Thursday, December 15, 2016

PRI SHOW . . . WHAT happened?

For those who did not get to go to the PRI Show last week I will attempt to give as much information as I can about the week. I was in Indianapolis from Tuesday through Sunday morning even though the show was Thursday through Saturday.

I came in early to get our booth setup on Tuesday with the help from a couple young diesel enthusiasts who later attended the show. That is one thing you can count on is some youth to help in hauling in over 12 big boxes of sponsor's decals and literature plus the booth banners and tables.

Wednesday was spent at the Race Track Business conference where I had the privilege of being a speaker on a panel for sanctioning bodies. This is a 5 year conference held for track owners of circle, drag and racing facilities across the US so that they can learn from people in the industry how to better market and advertise their tracks. It was very enlightening to hear from industry experts and the track owners themselves as to what challenges they face during the year. In a effort to further expand DIESEL Motorsports as a mainstream sport I explained what and who we are to the tracks, many who had never heard of the venue.

The PRI Show started Thursday with a very cold start since a front moved through during the night and it was a little slow till people got going around noon and it was like the flood gate opened. It was far busier in the afternoon with lots of diesel enthusiasts visiting our booth looking for information on future shows, rules free DM t-shirts and sponsor's decals/literature.




Diesel Motorsports had a limited supply of DM t-shirts for free and you could get them if you wore the shirts during the show and pose with the DM Girls at the booth. Plus they received DM insulated coffee mugs along with goody bags from sponsors. This definitely attracted diesel people to the booth all three days and we quickly ran out with large crowds in front of our booth many times during the show.

Friday was the largest single day attendance (60,000) in the history of the show and it showed at our booth in the main performance hall. We gave out over 150 free t-shirts and mugs/goody bags to many people and was soon out of the shirts. That didn't stop people from coming by the booth for information, decals and swag. Vendors on both sides of us thanked us for attracting so many people to our area and aisle. At times people couldn't even get down our aisle because of the people crowded around our booth posing for photos with the DM Girls and picking up items from our booth.

Saturday started busy and as the showed slowed down fell off in the late afternoon as the show closed on Saturday. In the morning was real busy and again our aisle was full when Diesel Motorsports presented our Awards for the year for Points Champion including inducting Brady Williams of Industrial Injection into the Diesel "Hall of Fame". By Saturday most of the items we had to give out was literally gone, of the 3,000 DM decals I had brought we had 25 left to give out on Saturday. The same could be said of the sponsor's decals, literature and swag by Saturday. Of the 12 cases of materials we had hauled in Tuesday we only left with one case a quarter full of materials.




Overall I can't tell you how many people came by the booth to learn about DIESEL Motorsports but it was a busy week for all of us. I did get a small chance of walking the show when I went to get more decals from a few sponsors who were there as vendors. It was people everywhere in the show and I noticed quite a few manufacturers with items for the diesel performance market. Some old but quite a few new ones with very interesting items that would enhance the performance of our diesels.

This was one of the most productive shows we have setup and attended as a vendor, with a full court press of making DIESEL Motorsports a mainstream motor sport!

Plan to attend next year, we will be in the same spot!

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