MartyE posted:... While York may still have to evolve if it wants to remain as it is, perhaps they'll find the EDTCA membership would rather go back to simpler meet with members only and have the dealers go away. It may not be a big event but I'm pretty sure they never envisioned what it turned into any ways.
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So this really begs the question, "What is truly driving the EDTCA to open the meet to the general public?". I ask this basic question, because there needs to be a clear metric by which the succss (or failure) of opening the show to the public for a few seasons can be measured:
- Is it MTH, Lionel and Atlas-O (i.e., the big importers) hoping to increase foot-traffic so more youth and families in general are exposed to the hobby?
- Or is it dealers (large and small) who want to increase sales to make the trip to York more manageable from an ROI perspective?
- Or is the TCA hoping to bolster attendance, with hopes of drawing more folks into the TCA?
The first driver is probably the most subjective in terms of having a clear metric by which to measure. Sure... attendance figures are easy to monitor, but will the increased attendance actually mean anything of significance? In other words... OK, a lot of people attended... now what? Are they buyers? Will they return again? Will they join the hobby? All good questions, but is it York's mission statement to grow the hobby like this?
The second driver is likely the most objective with respect to measuring success or failure... namely, did vendors and dealers see a noticeable increase in sales/profits for their trip? And will they need to bring different types of product to garner interest among the general public vs. long-time TCA members? For example, does a dealer like Charlie Ro or Nicholas Smith need to bring a bunch of starter sets and layout expansion sets that are added to their booth on days the public will attend? 'Cause I can say without a doubt that John Q. Public ain't gonna walk out with locomotives priced north of $500 or rolling stock pieces priced at $60+ each. Presumably, the dealers will want to exploit the increased opportunity to sell to a new audience, but there may be hidden costs to doing this too. Just sayin.. It's something dealers of all sizes need to plan for.
And lastly, the third driver listed above is relatively easy to measure, (i.e., attendance numbers). But it admittedly has some subjectivity to it in terms of qualifying attendees as actual buyers to any degree of significance. And this does get back to the original conundrum... Namely, if attendance figures go up but dealers don't generate more sales/profit, is that still a success?
Look... I don't have any silver bullet answers. I just hope the EDTCA doesn't try to turn York into an event that is all things to all people, 'cause that's only asking for trouble. It's really OK if York maintains a character all to its own, and does just that very, very well. Right?
David
