Kansas City

[David Andersen]

Allan---I can't express my gratitude adequately for your eloquent  
response, and a human-to-human look at your busy life. This is the  
power of communication.  I would welcome the opportunity to dialogue  
with you over coffee---everything is so much clearer and easier in  
person, and our best and highest interests are served. Thank you for  
your response, and your continued hard work for our Guild. You have  
apparently learned a great secret: giving to people in sincere and  
healthy ways exponentially increases the pleasure of living. Please  
email me or call (310-403-4559) and we'll continue talking. Thanks.  
Go love up your family...
Best,
David Andersen
On Apr 24, 2007, at 3:36 PM, Allan Gilreath, RPT wrote:

> Good evening David and everyone,
>
> First, I apologize to the list for making a non-technical post. I  
> still tend
> to lean toward the habits from the early days of the list so I hope  
> you
> folks will forgive the response. I'll keep anything else to the PTG- 
> L list.
>
> With a thriving business, there are only so many messages that I  
> can answer
> in a day. In addition to pressing a soundboard, making final  
> fitting on a
> multi-level pinblock, starting a new intern, dealing with a  
> warranty issue
> for a manufacturer and the other normal parts of running a business, I
> answered a query about the application of anti-trust statutes,  
> finished
> editing a short journal article and helped one of the Regional  
> Conferences
> deal with a crisis where they're having to negotiate a new hotel  
> contract
> since the hotel cancelled on them. Now I'm not complaining, but I'm  
> going to
> finish this reply and then go spend some time with my family.
>
> I understand that Jurgen is going to be sharing a booth space with  
> Kawai so
> he's going to be in the Hall. We've already arranged to move several
> exhibitors, who have easily securable exhibits (non-tools) to the  
> lobby to
> make more room.  The email announcing the availability of booths  
> was sent
> out on January 11 to those exhibitors who were in either Rochester  
> in 2006
> or KC in 2005.
>
> When we were last in KC, there was a strong, yet polite, request  
> from a
> number of Exhibitors to have the Exhibit Hall in a more accessible  
> area than
> the location for that year.  The decision to move to a different  
> room was
> certainly not easy and not unanimous. In doing so, the intent was  
> to do our
> best to look out for the exhibitors and the attendees by trying to  
> provide
> an easily accessible, highly attended showing for the wares.
>
> There were a number of exhibitors in Rochester, including the other  
> tool
> sellers who were in attendance, who really liked the layout and the
> continued efforts to raise participation in the exhibit hall.
>
> David, I'm personally sorry that you feel underserved by people who  
> are
> volunteering their time and talents to work toward the betterment  
> of our
> trade. I appreciate the efforts that you, and so many others, put into
> making PTG a better organization. I can honestly say that there is  
> never,
> consciously or otherwise, any intent to be passive-aggressive or to  
> alienate
> anyone. If anything, just the opposite is true and I would love to  
> have an
> opportunity to sit down together while we're in Kansas City and, if  
> Council
> wants me to continue my efforts to serve the organization, help  
> find some
> ways that we can better accomplish these mutual goals.
>
> Respectfully
>
> Allan
> Allan L. Gilreath, RPT
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org]  
> On Behalf
> Of David Andersen
> Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 11:29 AM
> To: Pianotech List
> Subject: Re: Kansas City
>
>>
> This was sent a few days ago by our friend Jurgen Goering; my reply
> is below.
> Kent Swafford, Joe Garrett, Alan Gilreath: please read my reply---
> it's strong, but honest and true for me---and tell me and us what the
> deal is; communication goes a LONG way to fight confusion and doubt.
> I hope we can pu this on the table and talk about it......
> With respect,
> David Andersen
> Malibu, CA
>
>
>> Piano Forte Supply will not be exhibiting at the National
>> Convention in
>> Kansas City this year. The exhibit hall was sold out in 19 hrs,
>> about 4
>> months before the event, and anyone who came later came too late.
>> I among
>> others.  I am sorry for the many of you on this list who were
>> counting on
>> visiting my booth.  Needless to say, I am also disappointed at not
>> being able
>> to show all my new items.
>>
>> Responding to exhibitor complaints that not enough technicians were
>> making
>> their way over to the exhibit hall in 2005, the decision was made
>> to move the
>> exhibit closer to the main  convention activities.  However, the
>> only room
>> available is 40% smaller than the hall previously used.  I haven't
>> yet fully
>> understood how this can contribute to the biggest and best ever
>> 50th annual
>> convention.
>>
>> Home office told me that 120 booths could have been sold, but the
>> exhibit
>> hall only has room for about 70 booths. (The size of every booth
>> had to be
>> reduced by 20% to accommodate even this small number.)  So, at over
>> $600 per
>> booth, that amounts to a lost potential revenue of around $30,000
>> (!) for the
>> convention.  I could imagine that with $30,000 a lot of enticements
>> could
>> have been afforded to draw technicians across the way into the the
>> exhibit
>> hall.  Let me see:  free food? how about caviar canapes, or perhaps
>> a $1,000
>> door prize every hour of the exhibit?.... Maybe a grand piano as a
>> prize?
>>
>> I can't help but wonder if enough thought was given  to the drawing
>> technicians to the large exhibit hall, instead of opting for the poor
>> compromise of the smallest exhibit hall in years. (The breaks between
>> sessions in '05 were far to short, for example) I don't know why
>> there always
>> seems to be such a huge problem surrounding the exhibit hall in the
>> last few
>> years.  I don't want to bring up past mistakes, but they were
>> surely made,
>> and one important lesson doesn't seem to sink in: a good exhibit
>> hall is
>> vital for the success of a convention - it draws technicians to
>> attend.  I
>> cannot count the number of technicians who were full of
>> disappointment at the
>> Rochester convention, saying to me that they would not have
>> attended if they
>> had known there would be only one tool and parts supplier from  
>> whom to
>> purchase. I know many will be disappointed with the exhibit hall
>> again this
>> year.  It is a real pity.
>>
>> Oh, well, here's hoping for Burbank in 2008.  See you there!
>> Jurgen Goering
>> Piano Forte Supply
>> www.pianofortesupply.com
>
> Jurgen----Let's go outside the box and figure out a way you can be a
> presence there, with all your rockin' merchandise.
> Email me privately.  It's just not right. I'm positive there are
> other small exhibitors we could work something out with vis a vis a
> suite or something. Let's do a little pushing and see if these guys
> can actually serve their members with some respect.
>
> Why are we always making excuses for and bitching about the national
> convention leadership? Why isn't this, in every way, going to be the
> biggest and best? Who made the decision to----at the BIGGEST and BEST
> convention---
> cut the exhibit space in half? It's breathtakingly short-sighted and
> disrespectful, in my opinion; especially after the miserable
> experience with tool-sellers in Rochester.  Do you leadership guys
> have a passive-agressive issue with us, the membership? Do you
> secretly want to alienate us and piss us off?
>
>   I'm  teaching a total of 11 hours class time in KC; plus, at my own
> expense, I'm bringing some hi-def film equipment to interview some of
> our legendary elders before time runs out; my intention was to offer
> the film to the PTG Foundation for museum/archival purposes---and to
> use it for my own marketing purposes, naturally. The point is, I'm
> giving very freely of my time, energy, resources, and reputation to
> shine a light of excellence and positivity on our craft and our
> organization. Why do I feel so unmet, unseen, and underseved by the
> leadership of PTG? Really.
> David Andersen
> On Apr 16, 2007, at 12:06 AM, Jurgen Goering wrote:
>
>>
>
>