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Future AAW Symposiums

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I have always been curious as to why the AAW has not ever looked into another symposium in Louisville KY.

It was and will probably will always be the largest and most profitable AAW Symposium ever. Over 2400 attended according to the count I was told but even if it wasn't 2400 it was the biggest.

Now I am sure there are going to be a few comments on how bad the hotel was, not enough room in the demo rooms. Of course not. No one ever thought there would be that many walk-ins and pre-registers after the fact. No, the hotel didn't have the room in the banquet hall for dinner so they had to move it to the convention center. BUT, there are other locations in Louisville other than the Gault House.
The convention center is connected to many of the hotels for obvious reasons and is quite easy to get to restaurants from hotels and the convention center.

Now, I know that the AAW is a Non-profit business but it is still a business that has to make A LOT of money to stay viable.

Since the attendance at the symposiums both in attendees and vendors, including myself, are slowly dropping in numbers, I would think that they would want to look back at what made Louisville so GREAT.

LOCATION!, LOCATION!, LOCATION!,
Draw a circle of 7-8 hour drive around some of these symposium locations and see what you get. WATER! DESERT! MOUNTAINS!
Now I am not saying that every symposium has to be here in Louisville. But come on, Tampa FL, San Jose'CA, St Paul MN, (only because it was the 25th) Hartford CT, Albuquerque NM, Richmond VA, Portland OR, Louisville KY.
If the AAW wants to draw more people to the symposiums, they need to look into better locations that are easy to drive to.

There was more POSITIVE talk about the Louisville symposium after the fact than any other symposium the AAW has had in the past 10 years.

Just my thoughts.

Clay Johnson
Louisville, KY
 

hockenbery

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hi Clay,

I'm sure the AAW will be back in the Ohio valley.
Akron had a great attendance, Louisville had a great attendance

Louisville was great location relative to where AAW members live and it had an extra big attendance because of the 20th anniversary.

i think you are wrong about the vendors.
Tampa actually sold all the vendor spaces. vendor support remains strong.

the AAW keeps getting larger so I like to look at attendance as a percent on membership.


five biggest by percent of membership.
yr, city, attendees, pct
1996 Greensboro 940 14.2%
2006 Louisville 1830 13.9% *** 20th aniiversary
1998 Akron 964 12.7%
2000 Charlotte 1102 12.5%
2011 St Paul 1707 12.2% *** 25th anniversary

also when we look at AAW members within 600 miles
the map below shows 2013 AAW members within 600 miles of the symposium locations.
Left to right. San Jose 2012, phoenix'2014, St Paul 2011 , Tampa 2013 , Hartford 2010.
Hartford should have had a huge attendance with so many people within the radius. but it is the smallest in the past five years.
go figure

Al
 

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Hi Al

Percentages do not cut it Al. I would rather have larger numbers than larger percentages. It's a business concept.

A large percentage of a small group isn't as good as a larger number of people. See your numbers below. And I really doubt that anniversary's have anything to do with it other than the AAW may add a little more pizzaz to the symposium than normally. The only thing that I remember different between 2006 and 2011 was that Oneway gave away lathes. I don't remember hearing anything happen at St Paul.
And I betcha that if everything that happened in Hartford after the symposium had been handled better than St Paul would of been A LOT BETTER. But that is done with.

1996 Greensboro 940 14.2%
2006 Louisville 1830 13.9% *** 20th aniiversary
1998 Akron 964 12.7%
2000 Charlotte 1102 12.5%
2011 St Paul 1707 12.2% *** 25th anniversary

Not for sure where the 1830 from Louisville came from, that seems low...But anyway...What you need is numbers.
I do not know what it cost to attend as a non vendor, but say the symposium attendee pays $200.00 for the weekend. Wouldn't you rather have 1830 paying $200.00 ($366,000.00) than 940 ($188,000)???? Big difference.

Vendors??? Couple of comments here. Not for sure how many vendor booths there where at each of the symposiums. BUT you might have sold all the spots but did you have as many spots. Will just say you sold 100% of 100 spots which sounds good. But if the number of spots has decrease over all than that isn't good. Also, are you getting a lot of one timers. Meaning they support you that year and then you never see them again?

As far as the map goes, I couldn't open it.

But the bottom line is go where you have the most attendance and I see that it is Louisville. All the others have drop drastically. It should be a no brainer in my opinion.

Thanks for your thoughts. Hope the powers to be that make these wise decisions actually think these things through a little more.

Hope to see you sometime.
Clay
 
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Percentages DO Matter

Percentages do not cut it Al. I would rather have larger numbers than larger percentages. It's a business concept.

A large percentage of a small group isn't as good as a larger number of people. See your numbers below.Clay

Clay,

Percentages DO cut it! The trend that was illustrated by Al's numbers show that the AAW was growing more slowly in later years and getting a smaller percentage of attendees at the same time.

1996 Greensboro 940 14.2%
2006 Louisville 1830 13.9% *** 20th aniiversary
1998 Akron 964 12.7%
2000 Charlotte 1102 12.5%
2011 St Paul 1707 12.2% *** 25th anniversary

Membership

1996: 6620
1998: 7590
2000: 8816
2006: 13165
2011: 13992

The only outlier in the trend was Louisville, and I would have to agree with Al that the 20th Anniversary had a lot to do with that, since it was heavily promoted. Even at that, note that the percentages overall only range +/- 2%. I must conclude that the key for increased attendance is for the AAW to continue to add members and to AT LEAST maintain the current percentage range of attendees.
 

hockenbery

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One of the goals in selecting sites is to locate the AAW Symposium around the country so that it is within a days drive of every member every 5 years.
While far from perfect the AAW does a reasonable job of covering the US and southern Canada every five years.
This aspect of serving the membership is not compatible with having the biggest attendance every year.

The up and down economy in recent years have had an effect on AAW membership and symposium attendance.
I predicted we would have have close to 2000 attending Richmond in 2008 but the economy crashed and we had 1644 second largest at the time and now 3rd largest.

Having reasonable attendance lets the AAW keep the cost relatively low.
Many comparable professional conferences cost 3 to 6 time what the AAW costs.
Also the symposium is budgeted as a break even event but having large attendance keeps the registration fee low.

The AAW Is always the largest annual woodturning event.

Back to the original post, the Ohio river valley area is a great area for a symposium.

Al
 
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You know what folks? It really doesn't matter.

If the AAW isn't really interested in growing the symposiums and only interested in percentages than that is fine.

Hey what do I know, I'v only been in business for myself for 22 years.

Thanks for the conversation.

Clay
 

AlanZ

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Clay,

No one ever said that they were only interested in percentages. That's just one set of numbers. As mentioned, moving the venue to various parts of the country to enable driving to the event for its member is another of what I am sure are MANY considerations in venue selection. The committee is serving a lot of different masters (members, vendors, venues, funding)... all have to be considered.
 
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You know what folks? It really doesn't matter.

If the AAW isn't really interested in growing the symposiums and only interested in percentages than that is fine.

Hey what do I know, I'v only been in business for myself for 22 years.

Thanks for the conversation.

Clay

Clay, I'm still interested in what your proposal is regarding Louisville and the symposiums. Are you suggesting making it the only place or revisiting there on a regular basis?

I think an undesirable outcome of site repetition would be that the local chapters, which expend tremendous amounts of time and energy to help pull it off, would burn out pretty quickly. The AAW would then need to hire "volunteers" to fill that void, which would weaken the sense of ownership and local pride that members have in the organization.

Keep in mind the AAW is an educational organization, not a business.
 
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Clay, I'm still interested in what your proposal is regarding Louisville and the symposiums. Are you suggesting making it the only place or revisiting there on a regular basis?

I think an undesirable outcome of site repetition would be that the local chapters, which expend tremendous amounts of time and energy to help pull it off, would burn out pretty quickly. The AAW would then need to hire "volunteers" to fill that void, which would weaken the sense of ownership and local pride that members have in the organization.

Keep in mind the AAW is an educational organization, not a business.

Oh, but it is a business. It is a "NON" profit business. The AAW does things to make money. Yes, it is an educational organization as well that has a payroll and employees and bills...which makes it a business. It files tax returns, and I am assuming it pays payroll taxes.... Call it what you want but it is a business.

On to your other question. I understand what the AAW tries to do as far as finding locations that somewhere some time everyone will be able to go to the symposium and trying to be fair to the membership. But bouncing around the country every year instead of finding places that you can go back to that work seams to be a better plan in my opinion.

Example....
If you had 3 facilities across the country east, central and west, about center of the US that worked (the main thing it HAS to work) and you went back every three years. Then you have some negotiating power with those facilities that if they started playing games like some of these places have in the past you can go to them and say "hey that's not what we agreed to fix it or we are not coming back". But now, it is here and there and everywhere and the facility can play games because they know we aren't coming back in most cases anyway.

If they are center of the country then people can come from all around they would grow, people would plan and knowing that in three more years it is going to be close to them again.

There are other organizations that every year their shows are in the same place and are very successful. They have found that it works for the majority of the membership.

I am not saying it has to be Louisville. But we all know that Louisville has worked in the past and works well. We have some of the biggest events here that people come from all over the country to participate in.

As far as burning out the local membership, it is every three years which is plenty of time to "refresh your sole". I understand what you are saying. When it was here we thought our local club was going to get some help from the surrounding clubs and such and they never showed up, but got the reward anyway after all was said and done. Sure there may be some added employees, but that would be great. The AAW would be growing and be able to afford to pay some more people. Nothing wrong with that.

Hope this answers your question.

Clay
 
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