Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Festival vs. Extravaganza

Now that we've all enjoyed the latest political charade performed almost flawlessly by our bi-factional ruling party it's time to get back to paintball. Besides, I know many of you prefer the feel of nice warm soft sand to bury your head in and don't want to be inconvenienced by reality at a silly paintball blog. That way when your masters come along your ass will be elevated waiting to be kicked but at least you won't see it coming. Don't worry, be happy.
Has Extravaganza been so successful the folks who brought us the IAO just had to come back? Well, the Festival will also feature a scenario game & a UWL event. And, of course, the requisite party. And there must be plenty of paintball execs left who remember getting blitzed at the Sheraton bar on the old expense account back in the day. Good times.
What am I talking about?
Where have you been?
For the last couple of years (or more) Paintball Extravaganza has been bringing sellers (PBIndustry) together with (reluctant) buyers (local paintball retailers) in the guise of a conference designed to help the "little guy" make a go of his (or her) paintball field and/or store. The Paintball Festival promises to be about the same with the value added of actual paintball being played at Three Rivers during the festival period along with a laundry list of paintball celebrities. If you're a geezer like me you might consider it the reincarnation of the old IAO which featured an industry conference to coincide with the International Am Open paintball tournaments of years past. It's even scheduled for about the same time the IAO used to be.
Haven't years of dueling major leagues taught paintball anything? Now we have dueling conferences committed to helping field owners--or at least facilitating selling them something--like attending a festival or extravaganza. Is that too cynical? Is it one conference too many? I'm thinking it probably is.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agreed.

Reiner Schafer said...

Yeah, probably. Now we will most likely have two half-assed attended "conferences" instead of one decent one. Oh well, these are the problems of a free market system; pies always get cut up into morsels.

Anonymous said...

This isn't going to fly. You can't keep wheeling-out Bob Guernsey/Charles Whatsisname and expect people to show-up. Who's the next big attraction? Jessica Sparks?
This will be an old-school reunion for some, but not worth attending for any business reasons.

Anonymous said...

"to help the "little guy" make a go of his (or her) paintball field and/or store"
I LOL'd! I Sure fell for that one hook line and sinker back in 09! Driving 9 hours for a goody bag of stickers, a pod of reballs, some key chains and price sheet: $50 for this tech class, $250 for that tech class, but to hear that boring "successful" field owner speak was free! As was watching the movers and shakers get toasted in the lounge.