"If You Could Change One Thing About Salute..." Topic

…what would you change?

The lighting. Still horrible.

It would be in the Atlantic City Convention center.

I cant think of anything I would change.

I would be there

Two Days.

or…at least…open at 9AM close at 9PM.

Would anyone make Christmas Day last just 7 hours ?

I rest my case your honour.

Nothing, don't go there.

I'll tell you on the 23rd, it's my first one this year. Can't wait!

The parking charges.

Some place that I could drive to from Rochester NY.

I'd move it to Denver

I would move it to Fresno, CA

Seconded on the lighting

I would move it to the Host.

Move it to Xfinity Arena in Everett, Washington so I could attend…

Leave it where it is, but provide free roundtrip airfare!

Get my wife to let me go again. It's the airfare combined with the purchases at the show which shoots it down every year. One or the other would be about the same, it's just the combination. I know from my visit several years ago that I cannot behave myself with the amount of goodies on display.

Gave up on it three years ago. Overpriced, overcrowded, over hyped and full of sci-fant tatt. Much prefer to spend my funds on trips to Carronade and Claymore.

Less sci-fi and more historical would be good. But I guess that's just how the market is.

I don't find it overpriced or overcrowded, but then I live in London! (For the benefit of our foreign friends, London has evolved over the last couple of decades almost into a different country to the rest of the UK!)

It would coincide with my (overdue) big lottery win ;)

Lighting, lighting, lighting!

Relocate it to New Orleans LA, USA!

Less sci-fant more historical, stopped going two years ago. Having been going on and off since Kensington town Hall days…

A ban on rucksacks/backpacks, or at least limit their size to that of a small refrigerator.

1st Better lighting – yes
2nd Better food/drinking establishments – yes
3rd Less unyielding floors – yes

(ban on very large rucksacks maybe but let's be honest, if you get there by public transport and then buy a lot how else are you to transport it if not in a moderate-sized one).

I'd move it to Ally Pally. It's a much nicer venue had hosts model railway and classic car shows so plenty big enough.

Less hysterical more sci fi
and I'm putting on a historically based game this year,

I'm with John T on this a total can of worms – grognards "remembering" antiquated unsuitable venues with rose tinted nostalgia.
Lighting is almost always an issue at venues used in the UK. Having been to and put on games for the last 40 years Salute is not the worst.
For me having a form of tinnitus its the lack of acoustic baffles ( I'm wearing ear plugs this year) well at least it's not Model engineer show with 1/6 scale R/C tanks rattling about the concrete!!!

I didn't go last year for the first time in years -since Kensington days.

It has simply become too big and too busy for me – I didn't particularly enjoy it as a trader (a very long, hard day when I had M.E. – though the money was good!) and really didn't enjoy it as a punter the only time I have experienced it as such at Excel. But then I am old and cynical :-)

But all shows are slightly less exciting nowadays because we get to see everything on the web before we see it in person.

Mike

Mike I think your last comment:

"But all shows are slightly less exciting nowadays because we get to see everything on the web before we see it in person."

says a lot about how the hobby has progressed over the last decade or so.

If some conventions are becoming too big and busy , would it be an idea to look ,say at the American model and start combining the best of both sides of the Atlantic?

VT

I used to enjoy Games Fair which was a residential RPG convention back in the 1980s at Reading University.

The problem in the UK is the cost of hotels and even university campuses are now a lot more expensive out of term time as they have moved into the conference market.

Mike

The lighting has improved (may not require sunglasses but it has improved) so I'd have to go with the floor.

Back with a game again this year, having been ill in 2016, so I'll be on my feet from 08:00 – 18:00 or so.

I'll know it by the end of the day!

The date

Perhaps move it to a Sunday.
More historical, in addition to the sc/if not instead of.

Have not attended for 2 years, but food and parking was not an issue when I was last there. Parking £15.00 GBP for the day.(Shared between 5 of us).

I haven't been to Salute in about 8 years so I will be able, hopefully, to say what has improved or gotten worse since my last visit. My fellow Americans always seem to find something to complain about at shows on this side of the Atlantic, but I will try to be fair and balanced in my comments.

Dealers all offer 50% convention discounts!!

Move it to the Midlands, preferably Newark Showground, and on a Sunday.

Move it to the Midlands, preferably Newark Showground, and on a Sunday.

Or, even better, Canada.:)

As others have said; me being there!

It would be that I could attend!!!!!

I always enjoy it. Having just got back, inevitably, I'd like to have seen more ranges I'm interested in, but that's different for everyone.

My eyes adjusted to the lighting pretty quickly but I realised how dim it was when I stepped out into the hall. Better lighting would be great, but I don't know what the organisers can do about that except maybe move the venue.

I spend the first couple of hours going round the traders buying stuff and taking advantage of the special offers. This means that I am well loaded down by 12.30.A safe place to leave these bags till show end would be great as I could then sit down ,have a bite to eat and drink and refreshed enjoy the games in the PM.Maybe save the problem of the back packs too.Would n't mind paying a couple of quid for this service and would mean I would stay longer.
I am a pensioner though so maybe this only applies to old fogies

Goober has it right. the parking, up another fiver this year….

Not much or better said nothing at all.

The only thing that bothers me is the acoustics but that's my personal problem and has little to do with that particular show. I'm totally deaf on my right and after 2 hours of Eurostar (tunnels!) I usually arrive quite deaf at Salute. It takes an hour to an hour and a half to get my hearing back up to 'normal'. Which isn't anything to write home about to begin with. OTOH my lip-reading is getting better every year.

Moving it to a Sunday would mean that I could possible drive over there instead of using the by now rather unreliable Eurostar train. (It arrived 45 minutes late this year after a technical problem at Ashford.)Traffic is much lighter on a Sunday (if the SELWG show is anything to judge by) but wouldn't it clash with the marathon then?

This was either my 29th or more probably 30th Salute, and while yes, I loved the carpet at Olympia or even the warrens of Kensington, I'm realistic enough to understand that a show of this magnitude is only possible where it is now.

Being a show organiser myself I can only applaud the Warlords for their continued efforts to make this one of the hobby highlights of the year.