SPECIAL REPORT #1: Midwest T/S Computer Fest A Success!!
The high point of the year, even of the last few years in the Timex/Sinclair world, has to be the great 1986 First Annual (definitely to be followed by a second!) Cincinnati T/S Computer Fest. The turnout both in terms of vendor support and number of attendees was outstanding. Early, hopeful “guess-timates” were that we might have up to 1000 attendees, but the actual number was closer to about 400. As it happened, this may have been the optimum turn-out. On Saturday, May 3, the first day of the event, the main room was quite crowded, as were many of the several seminars each day. Any more people than we had would have been too many. (Pictures from the Fest appear on pages 16 and 17.)
At any rate, the Computer Fest board (of which I was happy to be a small part) was thrilled. So were all of the vendors – who came from as far away as Oregon:
ZEBRA SYSTEMS: They were certainly the “hit” of the Fest. Zebra brought a whole van load of their complete product line, and even introduced some brand new products while there. (See reviews of BANNER and SIGN DESIGNER else where in this issue.) They had a lot of good deals and there was always a good crowd in front of their several tables. Stewart Neufeld of ZEBRA was very busy, and he stated, on the basis of the success of the Cincinnati Fest, that he would go anywhere in U.S. for another one. He also intends to support a Fest that is being talked about for the NYC area.
KNIGHTED COMPUTER: Ray Payne of Knighted was also very busy and pleased with the turnout. They featured items for the 2068 and Spectrum, as well quite a bit for QL, including their own line of peripherals.
AERCO: Jerry Champkis of Aerco generated a lot of interest with their product line and Jerry’s popular seminar on their new version of CPM for the 2068.
DAMCO: There certainly were a lot of Wafadrives under the arms of people at the Fest, so I guess Dave Macarone of Damco was happy. Actually Dave told me the interest in his whole product line was high.
RUSSELL ELECTRONICS: I was very pleased to meet the Russells. They prought a lot of products both for the 1000 and 2068.
TS CONNECTION: Of course, Jack Roberts of Cincinnati’s TS Connection (he was one of the main Fest instigators) was there and he also gave a seminar on basic computer literacy.
BRICE ROAD PHARMACY: Gary Solomon came down from Columbus for the event and gave a very well-received QL-demo. It’s a shame that he had so little time to spend at his booth with all of his Computer Fest responsibilities, but he was a vital part of the Fest’s success.
TS HORIZONS: Richard Watts (also known as Elven Magic) and I had a blast at our table. Unfortunately we didn’t sell a lot of subscriptions at the Fest because it seemed like everybody there already subscribed. We did have a chance to make a lot of new friends.
OTHER MAGS: CTM‘s Chet Lambert of Birmingham AL, Joe Williamson from SUM in FL, Time Designs‘ Tim Woods of Colton OR(!), and Tom Wood‘s Syncware News were all represented at the Fest.
It was a personal thrill for me to meet so many of the people I’ve talked to or gotten letters from for all these years. Roger Higgins stopped by – he was one of our first subscribers and he came in from Iowa for the Fest. Harvey Pulliam came all the way from Texas for the event and he told me it was 100% worth the trip. People came from all over – Florida, Georgia, the Northeast.
The Future? Plans are already in the works for next year’s Fest in Cincinnati. Several other sites are also being considered for other such events in the meantime: NYC, D.C., L.A., San Francisco, and Texas have been mentioned. My recommendation is, if a group of Timex enthusiasts can bring together a staff who is willing to work, and you can get a couple of nearby user groups involved other TS Fests can be successful. Vendors now know that they can make money, and the users will come if they are made aware.
SPECIAL REPORT #2: Sinclair Research Sold to Amstrad
On April 8, 1986 the Wall Street Journal reported the sale of Sinclair Research to Amstrad Electronics, formerly their main competition in the English computer market. The Journal called it the “end of an era”.
The main points of the article were:
- Purchase price: $7.3 million.
- Sale was unexpected, even though Sinclair had financial problems in the recent past.
- Amstrad makes business oriented computers, while Sinclair’s forte was home models.
- Amstrad had 20% of the British home computer market; Sinclair, 40%.
- Clive Sinclair sold the computer part of his business in order to get out of debt, and get back to inventing.