an arrangement with the organisers of Race Retro at Stoneleigh? They could run it in one of the adjacent halls and have loads of punters already on site. Not sure how they would make any money from it- don't forget that "Club" Lotus is actually a for-profit organisation, from which someone makes a living.
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PostPost by: elansprint » Mon Sep 20, 2010 9:40 am

Just a thought but the Stag owners club had this problem for their National day & 3 years ago they offered the traders free space to encourage attendance & as others have posted its chatting to other owners that is a big part of the show the larger the show the more people will go.
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PostPost by: nebogipfel » Mon Sep 20, 2010 11:39 am

I've said this before but I dare bet a show/parts fair in summer (Lotus weather) rather than the usual dates would do as well as all the other summer shows seem to do.
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PostPost by: Jason1 » Mon Sep 20, 2010 12:20 pm

Just got this email from Club Lotus



Dear member,

It is with great regret that I must inform you that we?ve been forced tocancel the Club Lotus Parts Fair at Malvern on October 9th. We?ve not taken this decision lightly but feel we cannot run the eventfollowing a very poor response from the expected stand holders. To date wehave only 10 autojumble stands booked and no Lotus traders at all - itwould be embarrassing to call that a show. I?m very sorry if you were looking forward to coming along but I?d preferto take a tough decision now rather than have to explain to you when youarrived why there were so few stands to visit. This doesn?t mean there will never be another Parts Fair in the future andwe?ll keep you up to date with our show plans for 2011. It also doesn?t mean there?s nothing happening at Malvern over the weekendof 9/10 October. Andrew Greenwood?s long established and very big GreatMalvern Autojumble will still be running on Saturday 9th together with hisClassic Car Show and Autumn Spares day on Sunday 10th. Furthermore we knowthat at least five of the autojumblers who had booked with us have simplymoved into the main autojumble so there will still be a Lotus elementthere. If you have already bought advance tickets from us they are still validfor the 9th or you can apply for a full refund.

Best regards,

Alan Morgan
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PostPost by: john.p.clegg » Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:11 am

And then there was this......


Hi John
I will refund your credit card ok and hopefully we will be back at Donington next year as the exhibition should be back up and running.
Kind Regards
Annemarie


Donington?

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PostPost by: elanfan1 » Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:56 am

I've been told that the main hall at Donington is being refurbished which would make it unavailable for the main Club Lotus Show in April but that will have been completed in time for the Parts Fair.

We can only hope that the traders will support a return to that venue. However if there is no material benefit to the traders in terms of increased revenue by attending I can see a continuing lack of support (unfortunately). It would seem possible that this could be the end of the Parts Fair in the short term as I don't think it could go ahead with autojumblers alone.

I think there maybe something to be said for allowing the exhibitors/autojumblers to have free space and rely on income from entry on the door. Door 'security' has been somewhat lax in the past and I am aware of people just walking into the show without a ticket - which must have an effect on the profitability of the show and the ability of the Club to afford to run it. It is not a charity.

Perhaps Alan Morgan would like to add to this thread?
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PostPost by: AlanM » Tue Sep 21, 2010 1:06 pm

Hi,

We were forced to cancel the Parts Fair simply because of a lack of support all round.

We only had 10 autojumble stands booked last week and no Lotus traders at all. We phoned all potential exhibitors and it became clear we would be lucky to get to 15 stands in total which does not make a show. To be fair to everyone the only honourable thing to do was make an early decision to cancel and apologise to all those who would be disappointed.

It?s fair to say the Parts Fair attendance was slightly disappointing last year. The success of any show is driven by the number and quality of visitors and if they decline the show declines. It starts to become a vicious circle...

We can only run a show if the trade will support us and it?s apparent they?re not very keen on Malvern. It's not that the traders are anti Club Lotus or anti shows - they've made that very clear - just anti Malvern. Therefore we?ve decided not to run any future shows there.

Now it?s worth emphasising here that I?m not laying any blame on anyone, just reviewing a situation. Anyway, it?s not so much about what?s happened in the past but how we can progress.

Shows exist for a number of reasons, both business and social. Our responsibility to both traders and visitors is to create a successful and enjoyable event. If the show fails to meet their expectations it will die and maybe that?s what?s happening to the Parts Fair. Having said that I?ve spoken to other show organisers and all have said 2010 has been their worst year in living memory. Money is tight at the moment so perhaps there is a future, who knows?

One thing it isn?t about is making a profit but any show has to cover its costs, which can be surprisingly high. If profit was our sole criteria we?d have dropped the Parts Fair years ago.

A quick word about Donington: Elanfan1?s post is absolutely correct regarding the planned refurbishment. However there is considerable work to do and at the moment it?s impossible to guarantee a completion date. I?ve been in regular contact with the new management and have a meeting with them next week to discuss things in more detail. One option may be moving to a later date for 2011. Any thoughts on this are very welcome.

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PostPost by: elanfan1 » Tue Sep 21, 2010 7:53 pm

Alan - thanks very much for posting and confirming/clarifying things.

I have always felt that Donington was just a bit too early in the year - lots of people would not bring their classic cars because of the likelyhood of poor weather or were still laid up for the winter. Late April maybe early May would be a good time but there are two problems with that as I see it:

Early May would probably clash with a Bank Holiday (Mayday weekend) and that will cause problems for people who are taking a break or have other plans and probably has a surprising effect on attendance.

Having 2 events in May (late May is usually the Track Day at Combe) would doubtless bring further problems.

Alan - what is your take on free autojumble stands and relying on attendance to cover costs? I'd have thought most people would pay ?10 to get in if they know there are going to be lots of stands - and a free stand would help with costs for exhibitors. A night in an Hotel plus food plus fuel etc is an expensive weekend with maybe ?80/?100 for a table too (sorry guessing stand costs as I don't know) when they are also there to make a few quid on the parts they are selling.

If there were say 50 stalls surely more people would come and the take overall would go up??

Cheers

Steve
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PostPost by: summerinmaine » Tue Sep 21, 2010 11:10 pm

I can well understand how the times have changed for these kinds of events. Permanent, or just the pendulum swinging? Who knows?

I was active in the local antique motorcycle club, and we sponsored a big event each fall at the horse track in Del Mar including a dirt track vintage mile; it was a very popular event for vendors of all kinds of esoteric parts. Then, as the Hardly-Ableson crowd became a greater and greater part of things, the vendors couldn't sell anything except triple-chromed farkles and butt jewelry. So they started to drop out, and we decided that it was too risky for our little club to sponsor; one losing year and we would have been toast. And now the track has been redone in poly-surface, so no "dirty" bikes allowed.

The "big-time" promoters have taken over, and the event quickly mutated into a chopper fest. With major oversight by Clear Channel, the media's idiot evil twin.

So it goes.
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