A couple of weeks ago, I was up to my eyes in the World of Railways Virtual Show. Normally, I'd report back straight away, but decided to leave it a week as I was knackered!
First - the show was a terrific success. More visitors on the Saturday than we would see in a weekend at the London Festival of Railway Modelling. When I say more, I mean a lot more. That's what happens when people don't have to travel, or pay to get in.
When we first looked at the project, six weeks before it had to go live, no-one knew what a commercial virtual show would look like. We couldn't run the Facebook style event where you reply on whatever people decide to share. Warners is a commercial company and would be looking to sell advertising - so you can't expect lots of people to work for free to provide the content. Besides, when you sell an advert, the advertiser wants to know what they are getting.
So, we made layout displays from existing material with newly edited videos and extra photos. Freed of the constraints imposed by physical pages, extended versions of article were used, something that went down well with many of the owners.
I know we'd need a load of practical content and after looking at other options, decided a layout build would allow the greatest variety of topics to be covered and provide a common thread. The big difference from normal builds was that each step had to be committed to video.
There were also interviews via videolink and plenty of other features. By the time the weekend rolled up, we were going to post a new event on the timeline every 10-15 minutes through both days. That is a lot of content.
All this took a massive amount of effort, Remember, the team of four also put out two complete magazines, half-a-dozen newsletters and kept the flow of news on the website going at the same time. Long days were worked. Weekends were a concept, not time off. We pulled in favours from plenty of others, especially Jamie Warne and Lawrence of the MRC all of whom have our thanks.
At the end of it though, the feedback was terrific. People really enjoyed what we had done. All the positive comments on RMweb and in the follow-up survey made a huge difference to a group of tired, but relieved people.
I'm proud of what we achieved. As with any new thing, there are bits we'd do differently. Other areas could develop. New ideas are already being discussed.
All of which makes me wonder. Assuming that physical shows return one day, will virtual events continue to take place? Could the on-line show develop into an entity of its own and carry on at the same time as the "real" versions?
13 comments:
Thoroughly enjoyed the show.
Well done and thank you to the whole team.
Perhaps this highlights something important that I learned about trade conferences a few years ago. The average visitor to a physical shows gets 10% of the value compared to those in the "in crowd". They might be inspired by one or two layouts, they might watch one of the big crowd pleasers for ten minutes, and have a chance to see the the latest RTR models and complain how expensive they are.
What they don't get is a learning experience, even when it is on offer. How often have you walked past a demonstrator with no audience? And as an operator how can you kjeep giving out the same basic information time and time again in a way that is engaging? THat is what this kind of event is providing, along with, and I think this is also important, an awareness that the exhibitors are just people, like the rest of us
Phil
So the Layout was built over a six week period any idea how much time it actually took you to build
Thanks
Richard
I'd like to see virtual shows developed on a global scale. Often in the back of railway Modeller (other magazines are available) you see mention of a model railway show in Brisbane or Minnesota or some other far-flung part of the world that is simply out of reach for the majority of readers. Having an online presence, even after the real-world event is over, would be useful.
Richard - No idea how much actual time was involved. The build was over 4 weeks but took place at the same time as other work so I didn't count the hours. In addition, the filming added some time as it was important to get the shot so I'd move things around a bit to try to make that happen.
James - I'd hope it's a bit more than 10%, but agree, lots of people don't get as much out of a show as they could. The chance to ask questions is always there, but very often people won't - and you can't force them to be told stuff.
That said, everyone wants something different from the show. For many, it's purely a retail experience. After Warley, Facebook is always full of people posting pictures of new boxes and talk of bargains. There is a lot less about the layouts. RMweb tends to be the opposite. As for the Saturday morning crowd, judging from the faces leaning on the barrier, they just want to be unhappy!
Colin - Any virtual show will have a worldwide remit. We had moans from Canadians that they would have to get up early for some of the "events" because it was all arranged around UK time!
We would like more non-UK layouts but at the moment getting out to film them is difficult, and a few weeks ago, impossible. We had to use materials in stock, which means it's all British.
I'm not a fan of keeping the material alive long after the event however - it becomes just another website that way, not an event. We have used some of it in different ways - newsletter, digital edition, other websites, but I like the idea that even though there is no physical limitation, you try to get people involved all at the same time.
Sorry, Phil. A misunderstanding as there was no criticism intended. I was addressing your last comment on the possible future of virtual model railways shows. Obviously even at the best of times there are limits to what you or any UK-based organiser can offer in terms of layouts based overseas but I was speculating on a future when there are many more virtual shows from around the world.
I can see the 'just another website' problem but at the same time wonder whether treating each exhibition as a one-off event isn't missing out on the benefits of going virtual. After all, in the real world model railways shows are only 'events' because there's no other way to efficiently organise them. However, from a visitor's point of view it's a bit of a pain having to be at a particular place and time and especially when, as I often find, fewer than half the exhibits are of interest.
One format that might work better online is the 'chat-show' where you have a few layouts (guests) which have been chosen because they have something in common or have interesting differences, be that scale, design, subject, or whatever, and everyone discusses the choices and compromises they have made. That would also involve much less work that one big event so could be run more often and would go into a bit more depth.
Over time, as more layouts are shown,the individual exhibits could be archived so rather than having an entire exhibition available to watch (which I agree would be a bit pointless) a viewer could collate their own show from the archives.
To some extent one can already do this by trawling through Youtube but Youtube doesn't offer any quality control or editorial input and not much insight into modeller's decisions.
James Finister -I don't know if I'm part of the 'in-crowd' but I think learning at an exhibition is about far more than watching a demonstrator, given that demonstrators are usually only working on specific techniques/projects whereas the focus of the exhibition is on completed layouts, the best of which are far more than the sum of their parts.
For me the greatest 'learning' moments I can recall in recent(ish) exhibitions were seeing Crumley & Little Wickhill at York and getting a completely different viewpoint of a model, (down the line rather than from the side of the line) and a handful of conversations with Gordon and Maggie Gravett over Pempoul and Arun Quay at York, Wells, and Weston-Super-Mare which offered an insight into their design process.
Interesting points about people in different countries / time zones - and keeping material live long after the event.
To be honest, there are some other people - in the UK - who might have had problems accessing some of this material - people who have no choice but to work whilst the event is "on" - and carers (who can sometimes also be at a relative's beck and call).
I guess it's really a case of "can't please everyone" - but I can't help wondering if a workable compromise with future events might involve keeping stuff live for perhaps a week.
As for me, I enjoyed the little I did manage to get the time to see, whilst the event was "on" - and I'd be interested in seeing future such events, run by magazines, gauge societies etc..
Of course, I'd be even more interested in seeing real shows (including demonstrators and seminars, where available), when they resume and when I'm able to get a whole day away from other stuff that's keeping me "locked down".
Of course, being able to visit a number of potential suppliers for project essentials on the same day would also be an enormous "plus" for me.
Colin - No offence was taken. I'm really interested in having the discussion.
At its heart, this show had a timeline with regular events happening during the day. That's what made it "sticky" because although you could scroll back through the timeline, you felt there was something to hang about for.
The problem is that we can't keep this up for very long. Two days was the maximum and even that was hard work. Once the timeline is finished, I see that as the doors being closed. We left the highlights up for a few days but after that, it all goes away.
We have made much of the material available in other forms, but this discussion has made me wonder:
Layouts appear at more than one show, why shouldn't this be the case for a virtual show? We spend a load of time creating pages for a layout and it is visible for the two days of the spring show, could some of those layouts come back for the two days of an autumn event? The key would be to hide them between shows so there is some anticipation built up - a bit like a real show.
Colin,
Demonstrations at shows are tricky and depend on a two-way communication which is often lacking. I can honestly say i would never have had the courage to handbuild pointwork if it hadn't been for a demo at Warley one year.
I think we are agreeing that learning comes from looking at other layouts with a critical eye. that is critical in the good sense of analysing what does and doesn't work and thinking through how you could apply it yourself.
The one time I saw Arun Quay, which was early on but after it had appeared in a couple of articles, I couldn't believe how few people were spending time watching it. The Gravetts are also, of course, very good communicators.
I thoroughly enjoyed the virtual exhibition and I hope there will be more.
There are many advantages. For me the top 4 would be: 1. Perfect viewpoints on layouts, without the crowds. 2. A chance to see all stages of a demonstration, from beginning to end (whereas in a real exhibition I would only see the stage the modeller was doing while I was stood in front of them.)3. the content has been vetted and selected for quality by knowledgeable modellers(whereas on the internet the videos etc are not vetted for quality)4. View when it suits me without having to travel.
To build on the discussion above. I do think making the content available during the event and a couple of days after has advantages. People work shifts, have other commitments, or even emergencies. Making the content available for a little longer helps these people, increases the audience and is one of the advantages of an online event compared to a real world exhibition with fixed opening (and closing!) hours.
Finally I hope Warners find a way of making money from it. I realise not many people will say this but I'd like to see more events like this and that wont happen if the organisers are making a loss!
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