Exhibitions have long provided the many suppliers in the British Sinclair market with a popular outlet for their products.
With the majority of sales being conducted through mail order it provides a welcome opportunity for them to find out what their customers are thinking and what their competitors are doing. It also allows the customers to see the products working before they spend their money.
There is a wide range of events from which to choose. They are held at all times of the year and in all parts of the United Kingdom, There are the general shows usually held in London at which the whole range of home computers are on show including the Apples, Vies, Ataris and BBC machines as well as the Sinclairs. They attract crowds in the tens of thousands. The Personal Computer World show held last summer at the Barbican in the City of London attracted 70,000 people over four days.
At the other end of the scale there are the small local shows organized by computer clubs which attract a few thousand.
One of the unique features of the market for Sinclair Research machines in Britain has been the regular ZX Microfairs organized by Mike Johnston, All but one have been held in London and people from all over Britain have made the trip to the capital for the event.
“I became involved with the shows by accident” said Johnston. “At one of the early meetings of the National ZX Users clubs in 1981 some people came along to sell some things. Since this proved very popular, I suggested to the club that the idea be repeated with more exhibitors but they said they were too busy and suggested that I do it.”
Mike imagined that the interest would be limited with between 12 and 15 exhibitors attracting about 300 people. He quickly discovered that he had greatly underestimated the interest from suppliers and switched the venue to a much larger hall near the Houses of Parliament.
“I only took half the space that I could have and I was really worried that the 3000 people I expected would be lost,” said Johnston.
He need not have worried. About 5,000 people crowded into the hall and he believes that many more were put off by the long lines and the crush in the hall.
A second show was held in January 1982 at which the space for exhibitors was doubled, but the crowd was almost twice that of the first show. People lined up for hours to get in and at one point it went twice round the large hall and a long way down a neighboring street.
Both these events were held in the early days of the Sinclair computers when the amount of the software and hardware available was limited.
Johnston said: “One of the reasons for holding the shows was that the market was still young and there were a lot of exciting things being produced. I wanted to let people see what was happening.”
Despite the growth of the shows since those early days he has attempted to keep this one of the main aims by keeping the organization simple and the cost of taking space small.
“I want to keep the prices down so that it encourages the small producer who may still have an interesting product to come along. I know many of the bigger companies make large amounts of money at the shows but they were small at one time. It was only because they were able to show what good products they had that they were able to grow.”
The emphasis is on the informal with most of the exhibitors arriving the night before a show and the rest bringing their goods in on the morning. At the end of the day the stands are quickly dismantled. Johnston estimated that at each of his shows about $200,000 of business is done.
The shows are now so popular that most of the space is sold almost as soon as dates are announced.
The final sign of success is that there are a growing number of people throughout Britai n more than willing to follow his example. The same simple formula has proved successful in most of the country’s major cities although no one has yet managed to repeat the spectacular results of the shows in London. But they have given the organizers enough encouragement to hold them again.
There are always fears that the Sinclair bubble might burst but it has shown no signs of doing this yet. And America is a new land of opportunity for anyone wishing to do the same sort of thing.