What makes an event successful?
Saturday afternoon of the Ballyhoo I was lamenting the fact that my worse nightmare about the Big Wheeled Ballyhoo was coming true. There were less than 100 people there.
Back when Guitar Ted first came up with the idea of a 29er event, we were planning on having Salsa and Gary Fisher down to Decorah, get together 50 people and have a good time. From there it grew rapidly into a “real” event with eight bike companies represented. One of whom (Niner Bikes) drove in from Los Angeles. So the pressure was on to get more people there but by this time it was March and neither of us had any idea how to successfully market an event of this size.
My Saturday afternoon stresses was coming from the fear that the exhibitors were gonna be pissed by the turnout. I was assuming most would be far from interested in returning for Ballyhoo #2 and the legend of our 29er event would die quickly.
At this point I sucked it up, got up from my post and started walking the line and talking to the folks from the different companies that had showed up. Surprisingly, they were all pretty happy with the turnout. Apparently Guitar Ted and I were the only ones expecting much more than 100 people. What also worked in our favor was the fact that everyone showed up specifically to try out new bikes. So while there weren’t a lot of bodies there, every one of the exhibitors moved a lot of demos out.
So back to my original question… What makes an event successful?
If all the attendees had a great time (they did) and the exhibitors were happy (they were) then that’s a successful event.
For the record, Big Wheeled Ballyhoo part 2 is definitely on for next year. All the same exhibitors will be out for it and plenty more. Rock on!
