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rollo:
  Any news yet ? Getting itchy.


charles

rollo:
  Yes charles some news CAF is off. All cancelled. Why thank you charles. Have a nice day. You to.

charles

rollo:
  Yes a pity always a great time.
charles

rollo:
  Do you think we are ready for Shows to reopen ? I do VPI had one in PA Went very well All the Social distancing and masks. They had three big rooms with several different manf's. All had a great time.



charles

tmazz:
Unfortunately I would say it is too soon for several reasons.

While VPI may have had a nice little event, the key word is little. There is a huge difference between VPI hosting three rooms and a show like CAF that has 75-100 rooms and vendor spaces. At the last CAF VPI had three rooms of their own. So I don't think you can compare what VPI did in PA to a major audio show in terms of scale and the number of people involve.

Personally I have no interest at all in attending a CAF sized show while Covid is still in our realm. I know that  some people think we are on the downhill side, but as the numbers have shown even if we are past the peak it doesn't take much for things to flair up again. In just the past week 26 states have shown an increase in Covid cases and hospitalizations. So like Yogi Berra always said, it ain't over till it's over".

Can we take precautions to mitigate the spread at a show, sure we can. but those precautions would only lower the risk to the attendees and considering that being in a big crowd would raise the risk considerably I'm not sure that the precautions would lower that risk to a level that would be equal to what you would be exposed to it you did not go at all.

And quite frankly I don't know that the required precautions would not make the experience unpleasant enough for people not  to go just because of them. For example, I am sure that Covid rules would severely limit the number of people who could be in a room at any given time. I could see that leading to long waits to get into the room and a lot of time spent wasted in lines. That would certainly start to piss me off in no time flat. The ability to move quickly and easily from room to room and sample a large amount of different gear in a short amount of time is one of the biggest draws to these shows for me. If I had to wait a lot I would definitely think twice about attending. (Not to mention the problems in maintaining social distancing of many people were force to wait on lines in small hallways.) And secondly with all of the people that would be at a large show it would be paramount that everybody wear masks at all time. I have absolutely no desire to spend two or three 10 hour days wearing a masks that will not only get hot but also end up fogging my glasses and making it tough to see anything when I do finally get into a room. For me the bottom line is that the restrictions that would be required to make the event safe would also make it so bothersome to me that I would just rather not go.

And of course the things I mentioned just have to do with being there. Getting there is a whole different kettle of fish. I am close enough to CAF that I would drive regardless of the Covid situation. But for many of the exhibitors and attendees this is not always the case. And flying in to DC or taking some other form of public transportation brings all kinds of other concerns and there are many people who won't go anywhere near a plane or AMTRAK train because of Covid.

But of course that is just my feelings on the trade off they would be imposed by the safety restrictions. While I do believe there are many people who would agree with me on this, I also realize that there are others that wouldn't care and if they wanted to go the have every right to do so. But one of the real questions for the show organizers is how n=many people will stay away and are there enough that would still be willing to come to make a show worth running.

While all of the things discussed so far have had to go with peoples willingness to get to or be at the show there are another set of concerns bout running one of these sows and they are business concerns.It is very expensive for companies to take rooms at these shows and given the economic climate of the past 6 months  I don't know how many companies have the money  to take a room. While some of the larger more well established players like VPI seem to have been able to maintain some sort of business during the pandemic over the past few year a larger and lager percentage of the room are being hosted by new start ups of foreign companies trying to break into the US market. It is questionable how many of these companies have done enough business during the pandemic to be able to afford the price tag associated with exhibiting at these shows.  The announcement to cancel this years RMAF was made only a few days after the deadline for vendors to sign up for rooms. While I don't have any hard facts to support this, I don't think it would be a big leap of faith to assume that the cancellation decision was driven more by the lack of vendor participation than it was by Covid restrictions

And lastly these shows need to be planned way far in advance. As fluid as the Covid situation and the rules surround it are I am not sure how quick some of the show organizers will be to plan thins a year or so in advance.  Just as an example suppose the hotel that hosts CAF has a wedding a few weeks before the show and a Covid hot spot breaks out from that wedding. It is not beyond the realm of the possible that the state or local govt could a result of that hot spot, forbid the hotel from allowing gatherings the size of the show, leaving the organizers left holding the bag for all of the costs of organizing and preparing for the show and perhaps non refundable deposits for some of the expenses of running the event. It just would not surprise me in the least if some  of these show organizers started to feel that when uncertainty of the environment just made the financial risk more than they were willing to take on and they just stopped doing shows until the situation improved.

And while I do agree with Charles that I as an audiophile would love to be able to go to an audio show again, with all of the different factors working against them right now I am sad to sad that I just don't see that happening any time in the near future.

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