I had a very interesting meeting with the SSI organizer on friday, but was gone yesterday to a badminton tournament so I couldn't post the resumee until today. Rest assured, I only have really good news to bring you guys! Michel is a reaaaaaaally cool guy, and we really had some super conversation topics about audio in general. I also found out he has been an AKG salesman, and is working for Sennheiser right now, so he knows a lot of stuff about the headphone world and was really enthousiastic about having us at the expo.
Here are some things that were pointed out:
It seems we will have our own room at the show! We wouldn't be alone in the room but it would be entirely devoted to headphones. He also asked me to "design" the perfect room for our needs (!!!), so I said :
- Having tables spread around the walls with separaters between them for greater intimacy for the different setups.
- We should have the lights dimmed to 1) make a more cozy listening environment 2) slow everyone (people tend to walk slower when there is less light) 3) make people focus on one setup for a longer period of time instead of staying at every station for a minute or two as you get more distracted when the lights are fully turned on.
- He might put some monster or bose stands in the room. Wait, don't panick! He asked me first if we were afraid of having "big" brands in our room and people sticking there instead of listening to the audiophile brands we've got, question to which I answered, "If people here brands like bose and akg side to side, there is no way they will ever listen, promote, sell or even let a friend buy bose stuff anymore...", at which point he had a big smile and said "Yep, we'll go and ask monster if they want a table in your room then.". Another thing I pointed out is that they should have a regular table and not taking 75% of the space, like they do in electronic stores. Man, after all the head-fi bose bashing, we may even have some bose-bashing LIVE!
- As for setting up our gear, everyone who will be exposing will have to register (same as last year), then we can all go separately in the room to set up things during the week. The hotel will be opened for set-up purposes from tuesday morning up till the end of the expo on sunday, just show up with your name/badge and some lady will follow you up to the room so you can install your stuff.
- Another thing with the gear: we should find something to make sure nothing gets stolen during the expo. He told me that at least 2-3 things were stolen every year, like a pair of hd600 at the senn booth last year, and since our stuff is pretty small, lightweight and there will be most likely a lot of stuff laying around, we should take extra care of everything so that robbers will have a hard time taking our stuff. Michel told me he knew the guy who sells the security locks to major electronic stores (the small magnetic locks they put behind mp3 players and other stuff) and he would try to make a deal for us and maybe everyone at the expo. Everyone who thinks about coming or lending gear at someone for them to have it exposed at the SSI should think about a way of protecting their stuff.
Other good news:
- We won't have to pay the accident insurance every other exposants have to pay. In fact, we won't have to pay at all! A room like we have is around 15k, if I remember correctly... so
- He will have some flashing posters made to identify the room in and out.
Finally, he had a very interesting suggestion for us: He thought about us having a speech at some point in the meet with the people involved at the show (he said "everyone", at which point I had a big gulp, so he said "well, we'll figure that out later") to expose our point of view as consumers about the headphone scheme, and audio in general. He was really interested in having everyone reminded by audio enthousiasts that audio is all about enjoying the music, and having us talk about our experiences in audio would be a blast, and could be a high point of the expo.
That last point is to be discussed I am sure...
I would love to have everyone's thoughts about it. And boy, I think we're going to have a GREAT meet!
