Ron Stevenson, Seattle Boat Show Chair
In November, ACBS headquarters held a roundtable discussion about boat shows, hosted by ACBS Membership Committee members Kathy Rhodes, Judy Hills and Austin Berndlmaier. Five people from our chapter participated in the zoom meeting as our BIG! Seattle Boat Show was coming up at the end of January for nine days into February.
The panel had lots of great suggestions, some of which we were proud to know that we already do. For instance, QR codes are included on our business cards and posted on our bulletin board. We give away various old boat magazines with our cards stapled to them.
But let’s backtrack for a moment. Think about the commercial boat show business plan. The Seattle show is the largest on the West Coast: about 350,000 sq. feet, 300 exhibitors and over 30,000 people. Everyone is selling something!
People are reluctant to talk to you. They don’t want to buy what you may be selling. So our purpose at the show gets lost. We get questions, “Are these for sale?” Do you work on boats?” What do you do?” Our message of being a great club to join was not well defined. The roundtable discussion helped us realize that and listening to what other chapters do gave us fresh ideas.
We developed a theme. ‘Love vintage boats? Join the club!’ We ordered a new table wrap and a 4ft x 8ft banner printed with the theme.
While we always had club banners on display, this new theme really helped inform the public of our purpose and helped us focus on signing up new members. Plus, we had a laptop available to sign up people on the spot!
In the past we handed out membership applications, but we never knew if people signed up or when. This show is really our only opportunity to meet with boaters to recruit new members.
Fortunately, we had enough space to display eight boats, each with a story board. So, we had our own mini boat show! We handed out ‘People’s Choice’ and ‘Kid’s choice’ ballots. After the look of relief that we didn’t want their name, phone number or email, and weren’t selling boats, they actually had fun looking at them.
“Read the story board and write down which boat you like best! Bring your ballot back to the table when you’re done.” That process relaxed people and when they dropped off their ballots, we easily engaged them about their boat interests. So, like the roundtable discussion suggested, we had ‘sales people’ handing out ballots and ‘closers’ at the table. We increased our membership by 10% and had two folks renew their memberships.
Notice the story boards and the burgees on the backdrop. (A suggestion here: National should consider buying a set of these extra large burgees and loan them out to shows around the country.) And yes, that quilt is made from old boat show T-shirts by one of our members, Diane Franchini.
We also had a story board showing advantages of owning a classic boat rather than buying new.
We asked a respected boat broker to advertise variously priced ‘turnkey’ vintage boats on our bulletin boards. We listed our calendar of events. Behind the table we hung another boat show T-shirt quilt. The large backdrop banner displays photos of our many activities. To the right is a 1950’s supermarket ‘kiddie ride’ to attract kids and their parents.
We held a silent auction for this 1954 Mansfield Eggbeater with period motor and trailer. Members Bruce and Vivian Huskinson donated funds over their minimum price to our chapter! The SS Firewood created a lot of interest but not many votes! People were fascinated with its construction.
We collected about 1300 ballots. The winning owner gets an ‘Atta Boy’ award!
My vote? It goes to the 40 volunteers who staffed the booth and the owners of the boats displayed. They took their time in the middle of winter to get them gussied up and show worthy. Those same individuals helped set up and take down our display. Our booth was located in front of the LOAD IN door so no one leaves until we’re gone. We were out of there in a little over an hour. Special thanks to my significant other, Elizabeth, who keeps me on track and usually out of trouble!
Finally, thanks to the roundtable discussion for inspiring us!
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