Synth and pedal expo

[cubadog]

I travelled by car to London from Norfolk today to attend the synth and pedal expo. I was really disappointed - having attended Synthfest which was crowded but you could see the exhibits and chat to the people on the stands. Today I could get into the synth bit - but the relatively small room was packed to capacity - and it was impossible to get near the stands. The guitar pedal part had a long queue which means I could not even get in. Given the rail strikes I guess the organisers should be applauded for their success - I will not be attending again and I look forward to this years Synthfest as a more sensibly organised event.

The good news no GAS so no grovelling when I got in!!

Did anyone else attend - was I just unlicky?

[Martin Walker]

That is indeed a shame cubdog, and I feel your disappointment after a long journey, especially after you enjoyed the SOS Synthfest in Sheffield so much

As for you being 'unlicky', I couldn't possibly comment

Mind you, it's perhaps it's slightly unfair to blame the organisers because so many people turned up On the other hand combining synths and pedals into one expo did mean that both guitarists and keyboard/synth players would be interested, so its popularity perhaps became unwieldy.

Certainly there seemed to be a lot on offer during the day, including these workshops:



Shame you couldn't get into them, so roll on the next Synthfest!

[Eddy Deegan]

I'm still smarting from missing the last Synthfest (and related activities) after getting covid at an inopportune moment and I'm hugely looking forward to the next one because I've now got twice the enthusiasm to spend when it arrives

[Arpangel]

I was there, giving a demonstration of my new wallet "Chasity belt"

[Sam Spoons]

Do you mean this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlmOgpvm_pE

[Arpangel]

Do you mean this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlmOgpvm_pE

I’ve just done a spoonerism of Sam Spoons, it’s "Sam Spoons"

[Sam Spoons]

but phonetically it's "Spam Soons" (I would credit the originator but can't remember who it was )

[Arpangel]

I’m hearing "Spoonage Daydream"

[Paolo De Gregorio]

Hi, my name is Paolo and I'm the organizer of the London event.

I'm sorry to hear you were disappointed by the long queue and the crwded synth room - I can't deny that it was a little too packed.

There are a few reasons behind that, which we'll definitely keep in mind for next year, because we learn from past experiences.

Although with my team we organized several shows like this one in the US and Canada, it was our first event in London (where I lived in my '20s), and when people do something for the first time it's likely to have unexpected things happening.

In this case, the unexpected thing was the "show up" rate of our RSVPs, which was well above 50% for this show, while in our experience normally hovers around 30%.

That's the problem with free shows: you never know how many people will actually show up, while the attendance of a ticketed event is easier to predict because - having paid - almost everyone shows up.

Another issue was - admittedly - a mistake we made. We had two adjacent and connected rooms and we organized the pedal vendors in one room and the synth ones in the other, allowing in people according to the capacity of BOTH rooms combined.

Problem is, the synth crowd was a lot bigger than the pedal crowd, which caused the synth room to fill up a lot more than the pedal one, which remained manageable for most of the show. Had we mixed pedal and synths in the two rooms, the traffic would have been more even and manageable.

There was also another factor: when we planned this show back in 2019 we wanted to do a 2-day weekend event (all our events are two days), which would have helped spread the traffic. Complications related to COVID, Brexit and the venue's rent going up 30% convinced us to stick to a one day event.

Anyway, we have received very good feedback from the vendors - from their perspective, having a full room is certainly not a bad thing - so we'll come back in 2024 with a bigger venue and this experience under our belt to organize a gear show more relevant and enjoyable - hope to see you there!

P

[Drew Stephenson]

Thanks for posting Paolo, good luck with next year's event.

[Folderol]

Thanks for posting Paolo, good luck with next year's event.

Same here.
Oh, and it's a pleasant (and rare) surprised to see such a detailed explanation - as well as future plans.

[cubadog]

Thanks for posting such a detailed reply. As the original poster I appreciate it.

I look forward to next years event - and will attend based on your comments.

I guess you have to make mistakes to improve well done for being honest and admitting them.

Hopefully see you next year