Blade and Blade Show sold to Caribou Media

[hso]

Rumors were flying around like angry bees during the Blade Show that the show had been sold to XYZ.

I've known the editor of Blade Steve Shackleford for a loooong time so I stopped in the lobby of the show and asked. XYZ turns out to be Caribou Media.

Caribou publishes Gun Digest.

I hope they understand that Blade and their demographic are both users and collectors and that the collectors are like art collectors as much as anything.

 

[sparkyv]

I was not fortunate enough to go to the show, but I guess we'll see if Carbou won't screw things up.

 

[JShirley]

Fingers crossed.

 

[RA40]

That was one of the scary parts about shows when they were sold. We'd done the Las Vegas Classic and that eventually became integrated into Beinfield's Antique Arms Show. Blade Show West ceased as Krause Publications and the many west coast makers would have liked. The Plaza Cutlery Show is now among the next gen carrying on. Nordic Knives changed format following the Art Knife Invitational. Then the variety of attempts of other shows along the way. The off shoot of Plaza Cutlery was the Hawaii show which was bought by a new promoter.

Times change, we look for the best to carry on.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Wow !

 

[hso]

This Blade was pretty screwed up.

Exhibitor badges couldn't be picked up until load-in, but you couldn't load in without a badge.
Attempted to shut load-in down an hour early on Th (makers and exhibitors refused to give in and quickly pointed out the published times for load in).
Second hall exhibitors couldn't load in until Th evening.

Exhibitors made to line up like kindergarteners to get in Fri and Sat.

Computer service went down and the promoter couldn't process cards for people wanting to attend, but they didn't have enough cash for change for big bills (which is what you carry to the show). When someone complained one of the staff told them there was an ATM around the corner (to which I replied, "You want him to pay a $5 fee to get $45 cash because you're not prepared to make change?").

They could be worse, but there are already people talking about setting up a competing show in Nashville for Memorial Day weekend.

 

[RA40]

Wow. That is a pretty unforgiving situation to place the show attendees through. At the end of the Plaza Cutlery Show we'd been discussing about how many chances a stumbling show would get, cumulative answer was 1. Wait and see...