[TheForge] Conference electricity

[Bruce Freeman]

Frosty,
Great ideas.  

But I, for one, hate being nickle-and-dimed-to-death.  If I pay $35 "general admission", I expect to see everything.  That's how Disneyland does it!

Hence, I suggest that all charges be posted on entering or in advertisements.  That way folks know in advance what exactly they're paying for.

Then we could post you at your forge as shill outside the closed blacksmiths demo area, with some sweet young things selling the $50 admission tickets to that area...

Bruce
NJ

>>> frosty at customcpu.com 3/15/2007 5:22 PM >>>
We're not so very far apart now are we? <grin>

As you say, bringing fresh blood in is important though 
from the other forums I read there seems to be quite a 
bit of interest in smithing from youngsters.

Holding the public's interest for more than about 15 
mins. can be a problem. I manage a bit longer but I'm a 
natural at entertaining patter. . . BS. <innocent grin> 
Something I learned doing demos that really helped is 
the difference in demoing for smiths and demoing for 
the public.

An audience of smiths wants to see a better way of 
doing things, new tricks, tips, materials, etc. An 
audience of tourists wants to see a show.

To the ends of making my smithing demos theater I 
always had something BIG in the fire so the folk got to 
see sparks fly. I had to practice bad fire management 
to get their attention, they want to SEE FIRE not a 
well controlled closed dome. I rapidly discovered if I 
broke the dome open exposing it's exceptionally hot 
innards I got oohs and aahs from the audience. Many 
stuck around for the next demo.

I also discovered that doing a repair job or making 
something to order drew a larger audience than simple 
demo projects. Big hot iron draws more audience even 
though there's less really going on. Smoke, glowing 
iron and noise are what attract tourists. The smiths at 
the event will be at the educational events.

Heck, we could demo how to do demos for the smiths in 
the audience.

Anyway, my point is not closing the doors to anyone 
who's interested, even if it's just a way to get out of 
the house for an afternoon. Deciding on how to charge 
spectators may be a problem but I think it's already 
been solved in the main.

When you go to a large fair you pay general admission. 
This gives you access to the midway, food consessions, 
vendors booths and public shows. If you want to go to 
the concert, see the standup comedian, etc. you pay 
admission at the door.

This would serve to stratify admission prices and 
audiences. It would be an intuitive guide to spectators 
about what they were paying for. For instance if 
general admission was $35/day and they were looking at 
a fenced in area wondering whether they wanted to watch 
this show they'd have a good clue if the admission was 
$50. Nobody would be excluded but they'd be filtered. 
Only people with serious interest would pay the 
additional charge to see something primarily of 
interest only to blacksmiths.

Package deals, day rates, weekend passes, etc. would 
all be in order. Basically it'd allow the general 
public to attend for a reasonable price and still cater 
to the professional.

Brainstorming is good.

Frosty
-------------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.

http://www.artmetalradio.com/ 

From: "Grover Richardson" 
<grover.richardson at gtri.gatech.edu>


> Ahh.  OK, tourist are welcome, but they ain't gonna 
> come.  Tourists
> are welcomed, in my mind, at any event.  But I have 
> seen zero at
> conferences.
> I may be wrong, but it seems to me that conferences 
> are staged by
> blacksmiths, for other blacksmiths.  The emphasis is 
> on showing me how to do
> something bigger and better than I currently am 
> doing.  I don't know of many
> other people who would pay to get into a blacksmith 
> conference (particularly
> at a high level of cost) who are not extremely 
> interested in the subject.
> Try to get me to pay for myself to get into a medical 
> conference, or
> to go to Sturgis (well, I'm working on that one<G>). 
> I certainly am
> curious, but the interest just isn't that large.
>
> ON THE OTHER HAND:::::
>
> I have been to lots of events that had blacksmith 
> demos.  A demo that is 10
> minutes long, generally is considered almost too 
> long.  People have a short
> attention span, particularly if the wife and children 
> are along.  Rememember
> tourist.
>
> SOOOO:::::
>
> At a conference, allow tourists to visit for a day 
> fee of some
> nominal amount.  Get the Boy Scouts (or the local 
> high school or college
> classes) special entry for a day to see how things 
> are done.  Find a way to
> showcase the event to outsiders.  Get the locals 
> interested in green coal.
> Some folk call this "outreach."  I call it getting 
> the next generation
> interested.  Amateur radio has a problem.  As the 
> years go by, the average
> age of the operator is going up faster than the 
> calendar<G>.
> So, if you give low entry fees to a certain class of 
> individual,
> there could be argument that "we" are loosing money. 
> Not so.  What is
> happening is that new people are being drawn into the 
> system who would not
> be there anyway.  They may pay a low fee for a visit 
> the first year, but
> next year (or later) they may come back as a full 
> paid blacksmith.  If not,
> at least they have exposure and will have some 
> knowledge of how things are
> done if they wish something hammered in the future.
>
> Though outsiders may not spend a lot at the 
> conference, they will
> probably like what they see, and buy from one of us 
> at a later date.
>
> Woof
>

_______________________________________________
Manage membership or unsubscribe at:
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge 
theforge mail list group photo site is
http://www.photoaccess.com 
Login:  blacksmithblacksmith at hotmail.com 
password:  anvil
___________