BTS Exhibition: An Organisers thoughts.

[Ray Hale]

Hi everyone I have been following the various threads on a number of sites and up to yet I have resited the temptation to respond. I admit I have been hurt by some of the comments and indeed I had resolved not to rise to it.
However I have seen a couple of comments that attack me personally and cannot let it pass.

I would therfore make the following points regarding a number of issues.

1. I ,nor any other BTS commitee member have ever made any money form the exhibition. We work for the membership and all money raised goes back into the club. We do not run the exhibition as a private venture.

2. I did not deliberatly oversell tables or mislead the membership as to the size of the event. Last year we had 31 traders with 135 tables.This year we had 39 traders with 165 tables. The floor space was actually more than in previous years but due to the number of vistors and the layout, it seemed smaller. I fail to understand why someone would book one table and then bring enough stock to fill the Albert Hall.Some traders did not return their forms and left it to the last minute to phone me and attempt to book, relying on my good nature to get them in. I tried to be accomodating but obviously this was the wrong descion. Next year NO form...NO table

3. If you were dissapointed with the exhibition then I was for sure. I run the show to provide an outlet for the members to buy their spiders. People forget that this is my hobby too and I didnt get to see or buy anything.

4. I admit that there were problems but this was a new venue for us all, as Woodgreen indeed once was, and despite my best efforts I missed a few things. This will be rectified by next year. The halls were hot and stuffy and crowded but I was at a loss as how to solve this as the air-conditioning was on a timer. There is another hall that I could have used but I decided not too. There is also a cafeteria area but again I made the choice not to open it due to the weather. The catering was ovepriced and poor quality but this was supplied by the centre. This has been addressed.
5. Despite the problems I notice that everyone seemed to get what they were looking for at a very good price. Kettring may have had more room
( because it had less people and only a handful of spider dealers) but we try to make our exhibition a friendly event and not simply a money making scheme.
6. Maybe its time I moved over and let another BTS Commitee member take the helm. For 15 years I have given my all to the event and as they say " you are only as good as your last failure". The problems with the venue will be sorted out either by myself or my sucessor but rest assured the BTSwill continue to supply you with the premier arachnid/ entomolgical event in the UK. I ask you to bear with us and return to next years exhibition. Who know I may even have time to speak to some of you without being called away to replenish the toilet roll in the ladies.

Ray Hale
BTS Exhibition Organiser

[Mike Conabeer]

Ray, reading some of the comments from other fora it appears that the main negative is about lack of space & I feel somewhat to blame as on the Saturday we re-arranged the main hall a little to fit in some of the tables from the small hall, maybe if we hadn't done this people would've been happier! With regard to the food, all I can say on tht is if you didn't like the prices most of you had driven past a McDonalds on the way in so knew where to find something else & pricing on the food was and always is beyond our control as food is provided by outside caterers.
As Ray has already said there are bound to be teething problems with any new venue & these will or have been dealt with in preparation for next year's event which I am sure will be bigger & better than this year's. As a point of interest Kettering only has about 10 regular spider dealers attending compared to our 39! I would also like to wager that there were at least a proportionate number more visitors to our show!

I apologise in advance if anyone finds my words harsh but the committee & their dedicated bunch of helpers (& Lee!!!) work like trojans on the day of the show & very few of us get to even look around the show itself, I for one was on the main gates from 8 til 12 & boy did the sun get me!!!

I now step down from my soapbox before I get shot down from it!!!

Mike.

[Richard Goram]

Well I don't really see why anyone would have reason to complain about anything. I'm sure 99.9% of people who attended had an absoluteley fantastic day, as I did, and understand how difficult it must be to organise such an event.
I would like to congratulate all the organisers for a superb job!

[Colin D Wilson]

I've got to chirp up and borrow Mike's soap box for a minute.

If anyone on other forums have had a personal go at you Ray then that's out of order, why not post their complaints here on the BTS forum? is it because they can't hide behind an alias?

Kettering had only a hand full of tables and fewer people, which equates to more room in a large hall, simple maths !!!

At a function or event I expect to pay at least 50% more for food and drink than at my local market hotdog stand. If you had nothing to do with the prices or who provided the catering then how can you be made accountable?
If people were dissapionted with the quality then i would assume they complained to the caterers, or did they just eat it, say nothing and then whinge about it afterwards.

For a new venue, with teething problems i though it went better than a lot of the large Herp shows i have been to over the years. I understand from experience the amount of time it takes to organise such events, a lot of people don't know what goes on behind the scenes for months before the event and just reflect on the day itself, thats just ignorance on their part.

It would be a shame if you made the decision to pass on the helm, you must have been doing something right for the last 15 years !!

"A job well done" is what i've said before and i'm saying it now !!!

Colin

[Ray Gabriel]

I had no problems with the Exhibition, I got my tables. plenty of space behind them easy to get to. I had no problems visiting other tables, the toilets food van (who were very plesant people) Next year i will be travelling from Panama to get to the exhibition nearly the other side of the world, i certainly wont be doing that trip for Kettering (even though i have supported Jack's shows since Granby Halls, which most of the wingers have probably never heard of as they hadnt reached puberty then) or any other show that these creeps might attempt to get of the ground.OH YEA try to beat the price of the BTS tables.

And our regular visitor from Hong Kong dint seem to mind and I bet he will be there next year.

If you object to the prices of the food BRING SANDWIDGES and have a picnik on the grass.

Who are these winging nobodies who think they could do better?

They dont have the tackle (cause they probably havent dropped yet) to post thier pathetic simperings on here but post on other websites which have only been running for 5 mins and seem to be populated by 5 min self apointed experts, who wont even be around in the spider hobby in a few years time but try to self rightiously mess it up for the people who have been attending the BTS Exhibition for years.

Why do we need all these other websites anyway? With the BTS, Tarantula store and Giantspiders what else do people need? I have far less spiders (around 2000 less) to look after but still dont find the time to dedicate to the above 3 websites never mind the rest.

If these zits dont like the BTS Exhibition there are plenty other shows for them to go to, let them SOD OFF to Hamm and try to get the same quality exhibition there, they will then realise what space is, what cheap spiders are, what variety and selection means, what help from the breeders means, what standing in a que means and so on.

Ray G

[Adam Smith]

[QUOTE=Ray Hale;13694]Hi everyone I have been following the various threads on a number of sites and up to yet I have resited the temptation to respond. I admit I have been hurt by some of the comments and indeed I had resolved not to rise to it.
However I have seen a couple of comments that attack me personally and cannot let it pass.

I would therfore make the following points regarding a number of issues.

1. I ,nor any other BTS commitee member have ever made any money form the exhibition. We work for the membership and all money raised goes back into the club. We do not run the exhibition as a private venture.

2. I did not deliberatly oversell tables or mislead the membership as to the size of the event. Last year we had 31 traders with 135 tables.This year we had 39 traders with 165 tables. The floor space was actually more than in previous years but due to the number of vistors and the layout, it seemed smaller. I fail to understand why someone would book one table and then bring enough stock to fill the Albert Hall.Some traders did not return their forms and left it to the last minute to phone me and attempt to book, relying on my good nature to get them in. I tried to be accomodating but obviously this was the wrong descion. Next year NO form...NO table

3. If you were dissapointed with the exhibition then I was for sure. I run the show to provide an outlet for the members to buy their spiders. People forget that this is my hobby too and I didnt get to see or buy anything.

4. I admit that there were problems but this was a new venue for us all, as Woodgreen indeed once was, and despite my best efforts I missed a few things. This will be rectified by next year. The halls were hot and stuffy and crowded but I was at a loss as how to solve this as the air-conditioning was on a timer. There is another hall that I could have used but I decided not too. There is also a cafeteria area but again I made the choice not to open it due to the weather. The catering was ovepriced and poor quality but this was supplied by the centre. This has been addressed.
5. Despite the problems I notice that everyone seemed to get what they were looking for at a very good price. Kettring may have had more room
( because it had less people and only a handful of spider dealers) but we try to make our exhibition a friendly event and not simply a money making scheme.
6. Maybe its time I moved over and let another BTS Commitee member take the helm. For 15 years I have given my all to the event and as they say " you are only as good as your last failure". The problems with the venue will be sorted out either by myself or my sucessor but rest assured the BTSwill continue to supply you with the premier arachnid/ entomolgical event in the UK. I ask you to bear with us and return to next years exhibition. Who know I may even have time to speak to some of you without being called away to replenish the toilet roll in the ladies.

Ray Hale
BTS Exhibition Organiser[/QUOTE0

Which sites were these negative comments made? The only forums I use gave praise (T store, Arachnophiles, RFUK) to the show and cant imagine people throwing digs and putting the show and committee down.

[Adam Smith]

I had no problems with the Exhibition, I got my tables. plenty of space behind them easy to get to. I had no problems visiting other tables, the toilets food van (who were very plesant people) Next year i will be travelling from Panama to get to the exhibition nearly the other side of the world, i certainly wont be doing that trip for Kettering (even though i have supported Jack's shows since Granby Halls, which most of the wingers have probably never heard of as they hadnt reached puberty then) or any other show that these creeps might attempt to get of the ground.OH YEA try to beat the price of the BTS tables.

And our regular visitor from Hong Kong dint seem to mind and I bet he will be there next year.

If you object to the prices of the food BRING SANDWIDGES and have a picnik on the grass.

Who are these winging nobodies who think they could do better?

They dont have the tackle (cause they probably havent dropped yet) to post thier pathetic simperings on here but post on other websites which have only been running for 5 mins and seem to be populated by 5 min self apointed experts, who wont even be around in the spider hobby in a few years time but try to self rightiously mess it up for the people who have been attending the BTS Exhibition for years.

Why do we need all these other websites anyway? With the BTS, Tarantula store and Giantspiders what else do people need? I have far less spiders (around 2000 less) to look after but still dont find the time to dedicate to the above 3 websites never mind the rest.

If these zits dont like the BTS Exhibition there are plenty other shows for them to go to, let them SOD OFF to Hamm and try to get the same quality exhibition there, they will then realise what space is, what cheap spiders are, what variety and selection means, what help from the breeders means, what standing in a que means and so on.

Ray G

Chances are all the people who are moaning probably jumped on the exotic pet band wagon on a whim cos they think its cool and with it being somewhat of a phad to them. More annoyingly they quickly get into the hobby and want to breed in less than a year to try cash in on the sudden rise of exotic pets and in a few years will die down, probably the same type of people who want to breed a B albopilosum with a g rosea "just to see what happens". These whiners are not worth taking any notice, as I find it hard that there could be any show to better the BTS. Good points made there Ray.

[mary walters]

There is no better show than BTS Ray, you do a heck of a job there mate.
Ok, I didn't realise I had so many for sale, gave a lot to Mike Connabeer and Lee just so I didn't have to bring them back!!! We are normally in the centre, but this time were up the back wall, I admit with 6 of us it was a tad cramped, but, as you say this will be sorted next year so no probs.

All the comittee do a fantastic job for us and as always it was a wonderful day, Thank you all.....

[James Box]

i've been to the BTS show twice. both times, i was only able to stay for a couple hours and buy some animals, but my impression was that it was a really cool event, well organised, etc.
you can't help the crowds...though i suppose cutting down on the number of "zits" would help hehe
i was perfectly happy there, and if i could've, i would've stayed the whole day.
can't understand this thing of people whinging! would they be happier without the BTS show?? morons! don't take their pathetic opinions seriously! thinking people loved the event and nonthinking people are not worth thinking about! sod the lot of them!

[Adam Smith]

Im more interested in which forum they are whinging on certainly isnt the 3 or 4 main ones used

[Alexandria Hagen]

Im more interested in which forum they are whinging on certainly isnt the 3 or 4 main ones used

Let them get on with it! No-one was moaning on our forum about it. Me and Richard travelled a good 150 miles to get there (either way), we packed sandwiches, took two small children round (who kept their hands to themselves),bought some lovely tarantulas to add to our collection and had a whale of a time! Let the moaners moan.
Ray Hale, we salute you! You have provided an excellent show (again!) and please dont stop on account of whinging self-important nobodies!

[Ray Hale]

I frequent many forums Adam and as you say some are high in praise. I promised myself I wouldnt moan but when I was approached at the exhibition by a couple of regular posters and told I add oversold tables. to make money. Im sorry but my blood boiled over.

The point is not who or why but how can we now build a better exhibition. The hobby is too smalll to fall out. So lets learn form it and get on with next years.

[James Box]

that's pretty sad, to accuse you of that!

[Phil Messenger]

I have frequented the BTS show for many years now and still hold it and the organisers in the highest esteem, i have not seen / heard of any negative comments that Ray H has addressed in his post, all i would say is hobbyists come and go where as the show will run for many years to come as it already has in the past, i would be keen to know who and where negative comments have been made, i don't read as many boards as i perhaps used to, but most of the posts i have seen have been complimentary, Ray, don't let them get you down

[Adam Smith]

I had no idea that there were so many forums I seem to be quite oblivious to them as the forums I use are excellent and never felt need to find any. nevermind, the show was great and at the end of the day everyone came home with spiders they were after and many more many people who worked the show didnt have the luxury of it and really is work away from work. If people didnt like the prices of food just dont buy it as I never do we just went to selfridges after (ok thats not exactly cheap but great day out to add to the show)