Issue 58   May / June 2008
Editorial By Roy Gregory

  I know it's only May, but the year comes round so quickly, especially when your issues are two months apart. Which means that it's time to start thinking about the Autumn shows again...

Having run a public demonstration in Denver last year, and dabbled a little with one in Bristol, it's time to firm-up plans for future events, making our demonstrations more frequent and more accessible. The problem has always been that the demonstrations need considerable planning and effort (both by ourselves and those companies loaning equipment) and in order to work effectively, they have to he closed door, ticketed presentations: which limits the number of people who get to see the results of all the hard work. So, with the Bristol and Manchester shows within a month of each other each spring, London and Denver enjoying similar proximity in the Autumn, why not create a demonstration for each pair of shows? That way we maximize on the planning and twice as many people get to see each demo. Okay, so we can't use the same actual system in London and Denver, but at least we're cutting down on duplication.

The other big frustration for readers is when tickets run out. This was a problem in Manchester this year and a near crisis in Denver, where the organizers had rather under estimated the popularity of the demonstrations. With that in mind we've got a much larger space in Denver and we've organized a similarly large room in London, although that means that it will have to he in the Renaissance Hotel across the Bath Road (along with a number of other companies choosing to exhibit "off-site"). No, this isn't an attempt to create a rival show — it's just a necessary step to ensure we get the right conditions for our presentation and we will of course also be present at the main site. Which brings me finally, to the question of tickets. We will be trialing advanced ticketing for the London and Denver demonstrations, open to subscribers only. Details will be released in the next issue so watch this space...