IPMS-USA Nationals 2007 Show Report
Each year an IPMS US-based chapter (or chapters) holds the national show. This year the show was to be just a few hours south of me in Anaheim, California. I had certainly been looking forward to the show as modeling events can be very social and fun times. This show certainly would be a large one with thousands of attendees and model contest entrants. The event was held at the Marriot adjacent to the Anaheim Convention Center. It was only a few blocks from the main entrance to Disneyland which I am sure gave some family's reason enough to treat their Dad (or Mom) to a model show and built-in Disney vacation.
Side Note: A brief editorial This year's show was being organized by IPMS Orange County. A chapter which has won the coveted Chapter of the Year award in 2003. Ironically their site still has the text "Only -18 days until the show!". And as yet there have been no major updates post-show to the nationals site other than a bit which in part mentions "We had 713 registered attendees who entered 2172 models into the National Contest". But as we can all honestly confess, updates on club sites are not ussually their biggest priority. And perhaps that is as it should be, but as a Web developer I think that serious attention should be paid to the level of thoughfulness and professionalism that is put into any National show site. The Internet has changed dramatically these past few years. Already even sites like this one are becoming dinosaurs to the new cutting edge Web 2.0 Ajax-driven sites. I could not be more clear in saying that the days of building a site in simple HTML are over. Or at least 'should be over' if you want to build a site that will be responsible for the online marketing of any mega-expensive national event. I would be curious to know how much was spent on a show like the 2007 US Nationals. And as a percentage how much was spent on the development of the Web site. If nothing or very little I would say... it showed. And further it limited the potential level of success for the show by not building a better site. |