Calling all professional show promoters and entrepreneurial spirits . . .

[hwcglass]

(thoughts or comments? consider posting on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/notes/harold-williams-cooney/calling-all-professional-show-promoters-and-entrepreneurial-spirits-experienced-/307531412660), the original source of this material.)

Calling all professional show promoters and entrepreneurial spirits experienced in the world of glass pipes.

I call upon the people of this great borosilicate nation to find amongst their ranks an individual or entity with the intelligence and financial resources sufficient to establish and operate in professional perpetuity an annual retail glass pipe show in the city of Tucson, Arizona on the Monday and Tuesday following the bead shows and Sonoran flame off.

This retail only event should seek to draw to Tucson sellers whose individual artistry and lampworking prowess actively promote the promise and capabilities of our material and whose personalities inspire dedication and ingenuity in those around them.

This show should seek to acquire for itself a credible reputation amongst collectors for providing a deeply intense encounter with both the longstanding activates related to the Gem Show and to best that lampworking glass pipe makers have to offer.

Any perspective promoter should carry well the concepts of professional collaboration and should mark hard upon their manifesto the intention to work with and actively promote for all of the other shows in the area, calling this process its single most effective method for promoting itself.

I stand ready and willing to share with anyone with serious intentions the visions and formulas which I have use to construct this concept in my head. And may I assure you, as one man well experienced in entrepreneurial hallucinations: a carefully orchestrated event of the type and measure that I have described will be a crowning gem in the realm of glass pipes and in flameworking communities of all varieties for decades to come. There is money to be made.

Find me this person and let me share with them the good word.

Let the hunt begin.

[Greymatter Glass]

hey, look, I caught one!

damn... he got away.

[hwcglass]

okay, so maybe only I think it's a good idea.

[Ben Burton Glass]

I think it's a great idea Roldy!! But those are some big shoes to fill.... I hope someone steps up to the plate....

aloha!

[jedi glassworks]

I heard some people talking about a pipe flameoff before the best bead show next year. That would be great! I think there are a few shops that might know where to start.

Bryan

[Ben Burton Glass]

HWC has a great idea here... There are already a lot of glass artists, collectors and afficianados taht roll through Tucson around the Best Bead Show and Gem fairs... Having a large pipe show directly following BBS would draw more crowds in addition to the already a large amount of interest in the area at the time.

I was at the show this past week and the pipers were out and about, with some really really nice gear. There was money being made and more to be had, especially if someone were to organize an event to draw everyone too...

There's definitely interest, and there's definitely money to be made, but like I said earlier, those are some big shoes to fill....

aloha!

[Sparkey]

Isn't Chameleon Glass down there? They may be able to host....

[909]

Fffppphh

[Abe Fleishman]

I think that a show like this is a great idea, but to get all the shop owners/collectors and or retail sales for a large group of people would be hard. The Champs and AGE show follow very shortly after and this might cause people to spread them selfs too thin, but who knows. You should talk to Ellan at AGE to see if she has any ideas. Let me know if anything comes out of this, I would be down to help.
Abe

[Glow Joe]

Hey H!!!

After living in that part of the desert for 7 years...I have a few ideas....though I think Abe is right on about the timing issue.....
Will make a couple calls...

Peace!

[hwcglass]

from a facebook comment:

someone: there actually used to be a show like this in Las Vegas - I don't know if it is still going, but the guy who ran it would be the one to talk to - it was called the Contemporary Tobacco Association show ;-)

me: Yes, the CHAMPS show is still champ; it's a wholesale show and I think any successful Tucson show should seek to *not* compete with it. CHAMPS buyers come for the product and the experience of Vegas; buyers will come to Tucson for the same reasons but rather than an expanse of wholesale product and gambling they will come for the expanse of retail and for breadth of cultures those sellers represent.

[hwcglass]

think about this show as an adjunct to what already is in Tucson. pipe makers come to experience what the gem show has to offer, to learn and be inspired, and wile they are there they put on a show of there own.

retail. short show, two days. focus the promotion of the show on a 'glass pipe centric' tour of tucson.

[hwcglass]

think about this show as an opportunity for the wholesale education of the open market.

this makes the tucson show opportunity to promote the vages shows.

[hwcglass]

there are very few opportunities for *all* of the competing groups, organizations and businesses in this market to promote themselves together. very few places where all of the players can stand tall next to each other.

let tucson be that place. Let CHAMPS and AGE come and promote themselves to potential buyers, sellers and media moguls. Bring in information on the importance of this forum and TC. Show off the achievements of AGI and the many national flameworking collaborative events.

take all of the parts of this market and put them in one room; all of the players, be they sellers, resellers, promoters, manufactures or distributors can come to tucson and rally their market in front of very receptive public. let this show be the place the glass pipe market puts its best face forward to the public.

[vetropod]

hmmm, does this thread portend H getting back into the 3-holed bead market? :D

[hwcglass]

hmmm, does this thread portend H getting back into the 3-holed bead market? :D

no.

[Greymatter Glass]

I heard a few ideas down there also.. it's a cool idea. The only way I see it happening is to start small - can't take on CHAMPS/AGE, but you could certainly make a small retail show get some attention and draw a crowd, even if said crowd doesn't spend money right away.

[hwcglass]

I heard a few ideas down there also.. it's a cool idea. The only way I see it happening is to start small - can't take on CHAMPS/AGE, but you could certainly make a small retail show get some attention and draw a crowd, even if said crowd doesn't spend money right away.

exactly.

I think a good deal of success could be obtained through simply bringing pipe sellers down to Tucson so that they can experience all of the inspirational things already going on there; not just a trade show where a person will travel, check into a hotel, sell and then go home. Make it a travel experience. Provide for sellers all that there is to offer at Gem Show. The same would be true of buyers.

And let's be honest; you don't need a retail pipe show to sell a pipe retail. Just getting makers and buyers in the same setting will work. There is a bus system that transports people around Gem Show, a totally public and open ride to all the shows that pay for the bus to serve their show. What if there was a guided-tour-like transportation system for this pipe show; a totally private closed transportation system for this pipe show. Go and see everything, be inspired and educated in the nearly 100 selling venues in Tucson, makers and appreciators, manufacturers and distributors all sharing the same experience together; you end up making a few sales out of your buss seat? Great.

Not your traditional show.

Small and simple, focus on providing the 'Gem Show' experience to buyers and sellers in the pipe market.

[newmexicomagma]

As a piper it would be horrible timing. For me tucson is a nice break away from pipes and a time to network and see what's new. For me and as a business i probably wouldn't set up due to getting ready for the vegas show.