Talk about a kerfuffle.
After struggling through a late winter snow, the Chicago show decided last year that March was not the best time to rely on a lake weather or count on an early Spring. No, instead, they chose to move the show to a more agreeable weekend in … April. The only issue with their chosen weekend was the inconvenient fact that the Chester Group was already running a show that particular weekend — the New York Audio Show.
As a result of this scheduling collision, the Chester Group decided to move it’s new-ish NYC audio extravaganza to a new date. In September. During Rosh Hashanah. Two weeks before the biggest audio event of the year, the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest.
Oy vey.
It’s probably not going to be a surprise when I say that, no matter what happens, this year’s New York show will be something of a question mark. The entire population of New York City is not Jewish, so it’s quite likely that there will still be folks available for audio entertainment this particular weekend, but the segment of the population that would be affected by the holiday is not non-zero. I know that the holiday is the reason at least one local dealer is declining to support the show. Of course, there are at least three other major Manhattan dealers that have yet to support the show, regardless of the date, so I’m not sure counting on the local “experts” is a good idea in any case. Which, while I’m at it, is utterly perplexing to me. Two years ago, the New York show saw something like 3,000 audiophiles on it’s very first day — a Friday — and yet, only ¼ of the local sellers bothered to stand up and count them. If it were me, I’d be fascinated by the opportunity to swipe market share from my competitors. In fact, if I were a vendor and one of my local dealerships declined to support a venue with such a large captive audience, I’d be wondering why I haven’t dropped them as a dealer in favor of one willing to actually attempt to sell my products. But hey, that’s just me, and what do I know?
So, aside from the challenges facing the location and the date, here we are. three days from the third New York Audio Show.
The new venue, the third in as many years, has relocated the show out of Manhattan to the New York Marriott Brooklyn Bridge Hotel. Here’s to hoping for yet another full house and the best show of the three.
I’m planning to do something of a drive by, here. I’m not sure about the size of this show, but whatever, I’ll be shooting this one solo (oh noes!), so I’m hoping you all will cut me some slack. The hope is to get the show wrapped up in time for RMAF, but we’ll have to see.
For those of you interested in catching up to me, I think I might be the MC for a seminar on the future of audio’s high-end on Saturday, with John Darkø of Digital Audio Review and Art Dudley of Stereophile.
Past New York Audio Show coverage can be found here:
Lookin’ forward to it, Scott.
Three shows, five weeks … ahhh, it’s good to be ALIVE!
If nothing else, it’ll be great to see you, David! Break a leg ….
This next month is an exhibitor’s nightmare. New York, in yet another different hotel, shipping directly from show to show to make RMAf’s freight deadline of next Friday, then praying that the system gets back to the East Coast in time to drive it up to Toronto for TAVES, (in a new hotel) for setup October 30th.
3 shows in 5 weeks. Yippee Skippy. May the gods of shipping and logistics be gentle . . .