ETCG ‘Meet Up’ 2016

[EricTheCarGuy]

This year was the biggest ‘Meet Up’ yet. We had a little over 300 people attend. I had always hoped to be successful with ETCG, but I never expected anything like this. Thank you for making this job the best one I’ve ever had.

Topic

[Nicholas Clark]

It was a lot of fun, but there were so many people! Personally I think that tree is going to prune itself when it comes to the attendance. What will happen is that it will fill up to capacity or more, people will have less of a good time, which means less return. It will eventually reach an equilibrium unless you go over the top with the facility and supplies. I’m not hoping less come, you just can’t make your shop any bigger.

We need to figure out an official car show thing with about 30 spots or less.

Oh, man there is a lot of stuff for next year! If you need any help with anything at all, you can get at me anytime.

[EricTheCarGuy]

[quote=”Hockeyclark” post=173855]It was a lot of fun, but there were so many people! Personally I think that tree is going to prune itself when it comes to the attendance. What will happen is that it will fill up to capacity or more, people will have less of a good time, which means less return. It will eventually reach an equilibrium unless you go over the top with the facility and supplies. I’m not hoping less come, you just can’t make your shop any bigger.

We need to figure out an official car show thing with about 30 spots or less.

Oh, man there is a lot of stuff for next year! If you need any help with anything at all, you can get at me anytime.[/quote]

Yea, a lot to consider for sure. I’ve considered having a series of small ‘Meet Up’s’ around the country next year instead of one big one at the shop. Not sure what direction I’ll go really. Thanks for the offer to help. I might take you up on it.

[Laurence MacNeill]

My idea for next year’s meet-up: sell tickets. Some small fee like $5, or maybe even $2.50 — it’s not about the money, it’s about limiting attendance to the maximum you’re able to support on-site. Don’t let anyone attend who doesn’t have a ticket, period, end of story.

Maybe have a couple of giveaways where people can randomly win tickets by posting responses to your videos on YouTube.

Just make sure people know the total number of tickets available, and how many have been sold… And of course the date/time those tickets will go on sale. Something on your web-site that has always-up-to-date stats, and a well-publicized link to that page… Definitely have a link to that page from the home-page on EricTheCarGuy.com.

I work for a company that organizes conventions and trade-shows. We do plenty of events where people can attend for free or for a very low fee, but the show organizers need to limit attendance because of space restrictions, or for other reasons. Gotta make people pre-register, and get their ticket(s) in the mail. We even do it so the ticket itself is a name-badge that they can pin or clip to their shirt, so you don’t have to provide handwritten name-tags. Makes it look more official that way.

And, yeah, it’s *gonna* piss off some people that they have to *buy* a ticket instead of going for free — but if you give away the tickets for free, it’s gonna be a nightmare, I promise. People will register so they have a ticket “just in case”, and then not show up. Charge ’em a small fee, and they’ll only register if they *really* intend on going.

[Caleb Stovall]

I’d pay for a ticket to again.

[EricTheCarGuy]

[quote=”LMacNeill” post=174170]My idea for next year’s meet-up: sell tickets. Some small fee like $5, or maybe even $2.50 — it’s not about the money, it’s about limiting attendance to the maximum you’re able to support on-site. Don’t let anyone attend who doesn’t have a ticket, period, end of story.

Maybe have a couple of giveaways where people can randomly win tickets by posting responses to your videos on YouTube.

Just make sure people know the total number of tickets available, and how many have been sold… And of course the date/time those tickets will go on sale. Something on your web-site that has always-up-to-date stats, and a well-publicized link to that page… Definitely have a link to that page from the home-page on EricTheCarGuy.com.

I work for a company that organizes conventions and trade-shows. We do plenty of events where people can attend for free or for a very low fee, but the show organizers need to limit attendance because of space restrictions, or for other reasons. Gotta make people pre-register, and get their ticket(s) in the mail. We even do it so the ticket itself is a name-badge that they can pin or clip to their shirt, so you don’t have to provide handwritten name-tags. Makes it look more official that way.

And, yeah, it’s *gonna* piss off some people that they have to *buy* a ticket instead of going for free — but if you give away the tickets for free, it’s gonna be a nightmare, I promise. People will register so they have a ticket “just in case”, and then not show up. Charge ’em a small fee, and they’ll only register if they *really* intend on going.[/quote]

I had considered something like this. I’m just not sure if I’ll go this rout.

[Rob]

also live stream it… would be cool

[EricTheCarGuy]

[quote=”Rob781″ post=174307]also live stream it… would be cool[/quote]

Live streams are difficult without a hard connection to the internet. In other words, wireless won’t work. Also, I did live stream the ‘Meet Up’ this year.

[Author]

Replies