A Diary of the Big Event. Day one: Thursday 21st April 1994. Here I am at the Acorn User Show having
just trailed the vast majority of the
8BS hardware over to Harrogate.
We (Gill, Peter and myself) arrived at
the event about 1100 and parked up at
the goods entrance. Quite handily, the
stand that 8BS had been allocated was
right next to this entrance. I carted
all of the gear into the hall and
assembled all of the wires. You don't
realise how much of the stuff there is
until you unship it from the table (or
tea trolley) that you usually work on
do you?
After the whole kit and caboodle had
be de-spaghettied into a reasonable
looking array of Beebs etc I plugged in
and switched on..... DISASTER! Nothing
worked, the LEDs on the adaptors
glowed, but none of the familiar
bee..beep's emanated from the
computers.
All of that careful preparation and
planning over several months had come
to nothing. I grabbed a passing
electrician who apparently was on his
way to lunch, he undid the sockets,
jammed a screwdriver in, wiggled it
about and said "try that then", I did..
Nothing happened. He cleared off to
lunch leaving me panicking in a corner.
After a while another electrician
wandered by and did something similar
to the sockets, this time he must have
poked the screw driver in a bit
further, because 8BS came to life with
a series of familiar beeps after he had
done.
At about one o'clock my little helper
my son Peter was dragged away by his
mother to create havoc somewhere else.
Frank Jones turned up with an extremely
welcome flask of coffee. We sat and
supped that. Afterwards Frank started
climbing all over the tables sticking
up the posters.
By the time he had finished, Frank had
managed to place posters all over the
place, including some that we were not
too sure that they should be, anyhow,
as I write this, they are still there.
Along popped a gentleman from the Acorn
User bearing a large quantity of discs.
I vaguely recognised them as being a
batch of 50 that I posted off to him
many moons ago. 8BS has now the entire
set of Acorn User cover discs from July
1984 to April 1994. As you read this
they may or may not be in the
catalogue. If they are not, I am sure
that if you write and ask, I shall send
whatever you want off to you.
5pm and Frank had to clear off home to
appease the wife. I was busy making up
more posters for Frank to plaster
around when Brian Kersakely of
Topologika Software on the stand
opposite 8BS wandered across for a
chat. During the conversation he
happened to mention that a lot of
schools are asking for Archi software
conversions to BBC. Anyone out there
fancy having a go at this?
A Diary of the Big Event. Day Two: Friday 22nd April 1994. Finally the day arrives! After all the
careful planning, preparation, begging,
grovelling and lost hours sleep, the
whole thing is going to be put to the
test.
I arrived at the hall at 0800 hours to
be just about the first there. Started
getting all of the discs out and
re-arranging the posters once more.
Frank Jones turned up just before
opening at 1000 hours. The doors
opened, a trickle of people gradually
wandered down to the far end where the
8BS stand was.
Nothing at all! No one appeared to be bothered about
the 8 bit machines, all wandered by.
Mick Reeves turned up and Frank started
accosting unsuspecting passing people
in the aisle. Eventually he managed to
strike up a conversation with one.
I meanwhile had been busy preparing
discs and printing out handouts,
posters etc.
Before long Frank was aiming people at
me and propelling them headlong into my
clutches. Suddenly I was aware that I
was in full swing giving people the
sales patter that so many times
previously I have given out over the
telephone. Discs and money started
changing hands and the whole thing
clicked into gear.
Looking back now at the first day of
the exhibition (it is now 0858 on the
second), it all seems a bit of a blur.
I remember lots of people offering to
send their broken Beebs to me, so watch
this space, it looks very much like 8BS
is going to be supplying second hand
spares shortly so that you can all keep
your beebs going for that little bit
longer.
Some gentlemen from CCL4 (the Hull
based bulletin board famous for its
music) wandered in. Hopefully there may
be developments in the library from
this. Watch this space...
The one thing that I will not do is to
harass people into joining 8BS. I
prefer 8BS to sell itself. Yes, by all
means thrust a floppy into their hand
and extract a bit of cash, but the
actual signing up must be done in a
measured manner. I think that this is
the only way to get members that will
stay with us like you lot have.
One visitor was Peter Davy who had to
queue to have a word with me (just like
my wife Gill and little lad Peter. I
think that I even tried to flog Gill
the latest issue at one stage).
I discovered later that another member
had been at the stand but couldn't get
in to have a word, that's how busy it
was. Who were you?
Right, it's 0910 now and I must get on
with preparing for today which I reckon
may be even more busy.
A Diary of the Big Event. Day Three: Saturday 24th April 1994. WoW! Saturday was an absolutely amazing
day. It started off quietly the same as
Friday. I was expecting Mick Needham to
turn up to help in the morning and
Daniel Shimmin to augment the helpers
in the late morning to afternoon.
As it happened, Mick had a catastrophe
with his car and arrived very late. As
a result Gill had to stay and help out
on the stand for most of the morning to
guard the equipment. In fact she proved
to be quite effective at directing
customers at me.
The show was very busy I mean it was
HEAVING with people and the 8BS stand
was packed with people most of the
time.
Mick turned up with several boxes of
hardware with the intention of plugging
them into a computer and showing it
off. The stand was so busy that there
was neither the room or the time to
actually set up.
People were using both the Compact and
BBC B to look at the latest issue,
Superior Software games and discs from
the pool. The latest issue and
catalogue disc were selling like hot
cakes.
Then, who should turn up but both
Duncan Webster and Daniel Shimmin,
things were really hotting up. Watch
this space for a once only event, a
picture of the meeting of the past two
and existing editor of your favourite
disc based magazine.
NOTE.... Later addition. The photos of
the show have come out quite well, but
getting them digitised isn't proving
too great a success. Any volunteers to
have a go? For now, anyone that wants
to see a selection of these piccies,
please send an SAE and 10p. I will nip
down the library and photostat a load
onto an A3 sheet for you.
At least 4 other 8BS members turned up
during the day and at one stage the
rest of the public stood no chance of
getting in because of the merry band of
8BS members. I was dashing around
trying to catch up with the disc supply
and record of what had gone out. No
chance, the number of discs issued will
be a rough estimate worked out from how
many I came with and how many go back
to 8BS HQ at the end of today (Sunday
0906 hours at the moment).
The bring and buy box seems to have
been a success. There has been loads of
stuff brought by members and stacks
bought too, a nice boost for the funds.
NOTE.... Later addition. Including a
bunch of keys! See 6EE's message.
The organisation of the show has been
very good. Only one complaint about it.
It is VERY hot and muggy in the hall, I
reckon that this is to get the public
in and out of the hall as quickly as
possible to maximise profits! Good job
I am only wearing the 8BS T shirt (and
jeans of course). Speaking of which,
were you lucky enough to receive the
ADFS version that featured the T shirt
ad last issue? If not there is probably
one on all versions of this issue
anyway. Yours for just over 11 quid.
Cheap at twice the price. Go on, show
your support for 8BS!
Any how, Stephan Richardson has just
turned up to help and is in the process
of bringing in a load of goodies for me
to look at, so cheerio until tomorrow
morning when I shall be back home
telling you how today went.
A Diary of the Big Event. Day Four: Sunday 24th April 1994. Well, in fact today is Tuesday the
26th, but this is the first chance that
I have had to get back to writing this
diary. Nearly back to normal now, just
a load of discs to get into the
library.
Fortunately (for me, not for the
organisers of the show) Sunday was a
quiet day. D-PJ also turned up to help.
We sold a few discs (about 60-70) and
had a chat with a few people. The day
was a pleasant relief from the previous
hectic two days. Gill managed to chat
up a car park marshall and got us an
early position in the queue to bring
vehicles to the hall to load up. In
fact we were piling stuff into the
camper just after 5pm. 8BS HQ about
8pm. To a great pile of post! This just
about used up the rest of the 5.25"
discs.
I had taken 257 5.25"discs with me.
There are 30 left as I write this
(500 in the wardrobe though so don't
panic!). We shifted around 90-100 3.5"
discs as well. This represents
approximately 150 8BS issue 34s and 150
TBI-00s sold.
Thanks to all the members that
generously donated to the bring and buy
box. The actually came back with more
in it. Have a look in the ads section
to see what's there.
Show accounts: Insurance................£45 aargh
Posters/stickers.........£15
Petrol (inc preparation).£44
Accommodation............£150
Taken at show............£300.10p
Members signing on at the show: 7
I did not encourage joining at the
show. Membership WILL increase
dramatically before this issue goes
out. Maybe...
Lost sleep: Approximately 5 million
hours.
Camper : A bit grubby.
See you there next year?
PRESS BREAK