Boston 2026 - Any Reports?

One could have inexpensive breakfast and lunch if one thought about it (and if one had a half mile walk from the hotel to the convention center). But dinner was going to be expensive in any case (not less than $40 at best). The real secret was to have a birthday last week and get taken out a couple of times. :-)

I wanted to take friends to some great, less expensive spots I know in Cambridge/Somerville/other parts of Boston - but the center of gravity at any big show like this really is the venue and the cluster of hotels nearby, and we never seemed to make it very far beyond elsewhere in the Seaport!

I got taken to the North End one night, but I was the same way otherwise. And I was at the show at 8 every morning to see dealers and exhibits. I tried to make the most of my time.

Re the zoom was too expensive comments - rubbish. Each meeting room was set up w projector and mic. The only additional equipment needed was a laptop, a mic, and a zoom account. The AHPS live-streamed every one of its talks (9 or so) including our annual meeting for a total cost of about $200.

Re zoom availability limiting show attendance - again rubbish. And, if a society had a real concern, they could have delayed publishing the zoomed sessions until post show.

As for FDoI ceremonies - USPS already had a full-time tech in place w associated equipment so no incremental cost. And most people attending want the free swag which they can't get if watching a live stream

So you all did an end run around the closed shop union worker requirement. Good to know.

When they charge $800 per booth just to walk around and plug in a lamp, there should be an end run found. That's just silent extortion.

Seriously. I helped set up for a trade show booth in Chicago once and one of my co-workers plugged in a computer monitor to work on finishing their presentation, and got caught and punished. One of the union electricians in the booth came over and unplugged it, then took a lunch break for 2 hours, but left another union guy there to guard the booth and make sure the monitor didn't get plugged in again.

I remember the Internet connection was also outrageously expensive, multiple thousands of dollars for an average speed connection, not gigabit fiber or anything. Cellular data inside the convention center was spotty and very congested, wouldn't want to depend on it for a quality live streaming presentation.

Yes, the presentations at Boston should have been recorded and then edited and posted to YouTube or somewhere after the show. Give it a few days, maybe some will show up.

As someone who lives in Illinois and has gone to and helped at events at Chicagoland venues (McCormick Place, Rosemont Horizon, etc.), teamster extortion is both legendary and IMO criminal. The department I worked for ceased doing urban center events for this reason, amongst others. The expense load at these places is bad enough as it is, but when you add in the union complication and catering rates (e.g., $4 per donut, $3 per cookie, $5 for a banana, $78 for a gallon of coffee... and then add a 23% mandatory "gratuity" on top of it all), it just gets insulting.

It's beyond ridiculous.

When I was working, my company had a booth at trade shows including NYC. I actually worked the booth for some time. There was always talk about the unions but we never had trouble so I guess they were handsomely compensated.

I remember going to the rest room at the show and people were expected to tip the guy in the men's room. I all I saw him do was hand people hand towels but guess he kept the place clean since there was a LOT of traffic. That was first for me on learning the extent of tipping expectations.

For those who couldn't join the Collector's Club recap of the show earlier tonight, some stray notes from the organizing team:

- FIP patronage was a mistake - not worth it
- Complaints about food (underwhelming, overpriced) but always the case for big conference venues
- Next time, fewer frames to make it all more manageable, and fewer days: 5-6 max
- 10 years too long to wait until the next one - better make it 5