JAPBASH - Washup Review

[Scott.T]

Well i hope you enjoyed your day and thanks for coming and helping make the event an enjoyable one.

I got home absolutley shattered and just maybe a little bit sunburnt. It was a bit of a long one and at time stressfull one, not knowing quite when and how many would turn up.

Apologies if I didn't stop and chat. But I literally walked from my car to the gate twice, with no time in-between to wander round.

If you have any comments about the event, venue, facilities, trade stands etc.. Please put them here and we will take them along to a wash-up moderators meeting in due course.

(please keep all photo's in a seperate thread, thanks.....)


I alread have a few thoughts/ideas of my own.

[DukeBoy]

Welldone Steve (Worzel), Scott (Silversurfer), Martyn (Crowman) & Steve (StevePPP) for making this event happen, and to anyone else that helped out on the day

[Scooby_Greg]

Scott, I agree with Dukeboy's comments and wanted to give a big thanks to all those who organised the day. I had a great day and it was good to put some faces to the names. There were some great cars ( and a deserved winner!). I can't really comment as it was my first one. It would have been nice to have a couple of other traders there, but not sure how much business they would get as most of my time was spent looking at all the other scoobs!
A great day - good to meet you all.
Greg

[BIG"E"]

It was a really good day


The dent guys as usual worked there magic and did a very good job.


Not sure about the paint guy and wheel refurbs though.

Obviously there was a slight mishap and what could have been an awkward situation worked out well.


The new paint/refurb chap (Dave) has currently got one of my rims and I am waiting to see how it turns out.
Talking to him he appears to be a very conscientious and professional, with a well set van van that must have cost a small fortune.
If he is invited back next year he will know what to expect.

Well done and thank you to the organisers!



ps. Im glad that I and Alfa were able to help all be it in a small way.

[Hongkongfooi]

Don't know about the mishap?

Thought it was organised very well, thanks to those that made it happen.

There appeared to be less cars this year or was it just my imagination?

[scooby999]

Cant comment to much as it was our first one.
I was hoping there would have been more trade stands but other than that it was very good.
I think next time i may camp as its probally the best way to introduce yourself.
Also the kids loved what you guys had done getting all those geese and ducks to come aswell !!!!!!

All in all a job well done!!

Jason

[Steve_PPP]

Originally Posted by scooby999

Also the kids loved what you guys had done getting all those geese and ducks to come aswell !!!!!!

All in all a job well done!!

Thanks for your comments

Just hoping nobody got a photo of me carrying that pig!

[Scott.T]

thanks for the comments and thanks to big e and alfa for helping fill in the cracks when we needed to be in two places at once.

Trade stands is a item we will be discussing, as we have tried very hard over the years to improve the numbers. But our / my gut feeling is that the traders take little or no sales, i dont think cdf even sold a keyring. So it may be something we drop.
It's quite embarassing to talk up a show to a trader, only for them to make no sales, despite very good show prices i.e the pulley sets and drop links were a very good price.

Scott has hit the nail on the head really! We have tried to get trade stands that could offer things for all kinds of people! When in truth people don't want to be spending money. We need these comments so we can build way in advance for next years event.

My take on it, from the little I know so far, is that the arrival of Saj and the drift car was very popular! This maybe is the kind of thing we need to work towards doing next year!

Please keep the comments coming, good and bad!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the guys who made this happen , Scott, Steve & Martyn with the help of Ian & Steve Pain did a brilliant job, great job fellas

[Guy B]

Fantastic day, I for one will be up for comping next year.

Not a criticism in any way but it did seem like the cafe couldn't cope with the number of food orders. Might be worth looking into getting a burger van or something next year?

Was good to see JPP' dript car!

All in all a very good day, nice one

[666subaru]

Was a great day and congratulations for the team who spent long hours and a lot of hard work organising and making it a fantastic event, just one word for you, TOILETS in the camping area made the ladies , not good and we could have done with a toilet block for ourselves.

people, nice one.

[Steve_PPP]

Cheers Baz, the toilet issue has been noted. The general condition of the block was a lot better last year so it wasn't a problem we were expecting to have.

Cheers for the excellent bbq efforts as well

[666subaru]

Originally Posted by Steve_PPP

Cheers Baz, the toilet issue has been noted. The general condition of the block was a lot better last year so it wasn't a problem we were expecting to have.

Cheers for the excellent bbq efforts as well

Cool buddy, and you are very welcome.

[Brad Wrx]

good job guys

[Lucky]

I thought it was a great day and a great venue. Well done to worzel, Crowman, Silversurfer and StevePPP for organising it.

[Fozzy N]

Well done guys, Had a great time although a banging head this morning

[Sally]

These are just my comments/observations from an outsider to the club, hope to make it as constructive as I can!

Trade stands - the one my car was on (Kudos) had a fair amount of sales, think Andy was happy anyway, I reckon it was the IQ pulling in the punters but thats just me bigging myself up haha! Could have done with a few more I suppose, maybe Saj at JPP might want a stand next year if he hasnt got any other prior arrangements? I heard that some traders didnt bother coming I dont know if thats true or not, but in future you could charge them say for example £20 non refundable pitch fee, so if they dont turn up you still have the money. If they really didnt make any money then you could always refund this at your discretion

The cafe was ok, they do an amazing choc cake! but bit disappointed they didnt have burgers, and it was a 20 mins wait for chips so didnt get any hot food. Although I know there were complaints about the burger van last year so not sure what else you guys coulda done! Maybe you could have had an ice cream man come along?

As for the show, I think its great value for money seeing as its a fiver to get entry and that includes the actual Bentley Museum and Grounds, I did speak to a couple of people that said they just walked straight through though, dont know if they slipped through the net?

Overall I enjoyed the day, the weather was great and great company too!

Some ideas for next time, maybe some sort of raffle, you get a ticket when you pay at the gate and the traders could donate something towards this, maybe also invite a magazine along to cover the event, were there awards at this one? Maybe have a peoples choice award for the car that the public most liked, ballots with the reg number in a box sort of thing just to get the public more involved?

Just my 2p but looking forward to next years, I love it that its 5 mins from my house! Keep up the good work all involved!

[Scott.T]

Originally Posted by Sally

These are just my comments/observations from an outsider to the club, hope to make it as constructive as I can!

Trade stands - the one my car was on (Kudos) had a fair amount of sales, think Andy was happy anyway, I reckon it was the IQ pulling in the punters but thats just me bigging myself up haha! Could have done with a few more I suppose, maybe Saj at JPP might want a stand next year if he hasnt got any other prior arrangements? I heard that some traders didnt bother coming I dont know if thats true or not, but in future you could charge them say for example £20 non refundable pitch fee, so if they dont turn up you still have the money. If they really didnt make any money then you could always refund this at your discretion

The cafe was ok, they do an amazing choc cake! but bit disappointed they didnt have burgers, and it was a 20 mins wait for chips so didnt get any hot food. Although I know there were complaints about the burger van last year so not sure what else you guys coulda done! Maybe you could have had an ice cream man come along?

As for the show, I think its great value for money seeing as its a fiver to get entry and that includes the actual Bentley Museum and Grounds, I did speak to a couple of people that said they just walked straight through though, dont know if they slipped through the net?

Overall I enjoyed the day, the weather was great and great company too!

Some ideas for next time, maybe some sort of raffle, you get a ticket when you pay at the gate and the traders could donate something towards this, maybe also invite a magazine along to cover the event, were there awards at this one? Maybe have a peoples choice award for the car that the public most liked, ballots with the reg number in a box sort of thing just to get the public more involved?

Just my 2p but looking forward to next years, I love it that its 5 mins from my house! Keep up the good work all involved!

Thanks for the input Sally, some of those points are good ones and things to consider.

If I can just reply to a few, as some have been raised by others too :

The burger supplier was a concern last year, so this was raised with Barry (Bentley Events coordinator) at our pre-event meeting. We raised that the quality was deemed poor for the price and he said he would see what he could do. The on-site catering is organised by someone else and the front field that we use is franchised. Therefore we could not bring in our own caterers. Anyway as mentioned Barry tried to arrange something. We are not sure what happened, maybe the franchise did not like our feedback, so at the last minute we were informed that no Burger Van would be provided.

Jap Performance parts were originally going to attend but with Trax being on the Sunday they had committed to that, which obviously would not only bring them more sales but they were displaying/campaigning the drift car. It was nice of them to stop by on the way to show off the car.

Pitch fee for traders is a difficult one. It's hard enough to get them to come when it's free and also embarassing when they sell nowt.
If they don't turn up who gets the money, all the money taken on the day goes to Bentley. SES get nowt and if we did then you can end up on the slippery slope of requiring a commitee, AGM, public liabilty insurance and an accountant.
We did think of asking the traders to donate a prize, but again if their sales are poor they are unlikley to hand over any freebies.

Peoples choice is a good one, but forum/club attendees are likley to vote amongst themselves.

Total Impreza were invited. I expect our Press office will string something together as a submission (although I havn't renewed and am unlikley to renew my subscription). maybe send it to Redline or Jap Performance Mag instead.

[jay]

Well we had a great day, top weather, top organisation, and a top bunch of people to spend time with. Thanks to all involved.....just such a shame Steve's back let him down....poor fellow!.....probably jumping off wardrobes again!

Jay and Trace.

[Cath]

Well done to everyone involved it was a great day, especially Steve PPP's pig-knapping escapade lol. Steve (worzel) shame your back gave out matey but I think you've hit the nail on the head with the idea with special guests (I know there's a lot of special people on here already lol)

Roll on next year's event

Thank you everyone for your feed back, we really do reley on everyones feedback, both positive and negative to continue in improving Japbash.
Steve(Worzel), Steve(Steve_PPP) and Scott(Silversurfer) all put in months of hard work to ensure Japbash took place this year. Ian & Steve Pain(BIG E & Alfamale) stepped in on the day to help us out, Thanks alot guys. We have of course had valuable input from other members on SES, Thanks to them all too.
A very big thanks go to Barry at Bentley for allowing us to use the superb venue.

Unfortunatley as already pointed out the toilets were in a shocking state this year, which is a real shame and also not acceptable,the truth is, last year they were spot on, so we had no reason to give them any thought this year.I am quite sure that Bentley were not aware of there condition.We will of course be pointing out the issue with Bentley.

The camping was spot on, havnt had such a laugh for so long.
Baz & Shaz,your stars. Thanks for the superb hospitality.
I am only just recovering now, a wee bit to much JD

[Mortster]

My little spin on traders.

I did what I could to get a couple of smaller traders along, some made contact, some just ignored emails. Bit frustraing.

Comming from a retail background myself ( since I left school ) even if you dont make any sales, its a great piece of free marketing. Any extra way to get your company known to more customers should allways be viewed as a positive? Marketing results are measured on very low %'s, so any result from free marketing is a good one.

I'd already bought stuff from the Guys at CDF ( Many thanks for comming guys ) but thats beacuse I just randomly found thier website looking online one day. I sure even if they didnt make any/much sales on the day, they will in the future, from someone at Japbash.

Maybe if we keep the trader stands, thats how we should tackle/aproach them?

I know that if i was starting "Mortster Bits" I'd be busting my balls to get to events, big or small.

Perhaps the bigger well know companies think their either too big or have become too complacent in terms of recruiting new customers?

[tbtstt]

I had a great day out and was wishing that I packed some camping materials as I guessing you had quite a laugh in the evening!

As has already been said the cafe did look a bit overwhelmed, so perhaps a burger van would be an option for next year? Having said that its obviously a good thing for Bentley, so I wouldn't want to see them lose out.

The JPP drift machine was definately one of the highlights of the show for me, so any more guest cars like that can be convinced to come along have got to be a good thing - perhaps give find him some space to demonstrate the car next year?