World Stamp Show Ny2016 - At The Show

While the technology to host remote webinars is cheap (relatively speaking) and easy to use, using facility IT staff and bandwidth would likely be expensive and I hadn't considered that. I did envision these webinbars as something a remote attendee would actually pay for, but I really have no idea if there would be enough of a market for it to recoup the expenses.

Regarding the exhibits, however, all you have to do is require that exhibitors submit scans/photos of their exhibits as a condition of exhibiting. All a show staff member would have to do is post them to the website, and conceivably you could have the exhibitor even upload it themselves using a login. It's obviously too late to do that with this show, but they could make it a requirement for future shows.

I disagree with this, the costs are not nearly that high.

Here is an industry standard cost breakdown for the cost of webinars
- Technology Required to Produce a Webinar: $5,000
- Equipment Necessary to Construct/Host a Webinar: $6,000
- Grand Total: $11,000

So if you publish 12 webinars the cost would be about $915 each. (These numbers are not mine, you can find them by looking them up.) If they could not generate enough online pay to view people to cover $915 per webinar, then I would suggest that something is seriously wrong.

It would take a forward thinking 'driver', and one or two techie-type people to make it happen. Surely it is not a problem to find a few folks/volunteers like this.

I think the issue here is clear; heads buried in sand, comfortable with what has worked in the past, unwilling to risk looking forward, erecting obstacles as excuses.
Don

Edit; keep in mind that once the webinar is published, it can continue to generate income for months/years to come.

I'm not sure how feasible this idea is, but I think it would also be cool if I could email a want list to a show staff member, who could then track down a dealer(s) at the show who had those stamps. The show staff could package them for the buyer and put them all in one shipment. The show would get a cut, of course, dealers would sell even more stamps, and remote collectors would be happy as well. This would not incur any additional fees from the facility, but it would likely require at least one staff member (volunteer or otherwise), which the show would recoup from charging whatever fee they would decide is appropriate.

I had asked APS to just record some seminars but that has not happened either.

A lot of effort went into the show and a shame more APS members could get some direct benefit from it.

Al

I nearly got run-over by a guy snapping cell phone pix of one exhibit frame after another "for my friend in India".

I can't see learning that much from that kinda snap - issues of resolution, focus, reflections - but that's me.

Even if we're only thinking Old School, exhibitors could have been offered an 'opt in' to a print and/or digital publication of a scan of their exhibit(s).

The scanning itself could have been done during the night hours, with a crew (including security) rolling an equipment cart down the frame line.

Q/ Did it cost the auction houses U$D 200k to live-stream their auctions?

CCNY & RPSL make just-good-enough-video of presentations at their meetings, and those videos can be watched for free on their websites; certainly all of the WSS NY 2016 events, presentations, FDoI ceremonies, etc, could have been captured & made available, same day, in a YouTube channel, for very little money.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Don, IkeyPikey,
Keep in mind that Javits and similar places charge highly inflated rates driven by profit seeking and high union wage contracts. They do not charge anywhere close to what you quoted because they use set hourly fees and do not amortize the equipment cost. WSS or APS is not permitted to bring use their own staff or outside contractors for any aspect of audiovisual production ... Javits has an exclusive. It would not be unusual for the cost of a webinar to be $1000 per hour per room using this structure. There are about 300 meetings, ceremonies and presentations in the WSS program ... Dealers reported that the charge for an extra chair at their tables was $350. You can imagine that the AV service rates are extremely high.
Chris

There seems to be an impression that this is an APS show that APS is responsible for running. It's not, and it's not.

This said, I agree it would have been nice to get some video of the large number of presentations available at the show (two of which I was involved in). The show *is* using Javits center technology and staff. The personnel were very helpful but there have been some technology issues, particularly with the use of embedded video in powerpoint presentations. I expect, but do not know for a fact, that we will see some presentation content being videotaped at the APS summer show in Portland. I understand there are plans to explore webinar options going forward, as well as using GoToMeeting for some content. The strategic plan does call for all of these things.

Finally - scanning exhibits for a more or less real time virtual show ain't gonna happen. Liability issues, equipment issues, time issues. Many exhibitors don't complete exhibits until right before a show. There's no time to scan. Nor do people want to keep re-scanning pages after making minor changes (which most of us do from show to show). Speaking as someone with experience in the operation of a WSP show, I can only imagine the torches and pitchforks that would come out if a show tried to require scanning exhibits as a condition of entry. (this said, at least one show - ROPEX - has sought scans of title pages and synopses - many of us submit these digitally anyway, and this is achievable). Speaking as an exhibitor as well, I have minimal interest in subjecting my material to repeated scans (bright light is not a good thing), additional handling, insertion and removal from page protectors, and so forth. Of course, many collectors DO scan an exhibit at one point in time, and hundreds of exhibits are available online from various sources, including APS, which accepts exhibit scans for the library.

The show has been awsome, and although I have seen people going around taking photos and videos, I don't know where they will show up. Frankly, I think most people are too busy having a good time to bother.

"Real time" sounds exciting, but I suggested scanning during "down time", eg, at night, while the show is closed.




Eight day show. I suggested scanning during the seven nights. We could name a movie after that.




Scan once, on one of the seven nights. No backsies.




I wrote "opt in".




The exhibits are already on 'pages'. Pull page out of frame. Scan page once. Replace. Next page.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Hi Chris,
Understood, I have purchased booths and done setup at trade conferences at union controlled venues. I have been disallowed to bring my own tools in and then charged outrageous amounts for a hammer and a screw driver. I have carted equipment in by hand because anything on wheels was disallowed. I have had to make 15 trips to my car in the distant parking lot while walking through the closer union parking lot filled with cars I couldn't afford at the time. So I concur that costs are higher in a metro conference location like NYC. But as ikey pointed out, the auction houses managed to get it done.

The additional overhead of such a venue is indeed a consideration; but one that is understood before agreeing to holding the event. These costs already existed and are constant in every aspect of the show; how could it be a valid justification only against IT?
Don

Don,
Point taken. You may have intended the question rhetorically, but the only "excuses" I can formulate are the desire not to "cannibalize" in-person attendance (i.e., we want attendees on the floor, buying, rather than on their computers), the desire to maximize advertising exposure (if you're on your computer, you're not seeing [albeit more IT or marketing investment] all those giant signs for Mystic, Champion and Robert Siegel), or the feeling that the added cost layer for IT could not have been covered by fees, donations or sponsorships.

On the latter point, most likely the auctions are run as an independent P&L by the auction houses, so the margin they make on all those high-dollar items would amply cover the cost of Javits' captive in-house IT. My only guess is that show planners felt that fees, donations or sponsorships would not have produced break-even or more for the rest of the show. I'll have to ask Gordon Eubanks the next time I bump into him ...
Chris

Totally anecdotal and may mean nothing, BUT, yesterday (Thursday) I had issues getting a few photos uploaded to my FB page while in the convention center. Later, I overheard two "officially dressed looking" types saying the convention center's wifi was being overwhelmed (their words). I find it hard to believe, but IF there are wifi issues or timing out issues inside the convention center, it could account for something.

Or not.

Q/ Would live-streaming an FDoI ceremony lead stamp-curious people (let alone serious buyers) to stay home? Seems unlikely.

But that sort of event is the sort of thing that teachers can work into their lesson plans.

All in all, though, I think that having "static video" of the lectures & presentations available on a website for months & years to come is a much bigger deal.

And I agree that it is far easier for the auction houses to decide to cover the cost of live-streaming their revenue-rich auction hours, especially as they already do that at home.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I take a view that APS sponsored shows should be enjoyed by all APS members -- just not who attend the show. There are many APS members that will never attend a show.

Al

I bought a few more covers this morning. Then it was back to the forest of panels. I'm truly in awe, not only of the material but also the presentations. So much skill and work. So much knowledge being shared... who knew?! I LOVE THIS SHOW.

Some highlights for me today in the frames:

U.S. Special Handling 1925-1959: The Stamps and the Service. An issue I've not given much thought to. I of course really liked the Graf Zep cover franked with one of each Special Handling stamps...Philatelic? yes. Cool with me? absolutely.

Postal History of the Thirteen Colonies, 1675-178. A museum worthy collection! IMHO