West Coast Pipe Show Cancelled Indefinitely

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litup

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 16, 2015
722
2,206
Sacramento, CA
Sad news from Steve O'Neil posted on the show's web site:


4/25/2022 The West Coast Pipe Show

It is with great sadness that I write this note ! It is time for myself, Linda , and Marty to retire from the West Coast Pipe Show. It has been a great run. I feel very happy with what we built and created for twelve years. We have made some great friends, who we will never forget. Hopefully we can stay in touch with many of them.

It is time for someone else to pick up the torch and carry it on. I truly do hope the show will go on. I am happy to advise anyone who wants to pick it up. A few people have expressed interest , so we shall see how it goes.

All the best , Steve, Linda , and Marty

 
Jul 26, 2021
2,176
8,943
Metro-Detroit
Based on seminars I've attended and a concert I attempted to throw at a university, about 11 months of work.

It includes finances, sponsors, vendors, permits, licenses, and air traffic control.

Once you have a playbook, it gets easier, but still like a part time job that is very time consuming.

Best of luck to those who take the torch.
 

chilllucky

Lifer
Jul 15, 2018
1,091
2,715
Chicago, IL, USA
scoosa.com
Hmmmm, I wonder how much work it is to facilitate a show like this..
I don't have much experience putting together an event this big. I've done a dozen or so amateur sports tournament weekends with food and facilities for less than a hundred and it just about exhausted me.

I can tell you that Frank Burla, who developed the Chicago show from an informal swap to the international "must attend" it became did it 1. As a full time job in retirement and 2. Was told to drop it by his doctor at some point. So there's that.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Yeah, at least a part-time job, but easily becomes a full-time job unless you have excellent assistants and are not too obsessive/compulsive. The details can eat you alive, and everyone wants to call you about each arrangement, and people want to advise and suggest far more than they want to work on it. So you have to have leadership, personal boundaries, enough generosity to let your helpers have some latitude to do their jobs, and one hell of a sense of humor. To be done on a one-year trial after which everyone understands you have the right to bail out. Next!
 

Beers 'N Briars

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 5, 2021
105
489
Yakima, Washington
Yeah. I’m bummed as this was the only show I stood a shot at making it to this year. And when three people behind it all are stepping down, it feels like it’s going to take more than just one person to take on the organization of such an event. It’s been gone 2 years, and it’s hard to imagine it comes back if it misses a third. Sure hope it can make a comeback though. I’m too far west to make it back east for a lot of these shows.
 
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