2011 Castle Hill Reptile Expo - some comments from the organizers

[Constantine200]

I am wrecking my screen trying to swat that bug Ramsayi.

 

[bucket]

great day plus i got a fantasic stimson off daniel. you got to like that bug ramsayi

 

[reptilife]

Adrian some friends of mine who attended told me personally that it was an awesome expo, very well operated and well attended.
I will certainly make the trip up from Victoria next year.

Well done!

 

[pisces20]

Austarlia its in our blood, 'the good ol tall poppy syndrome. Lets have more expos

 

[hrafna]

Austarlia its in our blood, 'the good ol tall poppy syndrome. Lets have more expos

i agree, bring on more expos! can't wait till the easter show now!

 

[petpages]

I saw on another thread that someone was claiming we charged $1000 for a breeders table at the Castle Hill Reptile Expo !!! The actual cost was $150 for a breeders table and at the end of the day we (the organizers) made approximately $50 profit on each table. Like I have said on a few other threads today, we are obviously not in it for the money.

 

[bkevo]

ATTENTION: if a certain ten year old, with a pair of het ants wants to get rich quick. PM me (please no PM's from 10 year olds with DARWIN hets wanting to get rich)

 

[buck]

I agree with one of the posts above in that it was probably a bit too early in the year. That would be my only "con" for the event and is definately not to say that it wasn't a success or that I wouldn't attend again. I also understand that it is difficult to find a time that isn't already bordering on other expos. If there is another expo next year I plan on being there. I just wish that either it is a little later or I can get some more hatchies established sooner to get a table myself.

 

[crikey]

how does a ten year old own them when you have to be older than 12 to get class 1 licanse lol

 

[Constantine200]

With all the positive feedback it sounds like it was a great success so I know I will make the trip up from Victoria next year. Well done guys.

 

[Sel]

how does a ten year old own them when you have to be older than 12 to get class 1 licanse lol

Did you not read the post properly?
His dad claimed them for him.
Good on him for winning them...too bad it wasnt my 10 year old! (11 really)

 

[shellfisch]

how does a ten year old own them when you have to be older than 12 to get class 1 licanse lol

his Dad has a licence and took delivery of it according to a previous post

 

[Just_Plain_Nuts]

No cons about the expo here, we thought it was all good. Though you could have stopped the rain for us when we were packing up...haha. Good job guys Stein Enclosures will be back next year. I wasnt too stressed about theft at our stall for some reason...It would be good to try and coincide all the expos in the melbourne to sydney area to coincide in consecutive weekends in order of how they are situated down the coast, to make it easier for us interstate sellers to do the whole circuit. It worked out pretty good this year with the Castle hill and VHS expos falling on consecutive weekends so we can do both. If we could get the other expos to follow along this trend would be good.

 

[Kyro]

Congratulations to Adrian & Daniel on a fantastic expo. I volunteered for the day & although I didn't buy any animals I had so much fun & will definately be back next year. Thanks to Adrians sister too for my awesome gtp bangle

 

[Just_Plain_Nuts]

Congratulations to Adrian & Daniel on a fantastic expo. I volunteered for the day & although I didn't buy any animals I had so much fun & will definately be back next year. Thanks to Adrians sister too for my awesome gtp bangle

Yeah they were beside me, thanks for everything you're a lovely couple of ladies.

 

[SpilotaFreak78]

You can volunteer for this, hell I'm in for next years show then!

 

[Heelssss]

As one of the organizers of this event, I have started this thread to give people a ‘post expo’ update.

Firstly to all the breeders, exhibitors and fellow herpers who attended the expo, we’d like to say a big thank you !

Secondly, the door prize of a pair of het albino childrens pythons was won by a 10 year old boy from the central coast. They will be claimed by his father. We are pleased that a young enthusiast won the prize as they are the future of our hobby.

To the person who started a thread describing the event as ‘slight let down’, all I can say is that we must be living on different planets. The expo was a smashing success with a great turn out of experienced herpers and LOTS of newbies. I believe that very few people who attended would disagree (except maybe the two boys who stole snakes and then got caught) To all the other people who made positive comments, we appreciate your support.

I don’t want to get too long winded but more generally, I would like to address a few of the comments that were made.

1. As far as ‘making a killing’ is concerned, I can tell you that if I wanted to get rich, I would not be organising a reptile expo. After all the expenses including venue hire, insurance, advertising, table and partition hire, signage and a dozen other things that need to be purchased or hired, there is precious little left to call ‘profit’. I am not even mentioning the huge amount of time and organization required to tie everything together.
We kept breeder booth prices to an absolute minimum. In fact, of the $150 we charged each breeder for a table, we had to pay $74 for public liability insurance – and that was the smallest part of the total insurance cost. You do the math and you can clearly see that we are not in it for the money. We are doing it for the hobby in Australia which in my opinion desperately needs a boost and a bit of new direction. If someone thinks they can do it better, please get out of your computer chair and show me some results.

2. Someone commented that it would be nice to ‘mix things up’. I totally agree but the reality is that reptile expos in NSW are controlled by National Parks and approvals require that breeders selling animals and retailers must be separated. This is to avoid the ‘commercialisation of reptiles by association’ because as we all know, it is not legal to commercially deal in reptiles in NSW. Hopefully that is a temporary situation, soon to change.

3. Someone commented that there wasn’t enough space around the breeder’s tables. Yes, that is a fair comment
but we were not expecting (hoping but not expecting) such huge numbers of people. We left a metre between each table but that was not enough. We will address that for next time. YES… there will be another Castle Hill Reptile Expo next year so please spread the word.

4. A few people commented that the expo was ‘too early’
as many hatchies were not yet established or had not even hatched yet. I do agree with you to an extent but we didn’t have a lot of options to play with. The venue is very difficult to get and we also didn’t want to clash with any other expos. We will look at making it a little later in the season next year. We can never make everyone happy but we’ll try our best

If you have read this far, then I would like to thank you for your time.……. Adrian Hemens 14/02/2011

I was there and it was packed, great day out with great species on display and for sale cant wait for the next one, thanks Adrian for your time in organising this event -theres always gonna be haters let them organise something and make it WORK!!!

 

[killimike]

I was there and it was packed, great day out with great species on display and for sale cant wait for the next one, thanks Adrian for your time in organising this event -theres always gonna be haters let them organise something and make it WORK!!!

Any support is good, even if it is 7 months later

 

[alrightknight]

I wish someone would get off their *** and organise a few reptile expos in SA haha

 

[KREPS2011]

When is the next expo date??

KREPS2011