In a fit of planned randomness I dragged my wife down the road to the Oshawa Home and Garden Show, aka the Oshawa This Week Home and Garden Show, aka the Metroland Media Presents Home and Garden Show. Since I cannot think of a witty sentence that points out how absurd it is that the show doesn’t even have a proper name we’ll just meander right into the review.
The Good
It was free! I call this event an act of planned randomness because I found coupons in advance. The first coupon was in the Oshawa This Week (our Wed/Thur/Fri newspaper) for buy one get one free. The second coupon was a free entry for two in the local coupon envelope. I would normally feel far more special about having succeeded in thwarting the culture of paid entry into an event designed to get you to buy things except that when we got to the door we discovered that they had a box of printed coupons which they were using to justify letting everyone in for free. This was a box with coupons still in their bundled and elastic bound form. Why you don’t just say free admission and get more people to attend? I have no idea. But it was free and for that price it was worth it.
The Bad
Maybe its the former event programmer/coordinator in me but if you have an event that exists on two separate floors of an arena would it not make sense to place signs saying THIS IS HOW YOU GET TO THE GOES UP PART WITHOUT BACKTRACKING THROUGH EVERYTHING YOU JUST WALKED PAST? An arrow pointing on an upwards slant? Anyone?
The lack of direction once you got past the entry table was ridiculous. The only signage in the entire place was one of the honey vendors saying they were upstairs. I kid you not. Someone printed up their own sign saying they were on another floor. Does this not speak to “we’ve been here before and we know it sucks” to anyone else? When your vendors have a better concept of the general lack of direction than you do there is a significant, reoccurring problem. Speaking of the entry table it was in a horrible location. Put it in a spot that encourages people to move in the direction you want them to move. Don’t just throw it to one side at the main entrance and hope to God that people can enter and exit in a reasonable fashion.
The main floor setup was such that the presentation stage was hidden from view, there was no clear path to make sure you walked past every booth, the announcements were made using some sort of bullhorn (this may just be my perception, I could barely hear the one that was announced so I’m guessing it wasn’t using the full sound system of the arena and if it was then the volume was set wrong), the map they gave us at the bottom of list of vendors which was so noticeable I found it this morning while writing this review had three points of “egress” but no indication as to whether those “egress” points got you anywhere useful, and to get back to the main entrance you had to walk past the same tables who were oblivious to the fact that you had already declined a free spinal scan.
The Huh?
Given the state of my computer’s ability to check my email I am fairly certain I simply missed the memo mentioning that chiropractors, spinal scans, holistic treatments, and physiotherapy were part of the “home and garden” section of my community. Now I don’t begrudge the conveners letting them in, after all they paid for their spot and you have to make money somehow. What confuses me is that there were over a half-dozen of these vendors and not a single hammock store and none of the local plant nurseries. The hammock store was my own desire and quite frankly the only thing I was really hoping to come across. The fact that there were no hammocks in evidence could be a lack of hammock stores in the general area but combined with the lack of exterior furniture period makes me wonder what the hell was happening. There were plenty of hot tub vendors, plenty of landscaping and general contractors, plenty of people willing to build decks, a fireplace and firepit vendor, and at two very nice wife-dragging-husband-away barbeque displays but there were no vendors selling things to sit on to experience the lovely exterior you just created. As for the nurseries, I have no idea why they were not present and if was at all interested I’d call them up and ask them why. There are three major places to buy plants within a twenty-minute drive that I personally know of and yet there was no indication at this event that they even existed. Maybe they’ve been before and found it not worth the time and money. I don’t know.
The other hilarity is not the fault of the home and garden show but the GM Center. If you are going print coupons on the back of your tickets could you pay attention and not print ones that have a coupon to Jack Astors that expires Dec. 31, 2008? This is 2011. That is totally unacceptable.
The End
I’m glad it was free. I did not enjoy my experience to any great extent and am very hesitant to even think about going next year. Perhaps it is the former professional in me but this is why you should pay someone to set up your event for you. And if you did pay then you need to pay more to get someone who is qualified to do this properly. You need someone in sales to start walking into managers offices and finding out why the plant nurseries aren’t showing up and doing whatever it takes to get them to attend. You need to show people how to get around your site. You need to make a decision to either charge or not charge. You need to print where the event is on the coupons. The same goes for the advertising. Telling people it exists is wonderful. Telling them where it exists is better. You have the newspaper as your partner in this event. If you cannot convince them to put the location in the full pull-out section you had them create (and sorry I could tell they made it for you) then you need to sit down with them and hit them repeatedly with a dead fish until they do. Just because this is a “local” or “community” event does not mean that a lack of professionalism is acceptable.
