Star Tech Journal

July 1996
CID
STAR*TECH
Journal
... ALL THESE TRADE SHOWS?
FY I
only trade people. Sure it was fun
for us, but in the end the con-
sumer decides what the next
number one song is going to be.
Trade shows are fine and dandy
if business can prop up the cost,
but I don't think that's the case
in the amusement industry right
now.
The bottom line is that few op-
erators attended ACME but
many came to the distributor
open houses. That's it in a nut
shell, and it's been moving in this
direction for the last few years.
The operators are not disinter-
ested in new product, they are
disinterested in going to expen-
sive and time consuming trade
shows. So I propose the follow-
ing: Have a trade show, say, once
a year. Better yet, why not dis-
play your "wares" at the diversely
attended Fun Expo? Then, Host
frequent spotlight shows at dis-
tributor showrooms who want to
have them. We at Betson Pacific
hosted a couple of well attended
spotlight shows this year. We
moved product and it didn't cost
us or the manufacturer hardly
anything at all! Manufacturers
should contact us when they have
a pending product coming out
and schedule a mini show. We'll
get the word out and the custom-
ers who will really be buying
your games will come! Even if we
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don't like the game, hey, we'll
have to order them anyway if
operators express interest in your
piece. This is a win win situation
for everyone! It addresses Mr.
Adlum's statement of everyone
"needing it but not wanting it"
(people would attend a once a
year show) and at the same time
addresses the manufacturers
need of staying in touch with
their distributors and operators
who buy their products on a
more frequent bases.
Is this article supposed to be con-
troversial? No, but I'm sure it
could be conceived that way de-
pending on what side of the fence
you're on. Is it naive? I don't
think so; trade shows are cer-
tainly necessary for reasons not
discussed in this article, and I
never said to eliminate them en-
tirely. My job is to watch out for
the average operator and make
sure he stays in business. That
means we as a community must
provide operators with an afford-
able means of looking at possible
future purchases and to provide
him these games at the lowest
possible price. My friends, I think
we could cut down on trade
shows, emphasize distributor
spotlight shows at next to no cost,
and pass the savings on to the
operator. What do you think?
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