[SEL] A topic for discussion.......How to promote a show.

[Alan]

The last few years I have tried to do my part by putting on an active display.
I have a Mountville Hero two hole corn sheller much like the A.B. Farquare sheller that Mike and Susan Tucker had at Lincoln Tucker's Show & Tell on May 2, 2003.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x286/Rustaholic777/ABFarquharCornSheller.jpg

I belt my Mountville Hero sheller up to my 1 3/4HP Hercules S.
I provide 700 pounds of ear corn for folks to feed the sheller.

I stand there holding out an ear of corn to the gals. 
The guys always come with the gals.
If I was asking the guys then the gals wouldn't come over.
Once I get a gal to look down the hole as she drops in an ear of corn then her reaction calls in more folks.
I give each group the speal about how old the sheller is and what a sweet job it does.
A couple hundred folks a day really thank me for putting on such a nice display.

YES, I just had been watching most of those folks walk right past much nicer engines that were just sitting there doing nothing.
After doing that display three years ago lots of folks came back in 2006 looking for my display.  Then last year I had a couple folks tell me they came to the show because of my fun display.
Last year there was actually another sheller of this type there.
It was that guy's first time at the Buckley show.
He had been displaying his sheller for 15 years and he had never let the public feed it.
He was completely shocked to see folks walk past his sheller to come feed mine.
I really think he learned something. 

I will soon know how well my new laundry display goes over this year.
There is none of last year's ear corn to be had around here because the harvest was so bad last year.  I will do my best to engage the public with my new display.
I am trying to get other folks to display this way too.
I have a good friend with one of those self starting old Delco light plants.
He let's folks flip a switch or plug in a cord then the light plant statrts up.
Because he grew up with one of these he really is great at telling lots of stories about them.  He gets a lot of Thank You comments too.

Interesting displays bring the public back the next year.

Alan Bowen
Williamsburg, Michigan  U.S. of A.