What do folk think about virtual exhibitions?

[Belly]

Living where I do makes attending events of this nature rare and this provides the opportunity to partake.  It will never replace the real event, however it does offer the opportunity to "attend", in the comfort of your home, some of the attractions without having to fly half way around the world.  I think there's a place for virtual exhibitions and conventions.

During COVID, I've now attended two conventions and two exhibitions that I wouldn't have normally attended and I've come away with ideas that I'd like to put into practice.

My two cents worth,

Cheers,

Geoff

[GScaleBruce]

I wasn't really aware that such things were even happening. I believe there was a 16mm Assn one earlier this year but couldn't find it anywhere so gave up after searching for ages. Given that I normally attend a few shows each year and must be on various mailing lists, that suggests there's some more marketing to be done. But I will go at take a look at the Great Electric Train Show Virtual Exhibition later, largely on the "something's better than nothing" principle.

[Trainfish]

I find this forum is a bit like a virtual exhibition and some really do make an exhibition of themselves too 

[Yet_Another]

I think I looked at one earlier in the year. It was just a bunch of slideshows, as far as I could make out, and I quickly left. If one wants to watch videos of layouts, there are plenty to go at. What's the USP of an 'online exhibition'?

I guess I might look in on the Warley one - I try to get to the exhibition each year, but it won't be a substitute for the real thing.

[LASteve]

I've been part of a couple of virtual exhibitions - not model railway related - this year, and as an exhibitor I'm not particulary sure of the value from a business perspective, most of the reason for attending an expo is the human interaction and that all but disappears at a virtual event.

As has been said, there are plenty of videos of layouts, but the problem with most of them is that they don't give you any information at all about the layout or the exhibitor(s).  One person who has tried to address that problem is Andy Gebbie on his Heritage & Model Rail YouTube channel where he at least asks some questions about the layouts and he edits the videos so it's not just hours of watching layout after layout without any context.

If a virtual expo could curate the videos of the layouts, promote some "show only" bargains or specials and get some kind of "hangout" capability to shoot the breeze with other attendees then it would still be an extremely poor second to the in-person experience, but not truly bad.

One thing to think about is that in our experience at virtual industry events, there's no natural barrier to entry for people who are not actually serious about it - there's no travel expense and no admission fee, so we got swamped with one-man bands who were just not worth our time. I'm not being mean there, I'm happy to spend facetime with people who are new to my industry; we all need to learn but if I'm spending my whole day talking to people who I know present me with zero business opportunity I'm wasting my time. It might make the retailers a little happier to offer show specials if they know that it's not free admission at the virtual door and the people who are actually in the event have paid something for the privilege and are also defraying the costs to the event organizers.

Just my 2¢

[GScaleBruce]

I wasn't really aware that such things were even happening. I believe there was a 16mm Assn one earlier this year but couldn't find it anywhere so gave up after searching for ages. Given that I normally attend a few shows each year and must be on various mailing lists, that suggests there's some more marketing to be done. But I will go at take a look at the Great Electric Train Show Virtual Exhibition later, largely on the "something's better than nothing" principle.

Having now taken a look at the Great Electric Train Show Virtual Exhibition, I've come to a few thoughts.
- I followed the Ravenglass & Eskdale virtual gala earlier in the year. I'd actually completely forgotten that when I first posted. That was streamed live, as and when there was something to show, following the timetable. I'd have to say that it really didn't work terribly well for me - for that style of event, you need to have little or nothing else to be doing almost all day and ready to drop on to the next live broadcast.
- I never found the 16mm Assn online event despite being invited to it, which probably tells you all you need to know about that one.
- I found the Great Electric Train Show Virtual Exhibition quite interesting. It happens that I had a couple hours when I needed to be doing nothing very much, and it passed the time nicely. In particular, the in depth reports and the mix of prototype and model reports I enjoyed. It was also in high resolution and well filmed, in contrast to some exhibition videos, although sometimes the autofocus jumped annoyingly. However, I nearly gave up after the first twenty minutes which was mainly carving polystyrene on their own layout. Coming to it a few weeks after the event, all the ancillary material on their website is now inaccessible; I realised that I've missed the virtual exhibition and am late to the party but was left feeling a bit disappointed by that.

In summary, I think they can be enjoyable but they need good content, well filmed at high resolution, otherwise why bother - and as a virtual visitor, you won't know that until you get there. I think I may even be looking forward to the virtual Warley...

[Chris Morris]

Good points. I have to say from experience that getting good video of N gauge models isn't easy and can be very time consuming. Larger scales are much easier.

[gavin]

Like some of the other comments I've enjoyed the video's and less the stills. Some of the layouts have been bettter than others as normal.   I've dipped in and out of the BRM and Hornby shows and found them really good. The demo's are much better than live shows although the ability to ask questions is a limitation.   I would say they are worth it but a Lot of work for the show organisers and exhibitors.

[Chetcombe]

Living where I do makes attending events of this nature rare and this provides the opportunity to partake.  It will never replace the real event, however it does offer the opportunity to "attend", in the comfort of your home, some of the attractions without having to fly half way around the world.  I think there's a place for virtual exhibitions and conventions.

During COVID, I've now attended two conventions and two exhibitions that I wouldn't have normally attended and I've come away with ideas that I'd like to put into practice.

My two cents worth,

Cheers,

Geoff

Great perspectives Geoff. As another who is a long way from being able to see British N gauge layouts 'in the flesh' I completely agree.  A virtual exhibition beats nothing any day for me! The only thing I would add is that videos are far more informative than a series of still photos...