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What is the RAI ? Anyway, you're going north again... (please don't )

Ey Argon is Limburg okay by you?

Anything more south than Oss is fine
But then again, Limburg is further away east then

Okay, today, finally, the CGV replied to the letter we sent in July (yay). Without further ado, this is their reply:

"Dear standholders,

The answer to you pressing letter of july was delayed because of several circumstances. One of them was because we were waiting for the exceptional meeting of all our members and the outcome of this meeting. During this meeting it was decided whether or not there would be a CGV Meeting in 2004. All members have aggreed in this, there will be a meeting next year on April 24th.

We hope this announcement is in time. As usual you will also find a registration form with this letter. We hope you will send your forums back as soon as possible, so we can take the surface (size of the rooms) into account. It is very hard to plan this when people register their booths one week in advance by phone, you know. That's what happened last time. Because of that, the arrangement of standholders was very unfortunate. This is something that the standholders can control by registering in time. This is why we plan the arrangement very short before the meeting is held. If we get more registrations we can assure standholders of a booth and a good place weeks before the meeting, and announce the arrangement of the stands.

You call it a fair, we call it a meeting. We want to unite as many groups as possible and show the audience what is possible with a computer (be it msx or pc). CGV meens Computer Users Union. Which means: for people who use computers. The meeting will be announced on CeeFax, local newspapers, local TV ectc. We will also put some pointers next to the road on the day of the meeting.

We already know we can not use the large hall, as it is permanently let to someone else. We hope we have informed you satisfactory with this.

Merry christmas and a happy 2004,

On behalf of the board of CGV

Frank Pison

I say BULLSHIT, lame excuse!
The standholders with the most problems with location all reserved their stand early enough.
Also, that member meeting was in SEPTEMBER. I wonder what their excuse is to wait another 3 months!!!

They make it seem like it's our fault Tilburg 2003 was a disaster!

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I say BULLSHIT, lame excuse! The standholders with the most problems with location all reserved their stand early enough.

Indeed. Also, I don't know how different Tilburg was from Bussum, but at least I didn't get that many last-minute reservations. And for those few (they have organized this often enough, they *know* they will be there) some extra space could always have been reserved on beforehand, or even on short notice. Or tell them no, if there really isn't the room for it.

In the Uitwijk, I know how many stands the location can approximately hold, and if really really nessecary the fair can always be extended to the bottom floor. And even that being a last-minute decision, little chance they will make problems of that (unless it is in use by someone else), it only means more income for them. I doubt the location in Tilburg will have a much stricter attitude towards such a thing.

Also, one of the complaints was the late announcement. Maybe this is somehow related to the late fair entries?

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I can understand that Sunrise gives Tilburg the benefit of doubt. MRC did that last year. This year - if the fair will actually be held - we will probably come as visitors, no longer as stand holders. Unless CGV makes a radical change and replies to the letter we've written in a satisfactory way. (e.g. showing they are going to change some things this year).

Harrumpf... I don't think collectively boycotting the Tilburg fair is a good solution. It will only make the fair a really big disappointment, and ensure the discontinuation next year. This year some people arrived at the fair thinking 'well this has become very small', only discovering afterwards that there was more. With this kind of actions though, it will be a disappointment to them for real, and leave a not-so-good impression of the current MSX scene.

For the few fairs we have, I say let's make the best out of them we can. The organization of Tilburg has been informed of our disgruntlements, and now they deserve another chance. If they mess up bigtime again, well, *then* you can say they've had their chance, and no-one will argue. If not, we have a great fair again this year.

In both cases you can always afterwards decide on whether to organize a new fair or not, and if so, that would be best done with the cooperation of the Tilburg organization. Because, as I said before, having a 'big name' behind your new fair can mean a lot for its success (just like Bussum became the 'new Zandvoort').


~Grauw

p.s. They are kinda right about the stand placement announcement in advance. From practice I know this is very hard to do in advance. Not only are there always last-minute additions to the list of participants, but when actually placing the stands it always turns out that because of some odd corner in a room, or awkward table sizes, or, well, I can name a few others, you have to make changes. In a large hall, this is ofcourse easier as you know the exact dimensions, have an simple floor plan, and have rented your own booths. But in locations like where Tilburg and Bussum are organized right now, this is a different matter.

p.s.2. Also the 'large hall' problem sounds very familiar to me .