At the risk of sounding like I'm talking out my, er, "behind" - I'm going to offer a little different spin on this from another angle. Keep in mind that there is no offense intended whatsoever - I'm right there with you in the same "boat" (pun intended) - but I also have some experience in corporate events. I didn't attend this event last year - in fact I didn't even know about it until after the fact - but what I read and watched from last year's and the talent and effort that was put forth by so many club members energized me so much that after joining this wonderful group I actually thought about the possibility of creating some touchscreen kiosks and digital signage to be offered if anyone wanted or thought a good idea if we were there again this year...I have those kinds of items anyway, plus my wife is still an event coordinator, so those kinds of things come natural to us. Of course in our case - time and distance from the event comes into play, so it was just something that I kept in the back of my mind as a possibility.
I followed this a little from the outside looking in and I noticed people asking periodically (and I did too recently) - but I also noticed last year on the boat event's website that at first the club was still on the list - but that might have been last year's listing since it was still early fall and they had only started updating with this year's (2013) planning - and eventually there was a new updated list where we weren't on it. Where we asked - don't know - but I'm suspecting we might not have been.
If it is that we weren't asked, I suspect if you are like me, you are wondering why not? (and probably feel a little offended - that's natural) But I've been around enough event "behind the scenes" that I have to put something else into play - corporate events are usually about making money, some up front (hosts & organizers) and most after (exhibitor's new sales), and basically it's an expensive and labor intensive advertisement which luckily usually results in enough extra or additional sales that might not have been otherwise to make the extra effort worth it. (if you're never been in corporate retail, I suspect you'd probably be shocked how much it costs to rent an exhibit spot for some of these popular events, plus the manpower time & cost, and transporting items (especially large things like boats and RV's), etc.) The exhibitors are not spending large amounts without the intent of making much more back over time, and part of providing a successful event is an expensive responsibility of the hosts and coordinators. I have no idea how having our club at the event last year came up - whether it was to fill some unused space and/or whether it was an experiment...and from our standpoint it was a success...but my point is - was it to the people in charge of making the following year's event decisions?
The people of this club - just like me - are passionate about our boats & this Glastron brand and there is a wealth of talent - along with a wealth of generosity to share that talent and manpower for an event. No doubt there are many, if not most of us, that would go to an event like this almost regardless of the distance to travel if we knew similar boats were going to be there. But that's our passion. I see similar people every year that I attend an event regarding another passion - the Oshkosh fly-in.
But here's the flipside - and don't shoot the messenger - I'd obviously love it if we were there too - plus I don't know if these points I'm trying to make are really what happened or not - just food for thought and consideration.
From the angle of the event coordinators & organizers (both hosts and exhibitors) - did having the club there bring in enough extra people (more than what would have paid a ticket to get in anyway) to overcome what they would have earned from "renting" that same space out to other vendors? That doesn't mean that they didn't get a certain amount of additional attendance because our club was there - I'm talking about ENOUGH additional attendance dollars ABOVE NORMAL to overcome the loss of renting that same space out to paying vendors (that's assuming that the reason we were asked last year wasn't because for some reason the organizers weren't able to rent that space out last year and decided to try a "fill" experiment). And that's hard to calculate after a show regardless of figures (unless they received feedback) since people attend for various reasons, sometimes even weather related, - so that might have been simply a group decision on their part of what they thought happened (best guess).
From the angle of the Glastron reps and/or company: I have no doubt they enjoyed having our club there and it certainly showed how a brand can endure...and hopefully there were potential buyers that thought of buying a new Glastron to become part of that growing family (provided they didn't after seeing us at the event consider instead of a buying a new model getting an older one to be part of our club family (great for us, but not necessarily Glastron & it's reps)). So in the end - did they get enough new boat sales that they would have wanted the event organizers to have us back this year? It would be interesting to also know whether they received any feedback - positive or negative, from attendees.
Again, I have no proof that either possibility is what actually happened - just food for thought from another angle separate from our obvious club passions - and please, please, please don't be offended by my thought possibilities, I would love to be there right along with you if time and distance worked out - and there were many great points about possibilities for great events that this club's people would be capable of and would be great to see...but unfortunately that might not be quite enough for what that specific event's organizers need(ed) to see.
Then again...maybe enough people who attend this year might ask at the show or on their website(s) where we were because they came especially thinking we'd be there again - if they express that enough, the organizers might reconsider for 2014...there are always possibilities!
