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It’s the most received comment and feedback we get.  “Where are the vendors?”

We’re working hard to bring back some of the old vendors who didn’t come in 2023. Plus, we’re working to recruit new ones.

It’s not easy—for a number of reasons. We hear from our vendors that:

• Overall sales are down
• We can’t find enough people to staff a booth
• Your gate numbers aren’t large enough to justify our time and expense

The latter point is a bit of a “chicken and egg” dilemma. We need more attendees to attract the top-notch vendors. But we also need those vendors in order to bring in the masses.

You can believe that the committee is working on the problem diligently and we’ve come up with some creative ideas. In the meantime, we thank our loyal vendors who continue with us, even in this post-COVID era. Vendors like:

• Quicksilver Radio
• Gold Metal Ideas
• N3ZN Keys

Look for marked improvement in this area in 2024!

One frustrated attendee asked, “Where is W1A?”

Our friend wandered around the hotel looking for the station and asked numerous people, but no one seemed able to direct him to the location of the special events station.

Admittedly, the signage directing people to W1A was lacking. As mentioned in the program book, the station was tucked away in the Corporate Room (E7) off one of the side hallways.  (See diagram below.)

The hours posted in the program booklet were:

• Friday: 6 pm — midnight
• Saturday: 9 am — midnight
• Sunday: 9 am — noon

Sometime on Saturday mid-afternoon when the gentleman finally did find the station’s location, the door was locked and no one was staffing the station.

We deeply regret the fact that none of the volunteers were present at W1A during the advertised hours when our friend wanted to visit. We’ll try to make sure there isn’t a repeat of this problem next year.

We received a complaint from one of the vendors situated near one of the outside doors of a strong tobacco odor. One of our HamXposition Committee members noticed this problem, too. Next year we will request people smoke further away from the exit!