Pleasanton, CA Reptile/Bird show 5/18/08

[bleeding_sarcasm]

I dont want to come across harsh, but I feel like I might be able to provide some insight.

As a reptile vendor, there were a few reasons why I chose not to do this show.

For one, location. Pleasonton isnt exactly centrally located. I dont drive a car, and something that is near public transportation just seems more convenient, and I make the assumption that there are alot of people who feel the same way.
Even the San Jose show in years past has had very poor attendance, which makes it not financially worth it for vendors, and a 1 day event vs. a 2 day is going to discourage anyone to come long-distance for the show. Driving 12 hours from socal is not an option with a show like that. Upscale Reptiles even decided against putting on a San Jose show this year because of such poor attendance.

Secondly, Pricing and target group. Its a BIRD [and reptile] show, mostly attended by bird enthusiasts. The price for the smallest booth size is roughly half of what they charge for a 2 day event at Sac, even tho I assume that it includes electricity. For that price, I would expect a sac size attendance of buyers who are looking for what I am selling. Even if 1/2 the people there were there for reptiles, thats still cutting my target group down, and with booth cost, gas, lodging, that makes the amount I have to make to CUT EVEN in ONE DAY, about $500. Thats not including what I spend on displays and everything, OR how much work you have to do, cupping and preping animals, packing displays, driving there, unpacking, labling everything, setting up the displays, for... a few hours? then you disassemble everything, pack it up, put the animals away, drive back, unpack the animals. Its just alot of work, and stress for animals, for a one day show.

And what kind of services are you offering? What kind of advertizing are you doing? Radio commercials? billboards? Forums and craigslist arent going to cut it if you are trying to reach a large group of individuals. Not everyone has computers, and even a lot of old-school reptile people dont do business on the internet at all.

If you are having issues because the date of your show is conflicting with the Sacramento show, then I would suggest you change your date. Sacramento is the largest show in northern California, both with number of vendors and the number of attendees. They actually have a limit of how many of each type of vendor there is, so vendors are even turned away. The show is literally packed from open to close both days, I dont have time to walk away from the table I am busy talking to people the whole time, and I prefer not to have the "what is a gecko" conversation.

Everything says bird. Your screen name, the title of your site, the look of your site. you only have pictures of birds, the vendor list only has 1 obvious reptile vendor. I mean, I really love doing shows, but I didnt even really consider this one as being... a reptile show. Like the petaluma show isnt really a reptile show. I would have gone to this show... to look at the birds.

[lizardgrrl]

I was at the show in Pleasanton, the weather was warm, (perfect for a lizardgrrl!:laugh and there were plenty of people at the reptile tables while I was there, 11:00-1:00. I will try to post photos later. The Reptile Company, GBU Enterprises and the Reptile Room are all great guys, and their animals were beautiful! :drool: A couple other vendors included books and shirts, and many of the trees and other supplies at many vendors would work as well for reptiles! There is a bus direct from BART to the fairgrounds, although I actually have a car at this point in my life, but there IS public transportation, and I know Wheels (the local transit) used to be very reliable, as I used it daily for 15 years. The only reptile show I previously attended was the Upscale Reptiles Sacramento, 2006. I would have gone to San Jose, being closer, but in 2006, could not afford to go, being temporarily out of work, and 2007, was out of the area that same weekend because I WAS working. I was looking forward to both Upscale's Sac and San Jose shows this year, and also plan to go to the San Jose show August 9 & 10, put on by San Jose Reptile Show, San Jose Reptile Show It is disappointing to hear that Upscale does not plan a San Jose Show this year. In any case, if you weren't in Pleasanton, you missed some fun!

[cresties]

I ended up not going. I thought it was a two-day show since I've never heard of a show that was only one day long, so I assumed just having the one date was a typo. If it had been happening on Saturday and Sunday, I would have gone.

I was a little worried about the show not being worth the trip (I'm about an hour away) because all of the bird stuff on the site, too. I'll be going to the show in August if the vendor list looks okay.

I agree - there's no competing with the Sacramento show. It's amazing. And completely packed with people. What show is there in Petaluma? Is it the one NBHS does? I didn't go to the last one - what makes it not really a reptile show?

Why were there puppies at the show? (Curious - seems kinda random.)

[AbsoluteApril]

I went on Sunday with my guy and my friend (who is a bird nut). I only saw two reptile vendors (maybe I missed one?!) as well as some nice t-shirts. The weather was great and it was pretty fun. I got to see a lot of birds I'd never seen before. The tortoise was so cute and the adult tegus were quite impressive as well. There were some baby boas, ball pythons, savannah monitors as well as some unique kingsnakes, vine snakes and sand boas. There was the cutest nile monitor baby as well as some chameleons and young tegus, Rose Hair tarantulas, a few types of frogs (no dumpies tho, that was what I was looking for) and some scorpions.

If you are just going for the reptiles, you might have been disappointed, however I thought it was a fun show as I enjoyed seeing all the different birds as well. I was also surprised by the puppies! I hope that the reptile portion continues to grow.

Heather, an idea to get more reptile people there: Try contacting the local reptile societies (BARRS.org, www.norcalherp.com, etc) and see if they want to do an eductional/adoption booth. I also used to do educational booths with NAID.org (national iguana awareness day).

I have never been to the SacShow but will try to check it out this year.

[Nor_Cal_Bird_Expo]

Hello All, GBU Enterprizes & The Reptile Company were side by side (they asked to be next to each other). We received a call from the 4th reptile vendor, they had a death in the family :( so they didn't come. We will move their payment to the next show and hope for the best. Our next show is Sept 21st, does it conflict with the other major reptile show? We will be adding more of the reptile vendors to our web page (we add links for those that do 2 of our shows or link us). And thank you lizardgrrl for the bus from bart info. We usually have a few vendors with puppies, but we had a few more this time . just may have to change our name... Nor Cal Pet Expo???

[cresties]

The Sacramento show is the 13th and 14th.

Does a rescue group bring the dogs in, or are they breeders? (I'll make the trip to see rescue puppies.)

[lizardgrrl]

I did not have my camera, but borrowed a friend's just before going to the show. I would have taken more, but I quickly filled the memory card, and didn't want to delete their Washington trip. Anyway, here'sa a few photos. (hope this works!)

[stalk]

I sincerely hope the puppy vendors you had there were from a rescue or adoption agency.

Because if they were not, they were backyard breeder. ABSOLUTELY NO good dog breeder would ever advertise at a show such as this. I hope you will keep that in mind for the future and not encourage such a horrible abuse to continue.

If you want more information on this please e-mail me at RJBARKER AT GMAIL DOT COM. Please do not be blinded by the sweet stories they offer, they convince people their dogs are wonderful for a living. It's what they do, and they are very good at it.

[AbsoluteApril]

I honestly don't know if they were rescue or not... I suspect they weren't because they were pure bred puppies for high dollar amounts. I'm just more of a snake/cat person, so didn't pay much attention to the puppies.

[cresties]

Darn. Having rescues there would be great, but I'm not going to a show that lets vendors sell dogs. Maybe the NorCaBirdExpo person can clear this up..