The amazing Pietro Begali (I2RTF), winner of the 2019 Hamvention Technical Achievement Award.
The 2019 Hamvention seemed to attract a very large crowd this year so I’m eager to see what the actual numbers are when they’re published. The weather was nearly perfect.
From speaking with inside exhibitors, it sounds like sales were quite good this year, some told me it was a record event.
On Saturday I took time away from my booth–thanks to my volunteers–to visit the inside exhibit tables. Most of the following photos were taken in the main Hamvention metal buildings. Somehow, omitted many photos from the tent area where our table was located.
Note that the following photos are in no particular order. (Click here to view photos of the 2019 Hamvention Flea Market.)
2019 Hamvention Inside Exhibitor Photos
Click on the thumbnails below to view larger images:
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Why is it when I see pictures like this I rarely see anyone under 50 or nearly no one under 90kg.
Honestly, you could say the same about any of the hobby (and half the professional) expos/conventions/exhibitions I’ve been to in the last few decades.
Someone I knew years ago who worked in the convention-organising business once observed that, in the hobby space, it was mostly older retired & semi-retired people who formed & joined clubs; it was mostly the oldest of them who organised conventions and displays; it was always difficult to convince them to advertise or do any sort of PR outside of their club or umbrella organisation’s newsletter / mailing list / Yahoo! or FB groups / etc.; and they always griped afterwards how it was always the same familiar faces year after year in decreasing numbers, and few young people or newcomers turning up.
But if you look at around in the right places, you’ll see that young people are doing the same hobbies – they’re just doing it their own way in their own less-formal groups. They don’t need to go to old people conventions 😉
(I went to the big local model train show a couple of weeks ago. While it wasn’t as bad as some & did have quite a few young people attending, outside of the train tragics they were mostly little kids out with their grandpas. And, while the clubs had been working towards it as their annual showpiece for the last year, I didn’t see a single bit of outide media promotion for it until the Sunday night _after_ it’d finished…)
A lot of wannahaves on opposite side of the great pond!