Paintball Magazine Paintball Extravaganza Special Edition | Page 109

DC, Orlando or Vegas? What’s Next? Words By Rick Chard THE SELECTION PROCESS has started for the 2017 Paintball Extravaganza International. Each year we receive many suggestions from store and field owners that the event should be moved to a warm location such as Orlando or to a fun location such as Vegas. Being from Michigan, I too would like to have the event in a warm or fun location, but there are many reasons the event returns to the Washington DC Area. At this year’s event, a group of nearly 50 attendees were asked if the event should be moved to Las Vegas. Almost all hands went into the air in favor of the move. The question was then reworded; how many would want to go to Las Vegas if the cost doubled. Almost all hands went down! This move was discussed with the Las Vegas Visitors Bureau at length and their suggestion was not to move the event to their area. Main reason is the event requires a lot of space for little return. Hotels look at many things other than the number of rooms an event fills. Auxiliary space required, which the event uses a lot of and food & beverage, whic h the event uses very little of. Extravaganza is a very small tradeshow to place in a convention center and hotels in Las Vegas are set up for entertainment and for the large past are void of meeting space. Photo by Alicia Bane Warm weather in Florida equals tourist season. We have met with the Orlando Area Convention Bureau and visited some area facilities. The area would be interested in hosting Extravaganza but in the fall which is off season for tourism. An event in the February tourist season will double hotel costs. As in Las Vegas, the number of hotels that can accommodate an event such as Extravaganza are few unless the event is held in a convention center. Typical convention center events are expensive in regards to space rental and exhibitor costs which will push our many small manufacturers. Baseball, Wine Tour, Washington DC Tours and even Disney outings in Anaheim have all been tried with little or no success. Very little shoulder dates are used for the event— meaning few people come early or stay late. Store and field owners come to the event and leave immediately after close. One of the main factors reviewed when evaluating the Washington DC Area is location. Extravaganza historically has seen between 45-50 percent drive in attendance and the DC Area is within a one-day drive for over 60 percent of the United States. Dulles Airport is convenient for both domestic and international travel. Labor laws in the Virginia area allows exhibitors to handle materials and set up exhibits without using expensive outside labor. This allows many small manufacturers to participate in the event. When evaluating a location for the event; location, travel, hotel room charges, exhibitor costs among other items are used in making a final selection for the next Paintball Extravaganza International. It may surprise many that this process takes many weeks of securing proposals, evaluating proposals and visiting new sites as required before making a final selection. We’ll keep working at it and we’ll let you know what’s next as soon as we know.! • • • www.paintball.media 109