dj magazine  
Conventions 2001

 

r

Check this out!

Search DJzone


Home
This Issue
Daily News
Features
MP3
Mobile
Club
Radio
Karaoke
Reviews


Calendar


Chat
Issue Archives
DJ Games
DJ Musiclists
DJ Book Store
Gear Mall
DJ Software

 

   

San Francisco Loves 2nd Annual DJ Expo West 

 

Port Washington, NY  -  DJ Expo West, presented by DJ Times magazine at San Francisco's The Cathedral Hill Hotel this past February 13-15, exceeded all expectations for exhibitor and attendee alike.  The show was such a smash hit that organizers of the 2002 DJ Expo West in San Francisco are seeking a larger venue.

DJs came to see and hear the latest DJ gear showcased in more than 100 exhibit booths, representing every top DJ manufacturer. The show's success can also be measured by the standing-room-only attendance of 20 high-interest seminars, which included legendary scratch DJ QBert, and evening parties featuring top club DJs like Marques Wyatt and DJ Garth, both of whom played Wednesday night's Om Records party at Decibel. DJ Expo West took things one step further this year by showcasing a vinyl/CD "scratch" workshop featuring a top vinyl turntablist (QBert) and "The World's First Digital Turntablist" (Gerald Webb).

DJ Times Editor Jim Tremayne summed things up: "DJ Expo West was a success for many reasons. First off, the size of the attendance surpassed our expectations. Also, the quality of the exhibitors was top-notch. On the seminar side, we concentrated on serving the various components of the rich West Coast scene by incorporating the best club, mobile, scratch and remix jocks as speakers. With vital contributions from industry leaders like QBert and Wicked crew DJs Garth and Markie and others, we think we accomplished that. Also, we look to build on the success of our CD/vinyl scratch workshop in the future."

"I'm not surprised that DJ Expo West 2001 was a huge hit," said Vinny Testa, publisher of DJ Times magazine.  "The word was out that we put on a first-rate show, just ask anyone who went to last year's DJ Expo West. We've got 20 years experience publishing DJ Times magazine and 10 years producing the ultimate DJ sensation, The International DJ Expo, our East Coast show.  That's why we can book the best talent, attract the top manufacturers, throw the most awesome parties and draw the largest attendance.

"While bigger shows and a booming DJ market is great news for everyone, it makes it essential for exhibitors to book their reservations early for the 2001 International DJ Expo to secure the best booth and demo room locations as well as lock in on the most profitable sponsorship opportunities. We expect to draw over 6,000 DJs to The Atlantic City Convention Center, August 27-30, 2001."

And now a few words from some of the more than 60 exhibitors:

"The show was good. It was definitely a success. We were going to bring just AirFX .The products we showed were definitely a success. Our products are pretty much one of a kind, the keyboards and the sound effects that we had. I think there were more people on Wednesday than Thursday."
Andy Mendez, Alesis

"Things went excellently for us. The attendees were very well qualified and we showed some new products and the response was fantastic. The show met all of our expectations. I like that the show is growing very nicely and is creating its own vibe after the second year. I think that people are starting to talk about it and are starting to look forward to it. It can hold its own. I think its outgrown the facility, which is a positive thing. We showed an MP3 mixer and everybody loved it. We were preshowing it, as it won't ship until May. "
Barry Seiden, Gem Sound

"It was very professionally put on. There were all the major players in the DJ world, manufacturers there. All the right players were there. The show ran smoothly."
Bernie Fryman, Gemini Sound

"I'm glad we attended because there were other key competitors there that we needed a presence for. We were able to sell through inventory and we got some good exposure, the end users were there. We got some good feedback from the attendees about the products we showed. The EON Generation 2 was a big hit. We had all of the products there. People hadn't had a chance to see the smaller version of the sub yet so that was a big hit as well as the EON wheeled carry bag that we have."
Phil Manor, JBL Professional

"The show gave us the opportunity to meet a lot of the local DJs, we wished there would have been more sales at the show, however, we got to spend some time with the DJs and showcase our products to the local DJs."
Chris Giannoulas, Omnisistem

"We got to talk to kids we ordinarily wouldn't talk to. I think that any DJ Times event is an important one for Rane to participate in. We met and talked with people we wouldn't ordinarily talk to. The West Coast is important. Not everyone from the West Coast can make it to Atlantic City. We did have a new mixer to show and we got some good responses from that. "
Jack Ewer, Rane Corporation

"The DJ Expo West  was a good venue in which to debut our new X-9 digital mixer. It's nice to get the immediate feedback of the qualified end users who attend an event like the Expo. We got excellent feedback. Because of the fact that the X-9 is still being finalized in terms of its final feature set and design, with such a hands-on type of piece, it's nice having the ability to have an end-user step behind it and use the machine and be able to provide you with that immediate feedback that can affect the final stages of product design. We found that most of the DJs are very excited to have a higher end performance tool as represented by the X-9. It's certainly a product geared towards the higher end of the DJ market. For those folks who have an understanding of what that type of DJ needs, everybody was very positive in terms of the direction we're headed now with the X-9."
Jeff Klopmeyer, Marketing Manager, TASCAM

"We had our own demo room this year so it was good for a lot of the customers to come in. It was a little quieter than the rest of the show. We had lots of hands on for demoing, people could come in and try things out for themselves. Other than that, traffic was good. We had a lot of people that were customers, a lot of people came in and said 'Oh, yeah, I own this. What else should I be getting?' People were looking to buy up. Talked to a lot of folks about that. We showed the EF 303 big time so they could try it out. That's a groove effects box for DJs. We also showed the new SP303 that we showed at NAMM, a sampler. There was a lot of interest in that. People were buying those in droves. We mostly recapped on gear that was shown before, so not a lot of new stuff. Dean Coleman was our demonstrator."
Jim Norman, Roland Corporation

"The show, what I found interesting, was that this year, the vinyl DJ was much more open to scratching CDs, like our CDN88. The first year we were there, we had a couple of CD scratchers and DJs wouldn't even look at them. This year they were really getting into the CDN88and our MP3 controller, created a lot of excitement. We were excited to see the vinyl DJs embracing our CDN88 and our MP3 controller. We introduced our Berkeley School of Music records and books. We partnered up with Berkley and they have a whole course on turntablists now. We offer, you get two records and the book for about $35 and then they came out with 5 different records that were selling. There just starting to take off. We had a lot of buyers. They got together with Q-Bert and DJ Swamp and asked them what they would want on these records. "
Tom Freret, Numark Industries

"It was good in that there were a lot of qualified people there. We introduced the SK2F, our new mixer, to the San Francisco market. It's been at other trade shows but that's the first time that a scratch mixer had come out with that generated that kind of a buzz. People kept lining up to try it. It got a really good response. There were actually other dealers looking at it. "
Adam Scollaro, Stanton

 

 

 

 


powered by

 

r

web hosting | how to advertise | submit an article  

  about DJzone


DJzone network:
DJzone.com | Partypros.com | DJchat.com | DJ-mall.com | DJgearbid.com | MDJU.com | DJTalk.com | DiscJockeydirectory.com | 411dj.com


   DJzone | letters to the editor | features | reviews | daily music news | classifieds | resources


Copyright © 2001 DJzone, Inc. All rights reserved.