The roofers were too much for him indoors to manage on his own so I had to stay home in the end. <sob>. Sounds like everyone had a wonderful time. I wish I could have come along as well.

I really enjoyed yesterday at the Midland Pen Show. It was particularly nice to put some faces to names and in a very friendly enviroment.

Having gone for a bottle of brown ink, I came away with a CS58 "tigers eye" , a "big red" and the ink.

Thank you to the organisers.

Jim Wilson
Staffs.

I was sorry to miss it - sounds like you all had a great time. I hope to get to the London one in Oct instead.

A BIG, heartfelt thank you to you all for helping to make the show the great success that it was, I can't believe the distances some of you traveled to be with us - truly amazing.

The weekend was a great success, even though financially we didn't come close to breaking even but I would do it all over again - in fact Jeremy and I have already started planning the next Midland show - and we are also talking about holding one in the West country probably based on Bristol or Bath.

Over the weekend we had around 100 visitors - not in the same league as the London or even the Northern but that was never our intention we wanted a show that was relaxed and friendly with plenty of time to chat and I think that was achieved.

All of the dealers did good business and the Writing Equipment Society signed up seven new members - a record for a show! It felt really good when visitors and dealers came up and thanked us for putting on a great show - made all the stress worthwhile! I'd like to thank Oxonian for being a great help to me and it was great fun to see him in full flow 'holding court' throughout the show - this guy's knowledge amazes me more and more. Ann sends a great big thank you to Bluemax's son Jack for all the help he gave her in locating the inks when customers wanted them - you're welcome back at any time Jack.

Finally, it would help tremendously if you could let me have your feedback on the practical aspects of the show such as the venue, the geographical location, parking etc What you would like to see in a show, is a two day show what you want or would a one day show be okay. This sort of feedback is important to us as this is YOUR show. We planned a whole programme of events around the show such as workshops and a 'Show and Tell' session but there was very little advance interest shown and we were forced to take the decision to cancel as we had to pay the workshop leaders - so do we want to have them next year?

Finally ( I mean it this time ) It occurs to me that it would be an interesting idea if we got together as a group 3 or 4 times a year to have our own little show and tell session and to buy/sell/trade pens. We could move the sessions around the country, what do you all think, worth pursuing?

Once again a BIG thank you to you all.

Ian

The same goes for me

Glad to hear that the show was a success, I am just sorry I couldn't get there.

A show based on Bristol or Bath would be an excellent idea

Personally I liked coming along on the Sunday because the roads were fairly quiet, even if the car was being blown all over the place on the way down. It was good luck that I managed to park on the car park nearest to the hotel as I hadn't bothered to look at a map in advance, was glad that car parking was free as well. At least somewhere like Lichfield is so small that you don't need to look where you're going in advance, you're not going to end up parked too far from your destination.

If I'd known in advance where I was likely to be based / if I had a job then I would definitely have signed up for one of the pen repair workshops. As it was, whilst I'm still job hunting I had to behave on how much money I was spending. Hopefully next year that won't be an issue (god, who am I kidding, who ever got rich working in museums!).

The idea of a get together a few times a year sounds good to me

This sounds like a great idea! Sorry that I couldn't make it to the Lichfield event.

Neil

Ditto the feelings - Bath or Bristol could be a nice event

Ian, many congratulations on the success of the Midland Pen Show!

I hope you and other FPNers will enjoy my full report on the show which has been posted on the Pentrace Message Board and which will shortly be on the main home page.

Cheers,

Stuart Williams
Pentrace Roving Reporter (UK)

The new 2009 website is up and running at www.ukpenshows.co.uk

Regards

Ian

Can you put the dates of the shows on their respective pages (once they're settled, that is?)? Otherwise how will I know when to show up and bother you?

It is there ,onest guv! However it looks as though you have spotted a major usability problem with the site which I will have to change - well spotted Carol, as a reward I'll cover the cost of your show entry tickets.

In the meantime just click on each of the shows' navigation buttons to see the dates.

Regards as always.

Ian

Site has been modified in line with Casmi's directions

Carol's the Teacher's Pet