Home Expo

you know, Nimue, i hadn't considered that they might be using the music as a way to gain charitable contributions. in that case, i forgive. i mean, the whole point is the charity.

on the other hand, we all not only spent countless hours (days even) setting up our exhibits, we also had to make items EXCLUSIVE to the event. this all takes time. so, it seems a little wacky that we all busted our humps to get ready for THEIR event, and then they did not actually include us in the event.

ultimately, as long as the charity is benefiting, then it is worth it.

i must confess i've been lurking on this thread thinking about what i really wanna say about this event.

It's been my first year being a part of it and it's been an interesting experience overall. I've always felt that av-related stuff was way more popular compared to land based stuff, and the traffic levels sort of demonstrate that. I would find it really interesting to know just how many land owners or renters there are compared to all the active non-bot accounts there are out there... my guess is the percentage would be quite low. Also, combined with the net grid shrinkage over the past few months in the wake of the Openspace debacle, this isn't really surprising.

In any case, I'm glad to see the numbers of content creators who decided to participate - it demonstrates that land-based content is far from dead and it really demonstrates the wide variety of styles and products available.

At the same time, I really hope that the expo not only encourages current land owners/renters to buy items for their existing land, but to encourage potential land owners and renters as well.

From a ROI point of view, I've made back what I spent for the space. The rest is promo and gravy, and a bit of satisfaction that some of what I make/am offering via the auction will really go a ways towards helping out the RFL.

I do agree it's sorta been slow - Been seeing decent coverage on various blogs and forums though, so here's hoping

I just renewed my yearly Premium account so I'll be a land owner for at least another year.

One viewpoint (from personal experience) is that homes and furnishings sometimes go in cycles in an avatar's "life." When I first came to SL 2 years ago, my main lived in a rental apartment and my alt (at the time - since deleted) rented a huge beach house. Both avatars shopped and enjoyed decorating.

My main then partnered a man with a 3-story Asian home and purchased quite a bit of land, intending to set up my store there. For a good 9 months or so we enjoyed shopping and decorating that home and had the heady joy of a lot of prims! It was enjoyable for us to relax in, but in the time we had that large home we had maybe a grand total of 8 people visit (due to our own desire for solitude and inviting close friends over). Plus, I made the mistake of purchasing land for my shop before I had much to put in it.

Finally deciding that I didn't want to get stressed over monthly tier, I sold off all but a 512 plot. By that time we were kind of "over" all the furnishings. *If* I had enough land I would love to once again refurnish, but this time in a different style.

Just from watching the plots on my home sim that go up for sale and the subsequent purchases - with new homes then built; I can see the cyclical nature of this.

I don't think homes/furnishings are going away any time soon. I DO think the Home Expo was not well advertised at all. I wouldn't have known about it had I not read about it here in RA.

Had another walkabout the Expo last night and took more lm's and made notes of stores and items I want to check out further. I saw this really amazing piece at the PrimPerfect magazine exhibit: It is a Japanese writing desk. One of the options is to paint and slowly, with the appropriate AV animations, a Japanese painting takes shape. I LOVE that!!!!

Thanks for this thread. It was a pleasure to see you, Czari!

I haven't sold anything directly from RFL that personally benefited me. Someone bought my house designed for the charity, at least that helped.

I don't think that this expo is meant for my market. I think it's meant for the people who want lavish homes, and mine do not fall in that category. The folks who buy my houses generally do not wish to be large landholders and yet the sales I've seen by other shops there mostly require lots of land. A particularly well known shop is next to mine and the house that is shown is 4500L. It sold several of those. My little loft built for charity, at 250 (single) or 1000L(copiable)? Just one of them sold, a single. Clearly it is not the taste of most people shopping there. That's okay, lesson learned.

I consider it to be expensive advertising, and I'm not sure that I would participate in such a thing again.

I also agree that the expo wasn't well-advertised at all. I only heard about it in RA. We didn't get signs to promote the expo until it was almost halfway over. I am not going to knock them because it's a lot of work to organize such a thing, but I am going to be honest, this experience is not terribly rewarding on a personal level. It is only redeemed by the fact that the registration money has gone to charity and I *might* get a few eyes off of it.

It was a pleasure to see you as well, Cristalle. Your homes are EXACTLY the size/style for my land size. Don't be surprised to see me show up at your shop soon.

I met Czari and Jojo last night at the Home Expo and they told me to be sure to check out your exhibit. Your things are REALLY nice. I bought 2 lounge chairs to replace 2 I've had out on my beach for a long time. Yours are similar to the ones I got rid of EXCEPT yours are only 5 prims each AND color changing!!! The ones I got rid of (one unit, 2 chairs) were 27 prims and NOT color changing. I really felt like yours were a great bargain and gained myself some prims back too!

Thank you so much for your kind words, Treasure. It was sweet of Czari and Jojo to send you my way.

I am really glad I had something you were looking for.

I must admit I'm thinking along the same lines as you Cristalle. I may take part again, but probably only if I expand my lines to include larger prefabs. Who knows what I may have done by this time next year

I really have enjoyed checking out the exhibits and seeing the builds at the expo. One of the most interesting things to me and very helpful for my biz is to see the wide variety of prices for something like a couch. It helps me see where my prices and quality land at least in that small sample and that is wonderful info.

It has also been great to see everyone's contributions and even meet some of you there! good work!

I send my tenants to Nimue when they are looking for low prim furniture. A couple have actually gone and were so pleased with what they got. I did swing by your expo spot, Nim, it's a good show and I hope you really did get some good business from it overall.

I give up. Again I crash every step I take when I'm at the home expo. Elsewhere? no crashing. Home expo? crashing every step I take. ok then.

Thank you, Cristalle. I went to your booth and it looks very nice. The one you made for the RFL vendor is wonderful. Very modern, but not harsh. It's very open, bright, and well laid out. I also really like the one you have at the back of the display, with the rounded windows to one side.

I agree it is a good show. I took the time to walk the whole thing today (didn't run well for me either, Lexxi) and the range of things still really impresses me. Something unique in every booth.

Me too, one house that I love.........I didn't buy it, yet, but think I'm going to have to. I just recently got rid of a big mansion style house and put up a fairy treehouse, which I love; I've only had it up a month. But I think I am going to have to get this house that I fell in love with at the Expo, cause you know, for next time.....

last night i took an alt through EVERY single exhibit. it was exciting to see so many variations of the same prim shape ... LOL

i have a favorite exhibit, Givency. they really did a great job on the atmosphere. i wish (now) that i had put furniture in the exhibit instead of my Scenes stuff... although, i am truly truly excited that 2 people now will have the only 2 Moonlight Beach Shacks in existence in SL. talk about exclusive. that is a cool feeling, and also that the $ went to charity. it isn't much interms of RL money, but every little bit helps and i feel really proud to have been able to contribute in my own little way.

I just bought the house I fell in love with, Cristalle's 'Skye', with the round front wing. Cristalle, I almost missed it, it should have been in front!

I am glad there was success- me, I only had three sales - maybe four. And none of it was for the charity. At first I thought maybe over priced- but Cristalle's post indicates quite the opposite. No clue- I guess my stuff just didn't fit what ever the overall feeling of the exhibitors/shoppers paradigm. I do wish the charity stuff had sold though.

It was still a good experience - good practice to have had.

Today being the last day- guess we need to take it down or just wait for the return.

Was something similar myself Am, so you're not the only one. Maybe people might visit us after the Expo, who knows.


Spoke to Nikki a short while ago. Stuff has to be taken down by 10am SLT tomorrow.
Hopefully I'll be back from work in time to do that, but told her not to worry about auto return if I couldn't make it.

We went to the expo last nite lovely displays. Bought a house lol. But the thing that got me was most did not have a landmark giver so we could go to their stores after the expo. Finally got smart and did edit and seen the maker and copies their names on a few for looking up later.

Bec

Well in the end I made a few sales on the expo, and even 1 sale from a charity vendor! Only 100 linden but better then nothing at all

I said it before, I participated only for the exposure. I have had classifieds more expensive then the amount I had to pay for this Expo, and never had the idea I would make the sales to get the money back. But I participated, and don't regret.

Well at least that can't be said of me, lol. I made sure I set up extremely obvious LMs givers, as well as clickable info signs that gave an LM and notecard. That said, they didn't get all that many clicks!

Yup and I got a landmark of yours

Bec

So you're the one

Yah well we went last nite to collect landmarks and well yours was right there and well it was a clickable and I love clickables hehehehehe.

But seriously I hope you got more then just me clicking. And thank goodness for the forums cause I had no idea the expo was going on.

*hug*

I'm so glad you're happy, Treasure. Let me know if you need anything.