Haunted House Central is now online!

[professornightmare]

Fright Times is only a few weeks away!

We have have many new features and designs downloads!..Articles by Rich Hanf, Ricky Dick, Fright Kingdom and even maze designs from "our" archives..big news on the way!!! Register now and get the details first!

Also, Larry congrats on the new ride..it looks excellent!!!

[jason]

i love the music on your site? where did you get it?

when is fright times being released?

[KroneDaddy]

John, I just joined, I really like the site. It is so much better that HauntWor... ooops, sorry Larry. Just kidding, I am looking forward to the Paranormal Show.

See you there.

Timmy Harkleroad

[Jim Warfield]

I once helped a major vender tare down a Transworld exhibit.
In fact that show he probably had rented more space than anyone else.
I could not believe what the floor looked like, they could have filmed a war or disaster movie in there!
Piles of junk, crap, waste, broken pieces of furniture, broken mirrors all sticking upward asking to cut someone.
That was the time I saw a fork of a forklift come withing a few centimeters of destroying the big screen TV Larry's booth had! (Did I ever tell you this, Larry?(
Clean up! What a job, much more than most haunters not being a vender would ever imagine.
If I was running the clean up I would deal with some dumpster-divers to take everything, but we haunters wouldn't know Anybody who would Ever dumpster-dive now do we?
haHAHAHAHA!

[Barry]

Brett,
Actually there are a lot more things that go into the cost than just the population base (the Columbus metro area is 1.2 million). You have to look into what other events are in the area and the total space available. One other big factor that MHC thinks about is setup/tear down days. A big show like TW has 2 or 3 days of setup and a full day tear down which means the vendors are paying for the facility on those days. I use one day for setup and we tear down right after the show. Most vendors can live with this however some cannot. It is a trade off.

[JamBam]

costs

Not trying to start a debate here on costs, but many of you who have either free help or minimum wage help and the price of the ticket is similar between the event.

Same with union and non-union areas. I worked for an electrical contractor that layed off the union guys, terminated his contract with the hiring hall, and hired his own untrained guys. The price of his billings actually went up. And the wages/benefits he paid his employees had dropped dramatically. The customers ended up with inferior work and higher costs. He lost many customers after the billings and poor work.

Now, I know in many big cities, the venues' unions do take advantage of situations. And we all know that insurance policies make restrictions on all of us and convention centers are not immune. Lawyers and greedy people have caused everybody to go overboard in regards to many things. Where I work, the insurance and safety requirements cause anyone driving and vehicle, lift, cherry picker, or fork truck to get training. I was helping a friend with his business and hired a company to lift a parking lot light with their bucket truck and before the owner had it three feet off the ground, I stopped him and fired him. Visions of the light crashing and buying it were caused by his untrained habits. Sure, he owned the truck, but it didn't mean he could run the thing.

Back to convention costs, the booth space cost is driven by the show owner and venue. The drayage is added.

Big cities drive prices for everything up a lot.

Chicago-TW (8 million people) and Vegas-TW (1.5 million), Houston-2009 Costume show (2 million) and costs will be much higher than smaller cities like Columbus-MWH (700k), Exton/Frazer-Eastern (4k) , or others.

St Louis ( 2.75 million), hmm.

Overall, I like the potential for vendors thinking that 3 smaller shows are as good or better than one big one. I could live with that.

[Jim Warfield]

Small vender = small farmer raising cows, chickens, corn, hogs= not putting all of your work and hopes into one basket.
One big show could = one big "0" if a calamity occured there right in time for the big show.

[professornightmare]

You're right..

You're right...fixing that and other tweaks as we speak. I really appreciate any and all feedback. Thank you!

[screamsofnight]

The Music...

I love the website! But... the music has to go. There are some pages where you can turn it off.. but some you cant. I want to listen to the Ads.. but I cant hear them with the background music. Otherwise, it looks great!

Kyle - Screams of Night

[professornightmare]

Southwest

Either way Southwest has cheap fights to any of those! Larry are you coming in before or on Sunday? Ricky will be there too..someone is bound to get drybrushed!

[MDKing]

I would think New York, or even Atlanta would be more the capital of the east coast than Philly. Also, lets not forget that the capital of the whole country is DC!


Allan

[BackInBlack137]

Hey Larry, are you doing a seminar on Saturday at EHC? On their website it says you are scheduled, but I remember you saying something about being at Kennywood for the opening. I hope there isn't any miscommunication issues here! Just thought I would let you know.

-Garry Richwine Jr.

[professornightmare]

I agree , they are great people.

I'm doing a seminar there this weekend to show my support. As for as different cities being more expensive, I disagree. The empty isles of the transworld show this year has open many eyes. I have always enjoyed the Transworld shows of years gone by but they have embraced the party stores and diminished the attention to our industry.

[drfrightner]

John,

Going to three or four different cities to reach the whole group of our industry isn't my answer to saving money! LOL

We need one major buyers seller show and I think that is probably going happen and be announced soon.

I think MHC does really good for vendors and I think EHC will do good for locals as well because they're just so freakin close to a lot of different people.

PA is so close to more people its sick! Philly is like the capital of the East Coast so I think they will do awesome!!!! Hauntworld is sponsoring the EHC and we plan on attending to support this show.

We sent them something like 300 or more FREE magazines to hand out to their guests.

The producers of EHC are very professional and very nice people!!! I wish them all the luck in the WORLD!

Larry

[professornightmare]

Chiller

Yeah...I did know about Chiller but I think the Eastern Haunter's Convention will be really something to watch! With the rising union prices of the "big" shows, I think that Midwest, Eastern and Hauntcon will continue to grow and allow vendors to capture different clientele with paying huge costs. You can now go to 3 smaller shows for the price of one. Just my opinion but these shows are designed for us and our industry.
JD