The Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show 2018 - NEC, Birmingham 9th-11th November

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Hi all,

We're pleased to announce that we have been given a stand at this years Lancaster Insurance NEC Classic Car Show!

Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, with Discovery
Taking place at Birmingham's NEC from Friday 9 - Sunday 11 November 2018. Come along & visit MR2 MK1 Club on stand 5-482 in Hall 5.

I'm helping Stuart Kynoch organise this event on the clubs behalf. (His forum username = stumr2sc)

Cars Wanted
We have space for 3 cars, and so if you'd like to show your car at one of the countries' most prestigious car shows, we'd like to hear about it! :)

You'll get a pair of free entrance tickets for the full 3 days of the event; Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You will need to be able to take your car down to the NEC by 5pm on the Thursday and leave it there until Sunday evening. Stuart does have a bit of space for someone to stay with him during the show period if you're not local to the NEC. If you cannot be with your car during those three days, that's also fine, but I'm sure most owners will want to talk to members of the public about their pride and joy.

If this sounds like something you'd like to do, then please message myself or Stuart through the forum. Alternatively, post up your interest on this thread.

Helpers Required
We do also have a few spare complimentary tickets available to people that would be willing to help out on the stand during their stay. If you could help man the stand for a few hours over the course of the day, you'd be free to explore for the rest of time.

Tickets
We also have been granted a special discount code, which means you will save £5.50 on an adult ticket, or £12 on a family ticket!

Important information below:

Club Offer T&Cs:

• The club will get a £1 rebate from the NEC Car Show for each ticket stub handed into one of the club members manning the stand during your visit
• The exclusive club discount codes given on the Club Ticket Offer Advert are for club members use only.
• The codes are valid for Saturday or Sunday Adult tickets and Saturday or Sunday Family tickets, only when booked in advance.
• Family ticket gives access for 2 x adults and up to 3 x children (aged 5-15).
• Club discounts will be applied to on-the-door prices: Club Adult £24.50 (£30 on-the-door) and Club Family £68 (£80 on-the-door).
• Ticket prices include a free show guide.
• All bookings are subject to a single transaction fee of £1.95.
• Advance tickets are only available until midnight on Thursday 8 November 2018.

If you'd like to take advantage of this offer, please message me directly and I'll provide you with the discount code.

Show Promotional Text
The Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, with Discovery, already the UK’s biggest indoor classic vehicle exhibition, is now even bigger for 2018! Adding an extra hall, the show is inviting even more clubs to display at the event to create the World’s biggest gathering of classic motoring clubs.

Held at Birmingham’s NEC from Friday 9 to Sunday 11 November, around 300 classic car and classic motorbike clubs will showcase vehicles owned by members, interpreting this year’s show theme of ‘Built to Last.’

For more general information, take a look at the link below:

https://www.necclassicmotorshow.com/

Any questions, just ask! :)

** Cars being exhibited **
Imran Khan
Malcolm Graham-Jones

Cheers,
Tom

Just 8 weeks to go to the event. It's a great one to get involved in! :)

Hi Tom, do you have any spaces left or have the 3 slots been taken up. Thanks

Hi Imran,

Stuart has pm'd you. :)

Thanks for offering your car; it's a great help.

Cheers,
Tom

Really wish I could go, but can't get the time off work and my MK1 is off the road now. Have been before and it's a great few days out, hope you can fill the stand.

Thanks Tom. I’ve replied to Stuart. And supplied my contact detail. Got the bug from going to tatton for this first time last month.

We've just posted up a competition on our Facebook page to win a pair of free tickets to this! :)

https://www.facebook.com/mr2mk1club/

Where's the competition for those members who have no use for or interezt in Farcebook?

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Originally Posted by jimi

Where's the competition for those members who have no use for or interezt in Farcebook?

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Hi Jimi,

Unfortunately, this is a promotion that we've been given by the NEC specifically for Facebook.

The best suggestion I've got is to get someone that you know on Facebook to enter on your behalf.

Hope that helps! :)

Cheers,
Tom

No it doesn't help, I don't use farcebook myself for various reasons, I certainly won't use it by proxy.
Your missing the point I was trying to make, in my opinion it's not fair on the members who put their hands in their pockets to support the club when any random Farcebook user can win free tickets !! Where's the incentive to take out or renew a membership in that ? :(

Hi Jimi,

Sorry you feel like that, but we can't change what the offer from the NEC was for this competition. They're obviously trying to promote their show on Facebook by giving away these tickets.

I thought by posting the Facebook link, I'd help raise awareness of it on here. What about the people that don't even have Internet access...

I'm not sure what you're expecting me to do in this situation. Should I have turned down their offer, and given up the chance of someone, anyone, getting a free pair of tickets!? If there was a bit more of a buzz around the event on the forum, then perhaps we'd have considered giving away a pair of tickets ourselves also, but that's not been the case.

The comment about taking out or renewing membership is a bit off the cuff as it's not as if the whole point of taking membership out is to wait for an unknown competition sometime in the future that has a prize of tickets to a car show.

Cheers,
Tom

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tommundy

Hi Jimi,

Sorry you feel like that, but we can't change what the offer from the NEC was for this competition. They're obviously trying to promote their show on Facebook by giving away these tickets.

I thought by posting the Facebook link, I'd help raise awareness of it on here. What about the people that don't even have Internet access...

I'm not sure what you're expecting me to do in this situation. Should I have turned down their offer, and given up the chance of someone, anyone, getting a free pair of tickets!? If there was a bit more of a buzz around the event on the forum, then perhaps we'd have considered giving away a pair of tickets ourselves also, but that's not been the case.

The comment about taking out or renewing membership is a bit off the cuff as it's not as if the whole point of taking membership out is to wait for an unknown competition sometime in the future that has a prize of tickets to a car show.

Cheers,
Tom

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If they don't have internet access they are unlikely to be members or to have Farcebook access ?

I don't really expect you to do anything and no it would have been silly to turn down the offer. The point I was trying to make is that (in my opinion) it's not providing any encouragement for new/existing members to join/renew and given the current situation with all online car clubs we need to provide all the encouragement we can if the clubs are to survive (I say we speaking as an Administrator for the OC) Just about every online car club, certainly the ones I'm a member of, are suffering the same problems, much reduced traffic, falling membership, etc etc Some of the forums are lucky if they get 1 post a day where they used to get dozens, Farcebook has played a large part in this unfortunately, it may in some ways be better but mostly not.
I know it's ("to wait for an unknown competition sometime in the future that has a prize of tickets to a car show") not the point of taking out a membership (it's certainly not mine with any of the clubs I support) but as I said above every bit encouragement to become/stay a member is useful, helps some people to feel they are getting something else in return for their support.
Nothing personal Tom, just my (badly put) opinions and certainly won't affect the my support for the club :cool:
Regards
Jimi

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jimi

If they don't have internet access they are unlikely to be members or to have Farcebook access ?

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You'd be surprised how many offline members we have, despite me telling them the benefits of the forum etc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jimi

I don't really expect you to do anything and no it would have been silly to turn down the offer. The point I was trying to make is that (in my opinion) it's not providing any encouragement for new/existing members to join/renew and given the current situation with all online car clubs we need to provide all the encouragement we can if the clubs are to survive (I say we speaking as an Administrator for the OC) Just about every online car club, certainly the ones I'm a member of, are suffering the same problems, much reduced traffic, falling membership, etc etc Some of the forums are lucky if they get 1 post a day where they used to get dozens, Farcebook has played a large part in this unfortunately, it may in some ways be better but mostly not.
I know it's ("to wait for an unknown competition sometime in the future that has a prize of tickets to a car show") not the point of taking out a membership (it's certainly not mine with any of the clubs I support) but as I said above every bit encouragement to become/stay a member is useful, helps some people to feel they are getting something else in return for their support.
Nothing personal Tom, just my (badly put) opinions and certainly won't affect the my support for the club :cool:
Regards
Jimi

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I fully agree, and I don't see why people have moved to Facebook for things like car forums. Facebook doesn't give you that sectioned structure, where you can search and refer back to articles that were written previously. Yes, you can search on the page wall, but it's just not the same as navigating a forum. From what I can see of the public facing forums, we're doing perhaps better than most, but it does seem to go in waves of activity. Still really glad I put in the effort to tackle the photobucket shutdown, which decimated many online forums.

I also agree that all clubs have to try and preserve their membership, as what is a club without them. :)

I'll see if I can come up with any ideas to keep the forum nice and active throughout the winter months.

Thanks again Jimi, I knew it wasn't anything personal. :+: :)

Cheers,
Tom

Keep up the good work Tom.

Maybe finally resurrecting the club shop might generate some activity? Ive yet to see it during my membership :-)

Hi tom,
Can you share the discount code for the tickets please? Have sent a message requesting.
Thanks
Paul

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PYY

Hi tom,
Can you share the discount code for the tickets please? Have sent a message requesting.
Thanks
Paul

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Hi Paul, will do tonight. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vistalite

Keep up the good work Tom.

Maybe finally resurrecting the club shop might generate some activity? Ive yet to see it during my membership :-)

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Cheers Jonathan. :+:

Still looking for a merchandise officer for the shop unfortunately. :?:

If there's anything specific that you're after, just drop me a message. :)

Everyone that had requested the booking code should have just received a PM. :)

The Facebook competition was won by Vistalite. Well done Jonathan! :D

Thank you Tom. I’m looking forward to seeing the Club stand and speaking to the guys, and with a bit of luck catch you there too.

Congratulations Jonathan. My car will be there. But I won’t be there on Friday. Only Saturday and some of Sunday. See you there

Hi Imran, I’ll be there on Saturday too, and looking forward to seeing you again and your fab rebuild.

I'll be down there on the Sunday. :)

Looking forward to catching up with anyone that's attending.

Have a great day on Saturday Jonathan!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tommundy

I'll be down there on the Sunday. :)

Looking forward to catching up with anyone that's attending.

Have a great day on Saturday Jonathan!

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Thank you Tom, you too. I haven’t been before and looking forward to it.

A few pics of the club stand from the show today, plus one from the MR2 Drivers Club stand next door. What a great show, and very busy. Shame I didn't see Imran for a natter about his rebuild. I've a panorama shot as well but I can’t seem to upload due to a poor internet connection.

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After recently acquiring a Helios blue MK1, it was great to see some finished examples on this stand (and MR2DC). I was hoping to catch Imran to chat about the build but missed him on the Saturday.
It was great to meet Stuart, and hopefully some more of you when mine is on the road next summer.
Attachment 4784
I've tried to alter the colour of this image as it came out grey but it looked stunningly blue on the stand.

Just wanted to say what a great job Stuart did in running the club standout the NEC , although my car was there I was running the TEC stand round the corner , just need some more cars and member support for next year . Malcolm.

Well, I made it down on Sunday to give Stuart some time to explore the show and have a sit down, which he'd well deserved after setting up and manning the stand for the previous 2 days. A big thank you to him; our attendance at the NEC couldn't happen without him.

A big thank you also to Malcolm and Imran for showing their cars, and helping out on the stand when they could.

It'll be good to try and get a few more members involved next year. It only takes a couple of people per day to be on the stand, so that we can rotate around and go exploring the show to share the work load. It's easy work as well, as you're talking about MR2s, and maybe even your car if you show it! :)

Here are my photos:

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/uploads/20...111_105351.jpg

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/uploads/20...111_105356.jpg

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/uploads/20...111_105403.jpg

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/uploads/20...111_105410.jpg

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/uploads/20...111_112007.jpg

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http://www.mr2mk1club.com/uploads/20...111_180400.jpg

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/uploads/20...111_180408.jpg

We managed to get 2 new members signed up at the show, with several other membership forms and club business cards handed out.

Thank you also to the members that purchased tickets and returned the stubs to the club stand, as we'll get a little bit (£1!) back for each of these from the NEC.

We're also looking at investing in some exhibition display stands, as this would mean that we don't need to hire a van for the show to carry the current display boards. This will both save cost on the van, but will mean that we can get straight off from the show in our cars, rather than having to wait for the van to be let into the show. Stuart and I didn't get home until 9pm because of this. We could also use exhibition stands at other shows around the country if any LAO's or event organisers wanted to.

Thanks again.

Cheers,
Tom

Well done to all involved!

A mate from work went to the show and said it was great, and I know a few people from the Retro Rides forum had cars on display there.
I might have to try and visit next year although I don't think you'd want my car on the stand! Wish it was closer to where I lived.

James