Re: Re: November/December

[Anonymous]

@TOC Editor wrote:

Hi All.

I’ve done the NEC for five years now and my own observation is that it’s the cars that draw people onto the stand. If you watch people wandering around, you see them suddenly spot the cars and then come straight over for a closer look. The big draw this year was Martin de Little’s rear wheel drive Citroen. I saw more people go straight to this than all the Tractions. But the Tractions drew in a lot of people too. So, it’s not clear to me that the ‘quality’ of our stand makes a lot of difference (which is not the same as saying we shouldn’t try to make the stand look good).

Finally, as other people have said here, if anyone’s unhappy with the stand then the answer is to try to get more involved next year. But, at the end of the day, I think any criticism is very useful, so please keep giving your opinions. I’ll certainly print any relevant letters in FP.

Ed.

I called at the NEC stand and generally everyone seemed very busy and the stand looked good and was well up there with many of the other club efforts in the show.
In terms of costs, the actual space is free, but there is, I assume, like the Manchester Show, a charge for electricity, carpets etc, if you opt for those. At Manchester, we didn’t buy any extras from the organisers and our only costs on the day were some cable ties and some tape, which we didn’t feel inclined to charge to the club coffers. Obviously there is a cost to the club for the backdrop and its support framework, but we managed by means of a relay up and down the country, to transport those at no additional cost either.
I was at the NEC on Saturday (with my son, who is a fellow enthusiast) I chatted to Steve Wright for a few minutes, but then felt that it was more important for those manning the stand to get on and mingle with the visitors, rather than go on and make a nuisance of myself, so I left them to it. I did also enjoy looking at the rear wheel drive Citroen, incidentally.
When manning a stand it is not always easy to spot who wants to talk and who wants to be left to browse, as Bob says, it’s just necessary to be alert and to be ready to respond to anyone who shows an interest. My first encounter ‘close to’ with a Traction, was at the one of first Manchester Classic Car Shows. I think that it was on the Citroen Club stand and the owner very kindly answered all my daft questions and let me sit inside it. It took me another year to find a car, but that contact was an essential point in the transition from pipe dream to reality in terms of Traction ownership. I haven’t seen any Tractions at shows since that, which were not on a TOC stand, so if we were to drop either Manchester or the NEC, then I think that our opportunities for refreshing the club would be severely reduced.
We were late in the day at Manchester, and things were a bit touch and go as to whether we had a space, but the Citroen Owners had kindly suggested that had we struggled, then they would have been glad to give us a corner of their stand.