Sometimes The Best Efforts At Scheduling Go Awry

By ANN Senior Correspondent Kevin "Hognose" O'Brien

How does a trade show wind up kicking off on Super Bowl Sunday -- and how does a schedule like that work out? Scheduling a major event is always a matter of compromises. The event sponsor needs to consider the likely schedules of attendees, and the desires of exhibitors. Then there is a whole other factor -- availability, and suitability, of exhibit halls. Some are too small, some too large, some booked. The city counts -- you don't want to schedule a convention in Buffalo in the Winter Then there's the exhibit hall.

Some cities, like Boston, don't have a decent one. Some are in crime-ridden inner cities, some have poor parking. A number of halls have such onerous deals with mobbed-up unions that you can only put them over on your exhibitors once. Some dates conflict with other shows in the industry. It's complicated if you want your show to rotate among major cities -- if what you just did worked, you can't repeat it.

And then... and then... you can get a good venue, in a good city, on a good date.

And someone can set a major event on the same date after you're already locked in. Say, just for the sake of argument, the Super Bowl.

That's gotta hurt.

But how did it work out? Well, it didn't seem to affect the morning events at all. Lots of people here. But as the day wore on the International character of HAI (which is, after all, Helicopter Association International) became apparent.

"Zere iss not so many of zee Americans here," I heard someone with a pronounced (no pun intended) German accent say.

"Yes, zey are haveeng some kind of event-sporteeng," a French-accented voice replied. "Eeet iss zee foot-ball Americain."

A strong accent from the North of England countered, "This thing the Yanks play is not football. Words mean things, and this word means football. Not that ghastly Yank business." It was clear that this was a Continent-wide consensus among the European contingent.

So... the answer to the second part of the original question is, it works out OK. Thanks to the scores of foreigners who are here at Heli-Expo, the minority of Americans who don't care about football, and the hopeless aviation geeks that decided that Heli-Expo ought to take precedence, the show is doing just fine.

Will they think more about the potential schedule of the Super Bowl next year? Nope, it's already scheduled... fortunately for the end of February (26-28) in Dallas. It should be OK unless the football season undergoes a substantial growth spurt over the next year.

(PS we cheated on the picture -- it's from the show webcam, AFTER hours. We just couldn't resist)

(PPS Hognose asks -- who won, anyway? Not that I'm an aviation geek or anything)

FMI: www.heliexpo.com