I am starting this thread to make people think.

Have you ever attended an in-store or regional event?

In the heyday of collecting there used to be lots and lots of store events. Bill and Nancy were also younger (chronologically) and able to travel. I doubt there are many who could maintain the travel schedule Bill used to keep. As time went on, the number of signing events started to decrease.

With the sale of HL and the desire of Bill and Nancy to actually retire, the event schedule became even more thinned out. To the credit of Lighthouse Marketing, they did ask for Bill to continue to do a number of signing and regional events. Of course, the number of events has been significantly reduced as the Younger’s have tried to enjoy their well earned retirement.

In recent years the attendance at many of the signing events has significantly decreased. For a signing event to be worthwhile to a dealer, they have to sell a fair amount of product which means they have to have a fair number of customers. If dealers don’t have successful events they are not likely to want to have another.

For the past three years we have tried to move the regionals around. We have had one in the northeast, one in the mid-Atlantic, one in the western GL, one on the Gulf coast and one in the Midwest. We have done reasonably well on attendance at most of the events, but I believe we need to hit at least 100 participants at each to make them appear to be worthwhile to HL.

Now before we start up with the choruses of “well, you didn’t have a signing or regional event in my backyard” please remember that it just isn’t possible to go to everyone’s neighborhood. That is why we have tried to move the regional events around, to give more collectors an opportunity every once in a while. I have also tried to add some additional lighthousing opportunities to 5 of the 6 regionals over the past three years to give people an additional incentive to attend. Tony has continued to provide great prizes and give-aways for the events. For the past three years we have invited a local dealer to set up on site to allow you to purchase the regional piece. Starting last year, Tony agreed to make the regional event also a signing event so collectors could easily obtain the signing event piece if they wanted one.

I am looking at possible locations for future regionals. Probably not inclined to go back to the same old locations over and over. If we were going to do that, we would find a way to revive the ICE shows and hold regionals on those weekends. They were always the best attended regionals, and the central Great Lakes area would be ideal for me . . .

I fully realize that participation is driven by many things: your ability to get time off; the cost of travel; the cost of life in general; your changing collecting interests. We have tried to make the regional events a good value for the cost to participate. I think I have been pretty successful at doing that. I do fully realize that with the cost of things today many just can’t travel as they once did. I also realize that those who are able to participate have a great time hanging out and visiting with their friends and learning what is happening with their favorite collectible – and maybe doing a little quality lighthousing along the way.

What are your thoughts? Have your interests changed? Do you have thoughts for regional locations? If so, feel free to email them to me along with your reasoning. Those that know me will realize that while I will accept ideas, I won’t generally comment on pros or cons or give ideas of what the “short list” of locations might be. Who knows, maybe your locations have already been considered . . .