Hi everyone I'm trying to host a car show mid July and wanted to know if anyone had ideas and maybe some advice as to what works and what doesn't. It's my first one so this is a big learning experience. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Unless you've made a lot of progress already and have a big support staff-I don't think you can pull this off in 6 months. CCC is correct. But, you'll also need a venue, portapotties, trash collection, programs, printing, advertising, trophies, people to clean, collect money and patrol the area,security, publicity, money, money and money. Plus, you'll need to have almost everything in place months earlier-so you have got maybe until the end of March. Are there competing events in your area at that time? Do you need permits,licenses, a tax ID number from local,state and federal governments? Are you making this a general show, or just a specific audience-hot rods,antiques, Fords,etc? Better get cracking! Good luck. Oh, yeah. You need a better thread ***le because we don't know from reading it what you want tips and ideas about and it will get buried fast.
Other information like where this show is going to be held would help. Car Shows in North Texas in July aren't a lot of fun....just saying. Also is this targeted towards local people or are you trying to draw people from all over?
Theres a pretty long thread about car show stuff on here somewhere. If you haven't done one yet, or at least helped someone with one, theres WAY more to it than youll ever imagine. Venue, insurance, advertising, parking, voting, trophies, entertainment, budget. And that's the quick and dirty list. if you aren't advertising it now, and papering car shows that come up youre behind the ball already
I think the date is most important. Don't conflict with any other events nearby, so find a blank part of the season.
It isn't just car shows in your area, check to see what other events are going on. Mom and Dad with a few kids can only afford to go to one event a day, don't try to compete with any established event on the same day. Bob
Been doing this for years. It is a big job to be sure. You need help, lots of it. Get insurance, we get $2M and draw up a release/registration form. (should have lawyer's help) Research dates, don't conflict with other shows. See what's most popular in your area, stay away from that. Get a good location with good "foot" traffic. Get sponsors. Are you going to donate to a charity? What is your theme? Do a lot of advertising, posters, flyers internet Plan far ahead, our show is in June, we have already started months ago. Get trophies, dash plaques, goodie bags and entertainment set up way in advance. Stuff happens and trophy companies work on their own time frame. You will need lots of personnel to handle the flow of traffic, answer questions, security and PR If you do drawings or prizes check local regulations. Some places consider raffles gambling. There is so much involved, I would think this thread will go on for a while. If you are going to have food available that is a whole different subject (permits, Health Dept. inspection, food handler permits/certifications, etc) Best of luck to you.
Yes, change ***le of thread to attract individuals that have experience putting on a show Sent from my SM-G930V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Just a "car show" is pretty vague. Are you talking about a 40 car cruise night or a 400 car 3 day event? Lot's of difference.
BEST thing you can do to minimize errors and issues is hook-up with an individual or club with good past experience, LEARN the ropes for them. Most folks kinda remember a good show, but NEVER forget a bad one! My club has hosted a show on the same date, same venue for nearly 2 decades. We work on a 9-10 month timeline to secure the venue for the next show, print flyers, secure insurance, food, trophy sponsors, displays, ALL the DETAILS that make a show worth entering with minimal h***le. EXPERIENCE is the key to our sucess - our key players KNOW the drill in planning, and we have the same people volenteering for the same tasks year after year. A TON of work for one day, but so very worth it to see it all come together, our club working as a team! Flyers, word-of-mouth and a brief mention in the local paper is our ONLY advertising, yet our's has grown to 300+ cars with 410 our record. GOOD venue, music, raffle prizes, trophy catagories, AND minimal h***les /suprises keep our guests returning year after year, and bringing friends too! With few changes, our show keeps getting better and better on it's own, year after year... the caliber of cars NEVER ceases to amaze me!!! Wearing my club shirt, the BEST part of my day is when a guest stops me to pay a complement to our club, telling me how many years he has attended - what a GREAT show it is year after year!!! Flat-out LEVITATES me off the ground for the remainder of the day... HARDEST part of my day is picking 10 cars worthy of People's Choice awards... and being at the park at daybreak to get set up. Our goal is to be READY by or before 7am to let pre-registered cars in, get 'day of' cars signed in and parked. By then, we have 3-4 dozen early birds in line, and good manpower to help everyone get parked efficently for the next couple hours. For best results friend, I'd say GET SOME EXPERIENCE working with a club before going it alone... good help from good seasoned people is EVERYTHING for meeting your guests and your expecations!!!
First off, there are a lot of great comments on this subject. Read everyone's and take notes. From what I read there are a lot of seasoned car show people commenting on this. Good luck with your venture.
Thank you to everyone!! lots of good info and I have learned a lot already [emoji106][emoji106][emoji106] looks like I'm going to take it a little slower and cross my t's and dot my I's before we get too serious Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Mistakes................we all learn from them. The one I remember was from an AACA National meet my Region put on using a high school football field. Everything went off well until some woman from the Board of Education showed up with an at***ude, claiming it was misuse of the field or something. Be sure you get things in writing with the field owner. Bob
Insurance is critical, as others have stated, very critical! The show date should try to be at a time when the weather is fairly nice. No one wants to go to a show when there is a good chance of rain or brutal heat! If you can't get all your "ducks" in a row at least 3 months in advance don't try to wing it! You will need at LEAST 20 reliable people to pull off even a small show, coming up short handed will quickly become a disaster. You have a lot of great suggestions from some very knowledgeable people here and I'm sure there are more to come. Read them write them down think about shows you have been to. What did you like, what ****ed. If folks are having a good time they will let you know, if not they will tell everyone they know! Best of luck, I have been there and done that many times PM me for more info. KK
This thread has a lot of info on guys saying what they like and don't like about car shows. It wasn't really the intent of the thread originally but there's a lot of info that you could find useful. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/whats-a-better-motivator-shows-or-swaps.1043510/ My suggestion is, make the length of the show equivalent to the amount of stuff there is to do. Sunday parking lot shows do well if everyone is in by 10 and trophy's by 2:00. Gives people enough time to look at cars and shoot the **** but not **** around all day. If it's an all day show, there needs to be enough **** to do all day to make it worth staying. Same with a weekend show. Everyone likes to see old friends and check out the cars, but that only eats up so much time.
This is going to sound silly, but ... in ALL your promotions/advertising, especially online ... list the ... EXACT LOCATION Location Name, Address, City, State (Province), Country. In today's world GPS Coordinates might be helpful. It's amazing how many people leave some or all of that info off event listings / submissions / notices, etc. In an online world you need to be very specific. Everyone in your town may know where the City Park is, but a guy coming from even a short distance out of town probably won't.
Ken Bogren above nailed it, I can't believe how few flyers have a street address that could be plugged into a GPS or Googlemaps or whatever. I've even seen some that have directions printed on them but still no address.
You'll need a permit, so you'll contact the city. You'll probably talk to the police, too. You might want to talk to the county sheriff, or police in surrounding areas, so they know what's going on. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
One of the best shows I ever attended was last summer in Williamsport, PA and it was a one off. There was a one day AACA Grand National meet-over 600 cars all of whom had previously won AACA Senior awards. They used the grounds of a local college-all the cars parked along wide sidewalks on gr***y, shady lanes and every owner was there to tell you about his car. Well publicized, friendly folks, safe and family friendly and FREE. No hot rods, but these were amazing cars. No one who is interested in cars could not be fascinated by theses machines. We had a blast. For the OP, I'd suggest going to some shows then discussing it with the organizers-find out how to do the things you liked-and maybe quietly digest the things you'd avoid. This year's Grand National show is in Independence, Missouri on June 15-17, 2017, I strongly would suggest the trip if you are nearby
The Jalopy Journal
