CHA Abandons Winter 2011 Supershow Plans
The Craft & Hobby Association has abandoned plans to bring a consumer show to California for a second straight winter.
Tentative plans to bring a second Craft Supershow to California alongside the CHA Winter trade show in January 2011 were described to CHA members at the CHA 2010 Summer show in Rosemont. The plans called for the Craft Supershow to be held in Anaheim from January 21st-23rd, followed by the trade show in Los Angeles from January 29th-February 1st.
The holding of the two shows on consecutive weekends instead of on consecutive days as was previously done was met by most potential participants less than enthusiastically. The planned calendar resulted in several days of downtime between the shows, requiring participants to either foot the travel bill for "vacation" days whether they wanted them or not, or to travel back and forth to California twice with about 48 hours at home in between trips. Remaining in the area for the entire time of both shows, including set-up, would require two weeks of travel time away from home - and two weeks of travel expense. The use of two different venues was also less than popular since it would have required everyone to pack up and move locations in the middle of their trips if they were doing both shows, a huge logistical challenge and flat-out hassle.
Given the logistical challenges and poor reception, CHA is apparently opting to shelve the plans to hold the Anaheim Supershow in 2011.
Supershow fans can rest easy, however: the Supershows are not dead. CHA sources tell Scrapbook Update that the Supershow concept itself is not being retired, just the January plans for California, and that plans are being examined for possible future Supershows.
