Article by Rich Donnell,
Editor-In-Chief
We give over many pages in this issue to coverage of the Timber Processing & Energy Expo that was held in Portland, Ore. September 28-30. Why wouldn’t we? It’s our show.
Yes, every two years we at Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. take off our ace reporter fedora hats and put on our show business top hats. Ha! We wish it was that cut and dried. Actually, the duties of running a show like this never cease. The show may end, but it’s already time for exhibitors to renew space for the next one as we iron out any wrinkles that may have surfaced during the last one.
The show just completed was our third TP&EE, which is held every other year, and we as organizers continue to learn and make adjustments. But I must say, having been a reporter and editor for 40 years, I never thought that I would be in a position to have a conversation with an expo center maintenance person about a water leak in the rafters that was dripping on an exhibit. Ah yes, the responsibilities of a Show Director.
Those of us at Hatton-Brown who are involved with the show—and there are many of us—enjoy our responsibilities immensely. The show has been very successful, and it represents one of our efforts to diversify our business beyond only producing and publishing magazines.
Probably the only “negative” about my role as show director is that I don’t get to enjoy as much conversation with the attendees and exhibitors as I do when I’m simply an editor looking for news or just cutting up with an old friend. It seems my walkie-talkie has a knack for interrupting my conversation with a lumberman I haven’t seen in a long time. “Rich, exhibitor A is saying exhibitor B’s exhibit is blocking his view. Can you come to the show office?” And so I bid the lumberman farewell, until we meet again later in this show, or maybe not until the next one, or somewhere along the line.
But that’s okay. These lumbermen have better things to do than talk to me anyway, like buying machinery.
You’ll see in our report that about 1,600 attendees showed up at TP&EE. This group includes personnel from wood products producer companies and mills, which of course is whom the exhibitors really care most about talking to. About 1,100 exhibitor personnel also attended.
Some show organizers are hesitant about putting those numbers out there. Others tend to beef them up. For example, if John Smith shows up each day at a three-day event, they count him three times. The old joke about one of the old Portland shows was that they counted people again when they left the show floor to go to the bathroom and returned.
We simply count the real bodies in attendance one time. Maybe some of them go to the show three days, but it’s still one person.
One of the things we were real happy about is that many producer companies encouraged lots of their employees to attend the show. Many, if not most, of these employees may not be the decision-makers on machinery purchases, but their collective insights certainly filter up the chain of command to the people making the final decision.
Also, it simply adds to the atmosphere when so many of one company’s people meander through the show.