| Re: THELSAF 2026 [message #99475 is a reply to message #99240] |
Wed, 03 June 2026 17:07  |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 19041
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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I really enjoyed THELSAF 2026. It's such fun to visit with folks and share time listening to music with them. That's been true ever since I started the event in Tulsa in 2005.
Visiting the Lone Star Audiofest is much more enjoyable for interested hobbyists and potential customers than coming over to my place to see and hear my speakers. People that come to the Lone Star Audiofest can see and hear many more things that way.
This is especially true for other companies like mine - online shops and direct marketing companies - because we have no showrooms and no dealer network. But even companies that do have a showroom and/or dealer network benefit from shows like these. People that attend audio shows don't only see the products from a particular dealer. They see products from several dealers, and they see products that aren't available at any dealer. That draws people for a very good reason. It is a unique gathering event.
There's a wonderful synergy here. People that attend shows like these are incentivized to attend the Lone Star Audiofest because we bring in manufacturers that don't go to any other audio show. That also works in the favor of the larger companies that have a dealer network, because they can be auditioned by these show-goers that come to the show to visit with their favorite online/direct shops.
So the Lone Star Audiofest is particularly attractive, I think, because it showcases so many products that cannot be seen any other way.
Having said that, I found this year's Lone Star Audiofest to have more dealers and reps than we did the smaller shops. We've never seen this before. Most years, we are 75% direct/online companies and 25% dealer/network or brick-and-mortar shops. This year, that was turned around - amazingly - and we saw 75% dealer/network companies and only 25% direct/online at the show.
I am certainly glad to see the addition of our dealer/network friends, and I think that's largely from the influence of T.H.E. But I think we need to reach out to the direct/online companies and give 'em a reminder that we're their show.
Personally, I think we did two things that might have brought this about.
First was that we chose Memorial Day weekend. That might work for a parade, a festival at a lake or other similar event. But I don't think it's the right weekend for an audio show. So we'll make sure to grab the first weekend in May next year like we normally do.
Second was we didn't really promote the show as aggressively as we could have. We're long past the days when our best way to reach-out was to post on all our favorite audio messageboards. So notices on messageboards are not enough. We need to be more proactive on various social media sites.
T.H.E. has been a tremendous help there, but we're going to try to step it up a notch next year. Starting now, actually. We've already started a LoneStarAudiofest channel on YouTube, and we'll drop videos there often. We'll work together with T.H.E. to promote the show, and to provide useful and interesting content. And we'll update the LoneStarAudiofest.com website to provide messages to its subscribers and to its social media channels every time we make a post. That will help get the word out.
So if you haven't already subscribed to the LoneStarAudiofest.com newsletter, you might want to do that. Just press the "SUBSCRIBE" button at the lower right corner of any page on the LoneStarAudiofest.com website. Or maybe you'd rather subscribe to our LoneStarAudiofest YouTube channel. We'll make sure to provide content to keep you informed.
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