Editing The Pen Addict 332/transcript (section)

== Toronto Show Viability ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' No. So I was not selling anything here and to cut to that chase I think I could make a one day not co event in Toronto feasible from what I saw today.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's different to what you were saying before you went to the store. 100%. To the show. Because before you were saying one day is not enough time if I'm going to make the trip like to cover and the expenses you want to be able because the expenses are mostly the same. The biggest expenses are the flight.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The flight's the same right wherever you're going for a one day show or a two day show. Right. It just costs what it costs. So you would want to do two or most even like three days to make sure you're maximizing the amount of money that you can bring in and a one day show you get like a half or a third in theory opportunity to make money. Right. So this is what you were saying beforehand kind of when people were asking you about like why aren't you selling anything. So what has changed now that you've seen it? Like what did you see today?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The amount of people and the size of the show there's not one person I talked to before the show that didn't undersell it. Like I'm almost mad at them. Everyone is under like you need to

'''Myke Hurley:''' Toronto is doing a bad job of pitching its show to the world.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. You need to understand where this show lies in the grand scheme of things and outside of DC and San Francisco this is right there with any other show I've ever been to as far as size scope.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Yeah. It's smaller than Dallas but I mean yeah it's definitely plays it with all of the mid tier shows.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I bet they might draw more people in Dallas.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Oh no Dallas is a big show. Maybe not.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Dallas is a good show but you know my point stands and I even chastised you know jokingly one of you know the friends we made you know Sim who was you know part of the volunteer group and he was hitting me up today he was like so what do you think you know what do you what do you think about our little show? I'm like I said what I just said to y'all I said not one person has has given me an accurate representation of what this show is not one person knows where this show is he's like okay so maybe it's a medium show that's what I got him to.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Yes. They're definitely humble. Yeah. Yeah. The Torontans Torontonians Torontonians are humble they're very very humble but this show is definitely comparable to any mid-sized American show.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Without question and like I was like chastising him and the best I could get him to was medium and I was essentially yelling at him.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I would say that for like a lot of if you are an independent maker like you or like many of the pens that we know this is actually a very good opportunity potentially because you would be in a minority so you would maybe stand out a little bit more in this show.

'''Ana Reinert:''' And they would I mean the Torontonians and all of this running it would like lose their mind if someone like Jonathan Brooks came up here to sell his pens or any maker of that caliber that was making hand-turned resin pens like that would

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well you can see it in the perception they've given us. Oh totally. Like they're so excited that we've made this trip

'''Brad Dowdy:''' to their little show and we're not like

'''Myke Hurley:''' you know we're not contributing anything more than just being there and you know they like laid out the red carpet for us so I can only imagine how excited they would be like if Brad was to bring Knock to the show but so do you think then even with a one day show like you could turn enough of a profit that it would make it worth it for you?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes.

'''Ana Reinert:''' They would lay out those maple scented bills.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' From what I this crowd was intense. We rolled show opened at 10 we were rolled in at 10.05 10.10 all I saw was heads. I couldn't see table.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It looked like it had been open for two hours.

'''Ana Reinert:''' It looked like it looked like Friday morning at most of the shows anywhere in the US. Yeah. That Friday morning frenzy that you see in Atlanta in Dallas in I mean any of the shows where people are like

'''Brad Dowdy:''' all day long.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Like yeah what you see at a Franklin Kristoff table at Friday morning at 10 a.m. Exactly. Yeah. That's what it looked like.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So we were mostly stationed at the Wonder Pens table because it was really busy and as we were bumping into people we were kind of holding up the corridors so we kind of found our way to the Wonder Pens table. there was a line from 10 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. That was the first time it broke. This was a line to just get to the table. I've never seen that before. Like for that length of time at a for a table that is for a store that is 10 minutes away from the venue. Right. So it's like they just want to support the people that are doing the thing. It's wild. Like it was really good. I've never seen this kind of support that it seems like the people want to and I think one of the big differences is it's free and I think that makes a big difference. It allowed and everyone that I spoke to all of the people that were involved in the organizing they were so proud of the fact that their show is free because it allows them to bring people in and they can spend all of their money on stuff. They're not paying like $5 that they could use somewhere inside. They're not giving to the vendor and I'm sure that it means that they have a good deal with the library which allows them to do this because I would assume that it's not being run at a loss to the people organizing it but that kind of mentality I think is really great and everyone seems super focused on trying to make sure that this show was enabling the future. I kept hearing this like we want to get people in now so they can see this and start to get excited so then in 20 years they have much more money to spend and it was really heartwarming to see that kind of focus put on the show it was wonderful it really was really just a great environment it was a big open space they had every single table was full I had no

'''Brad Dowdy:''' complaints so I had a couple of recurring themes one at the Wonderpens event a lot of people there were going to their first pin show and traveled to get here which brings me to point number two which I think is even more important is that so many people today said they're here because this is Canada's only pin show

'''Myke Hurley:''' yeah it was like repeatedly we want to support this yeah right

'''Brad Dowdy:''' yeah so I mean people were traveling hours and flights and you know booking hotels to be here for what our good friend carrie at kenro industries dubbed six hour scriptus this thing is open for six hours on a sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. it was nuts like people from all over the country were making it a point to be here for this show because this is their one chance a year to see all these people under one roof

'''Myke Hurley:''' so put like if you say that to put that into perspective people are taking tomorrow off work for this right I spoke to a bunch of people that are doing that it means that much to someone from calgary that they will travel in stay in a hotel stay with a friend take monday off work so they can come to a six hour pen show that is super different yeah where like I've been to pen shows they're like oh it's raining today so no one's gonna come right

'''Ana Reinert:''' yeah sunday in in atlanta if it's raining people bail they don't come to day three because never mind it's raining yep but yeah people really make a commitment i did also

'''Myke Hurley:''' it's been raining here too

'''Ana Reinert:''' it was it rained all day and that did not stop a single person from coming nope um i i actually talked to several people who came in all the way from buffalo new york they were really willing to cross international lines to come to this show because for them it was the closest pen show they're like yep i'll come to canada to come to a pen show i mean well we came to canada to come to a pen show but yeah they were super excited to come to toronto to come to a pen show so and they said you know this was a big deal for them too you know they love to come up here for a show so i thought that was really cool

'''Myke Hurley:''' i'm really pleased we did this

'''Brad Dowdy:''' yeah i am too um you know it was uh eye opening from the jump yep and it never stopped yep which is like one of our goals right we want to see these new things learn about these new things meet new people try to you know enlighten ourselves on these you know these ideas that we've had built in over the years and our market and the things we have experience with and see what these new experiences are and you know have our minds changed you know willingly you know it's like please mold my little clay brain you know teach me your ways toronto and it ends up being that way and it was fascinating um from like the moment i got in new york and we got to fountain pen hospital until this show ended it was my eyes were just constantly opened the whole time and kind of

'''Myke Hurley:''' nothing was what i expected it would be yeah and everything turned out better