Watches and Wonders and Geneve

[YCymro]

Too late for me to book this year (recently checked hotel prices and they’re expensive, though flights aren’t too bad at ~£250) but to those with experience of attending, is it worth going, and do many other launch events happen in the city?

[YCymro]

Seems to be a very popular event this year and there are queues at the entrance even during the trade days. Can’t imagine how busy it will be on the weekend once public access starts

https://www.watchpro.com/surge-in-vi...s-and-wonders/

[Senninha]

I'd had a look and had an initial interest in, but eventually the combination of flights + hotel + ticket price + Swiss eating prices just to see products that they want to sell... It would total a few hundred quid, so I decided to save my money and put it toward a watch or something.

Charging nearly 70 quid a ticket for the public seems bonkers to me. The stands were all there anyway - why not invite the public along free (or at much lower cost) and get as many potential buyers looking at your advertising as possible?

[TaketheCannoli]

Because that would mean putting the buying public first and that’s not something the watch industry cares about.

I'd had a look and had an initial interest in, but eventually the combination of flights + hotel + ticket price + Swiss eating prices just to see products that they want to sell... It would total a few hundred quid, so I decided to save my money and put it toward a watch or something.

Charging nearly 70 quid a ticket for the public seems bonkers to me. The stands were all there anyway - why not invite the public along free (or at much lower cost) and get as many potential buyers looking at your advertising as possible?

[theancientmariner]

Charging nearly 70 quid a ticket for the public seems bonkers to me. The stands were all there anyway - why not invite the public along free (or at much lower cost) and get as many potential buyers looking at your advertising as possible?

My guess, because they don't want to be swamped with window shoppers. The whole point of shows is to launch products. If you have a free of charge or low entry cost show, it will end up very cramped, security will be a nightmare and no one will have the space to take photos or even look at products. Add in an absurd entry ticket and only those committed enough will go to the show and there'll be plenty of space for everyone.

I've been to shows in a completely different industry and it's the same principle and works well. It very much depends on the target audience. Some shows don't have enough people attending to concern themselves about overcrowding but others can end up being a bottleneck.