[Killietalk] Analysis #318 -- why is my show a bust?

["Koran, David HQ02" <David_Koran at hq02.usace.army.mil>]

Analysis #318

Don's post earlier this week to Karl's question raised this response.

During the 80's GCKA ran several successful back-to-back annual shows --
Killie Revue.  Whether it was out of competition from other affiliate clubs
or just due to the efforts of the club's members can be debated over and
over.

The three day weekend**

In 1974 the club found that Labor Day weekend was available and basically
camped on the date for the next 16 years.  Don't discount the factor of an
extra day to allow killie-folks that day so they can either use the day to
travel or do something else with the family to compensate for the
indiscretion of indulging themselves in the killifish hobby!  Travel distance
shouldn't be that much of a consideration as well as gas.  Some of those
weeks were back when there was gas rationing (remember odd-even fill up
days?) and Killie Revue was only modestly impacted.

Work your deals with your speakers**

One catch for Killie Revue was that you expected the speaker to bring fish.
He didn't have to give up the fish for no profit, contrair - Pierre, CGKA cut
was usually much less than the split required of other auctioned fish.
Foreign speakers made money by presenting at Killie Revue.  New or rare fish
were the attraction.  GCKA made its money on the auction of the fish
exhibitors brought for the show and not so much from those the speaker
brought.

While those "foreign fish" brought higher prices, it also meant higher prices
for other fish.  Hence, attendees could not only look forward to new fish
being available but also fish they brought for auction themselves would also
get a good price.  There were no box sales, you take your chance at the
auction.  That didn't mean there were no side deals or room sales.

>From '85 through '89 Killie Revue boasted a foreign speaker every year at a
time when the chance of a foreign speaker (i.e., and "new fish") were maybe a
50-50 proposition for the National convention.  Yes it was hard to imagine
that a "local" show forced the AKA's hand.  You could depend on a high level
of show competition, an excellent meeting site (reasonable prices), a good
banquet meal, nice trophies and a more than satisfying auction.  All of this
success culminated in the 1990 AKA Convention at our usual site.  We held our
annual Killie Revue that fall but it was a grand picnic and the fish exhibit
was in a member's basement where we had the picnic.  It was a good run but
did the success kill everything?

The seeds of the "death" of that wonderful opportunity for all of
Cincinnati's killie keeping neighbors were sown years earlier.  Because
opportunities for new fish were abundant the prices of killies other folks in
other areas would have died to have sold extremely undervalued at CGKA club
meeting auctions.  Membership stopped growing to sustain the market and the
club evolved.  It became more social and fixated on the annual show.  By '88
the club was not only planning on the next year's show but also a convention
bid.  Many longtime members tired of that pursuit or tired of keeping
killies/fish and many wanted to move on to other things.  Probably more than
anything is you might say there was a change of club ethic -- instead of
producing it yourself or working hard through your own efforts to acquire
desired stock, we depended on the "show" to provide it for us.

As per Charlie's post on St. Louis and 9/11 let me steer you further on.
What 9/11 did in Europe with respect to tropical fish and killifish in
particular was quadruple the cost of air freight.  Shipping killies from
German and Dutch breeders to the two biggest black holes of killifish
consumption (Japan and the US) made buyers balk.  According to what I was
told, the Japanese especially stopped buying from European breeders and
sought other sources.  With a reduced market, the "mom and pop" breeding
operations dried up.  Our philosophy of "you can always get more" only worked
when there were providers outside of the US to breed the killies we were
careless in not breeding.  You only redirect the market in paying more if the
supply is there.

The 40th National Convention was a high water mark in availability with
multiple foreign contributions.  Even though it occurred over 8 months after
9/11, that didn't kill off the fish people produced before that date.
However, since then we have contributed little to foreign national shows so
don't expect reciprocation when next to nothing leaves these shores.
Finally, the summer of 2003 was especially devastating to European breeders
as the heat wave wiped out many a fishroom (few Europeans who breed killies
have AC!).  If nothing more, fish requiring cool water for husbandry became
less desirable.

I think the bottom line is we need to understand we need to fix the problem
ourselves.  We need to breed our killies ourselves to supply our needs and
cooperated among ourselves to maintain what we have and establish anything
new that happens to come our way.  It also means to help the newcomer to
killies if nothing more than we have more niches where those rare killies may
be able to hide out.

Dave K

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