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
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