amiga-news.de - Events: BAS 2001 - Report form the organizers

25.Jun.2001
Marvin Droogsma (E-Mail) Events: BAS 2001 - Report form the organizers
The Benelux Amiga Show 2001 has ended..., we tasted a lot of welding while organization, but it was worth it cause more than 400 visitor mean a brilliant result to us. Only as number 400 visitors are not much, but in case of an Amiga only show in the Netherlands this is an encouraging number. Amiga still exists!

A short report from our point of view:

Very early in the morning, at 8:00 am, we started to set up the show. With three overloaded cars full of hardware and software, posters, beamers, audio equipment, and somewhere in between all that even the drivers, we took the first stuff to the show. Bjorn Lynne was already there and had put up at table on the first floor.

At about 10:00 am a quite normal dancing school was converted to an Amiga building....

The first visitors contacted already at 9:00 am (with well dressed hair and gem chewing). One or the other way it was announced that the show would start already at 10:00 am. We would like to apologize for this misinformation and we hope that waiting was less hard, cause of the good weather.

This was our first time to organize such a show; hopefully this was not too clear to see.... Anyway, we learned some things to do it better next time (?). Nevertheless most of what we organized succeeded very well, as we think.

10:00 am: Petro Tyschtschenko arrives, as usual in a good temper, also after little sleep (he has sat with Juergen Haage until 4:00 am and has had a few beers too much).

10:30 am: The participants of the LAN party are let in and guided to the first floor. Very much people are waiting outside, now. Might it be that we unnecessarily were in doubt about enough visitors?

11:00 am: The show begins! There are plenty, plenty, PLENTY OF PEOPLE! A heavy burden is taken from us....

I won't talk about everything in detail, now. That was already done by other people (for which we say thank you). Just a few things which attracted us in especially.....

In our opinion the presentation of by Eyetech and Escena were a bit too technical and might have been done more attractive, some how. The slides could have been done more interesting than it was actually done. However the presentation gave a good sight of what is being done and why. After the presentation people had the opportunity to consult Alan Redhouse and Martin Schueler for more information.

Fleecy Moss impressed us. His jokes and his enthusiasm are really great. A good exponent of the Amiga Spirit. Unfortunately he could attend the show for a short time, only.

Bjorn Lynne presented his music and sold his CD's on the first floor. According to what he told us, he sold more CD's than he expected. He was very satisfied and did a lot autographs. But the Dutch beers were a little to small to him...., the British are used to something different.....

Did anybody notice that there was a not announced ´special guest´? Bill Buck of VIScorp. He talked to many of the Amiga VIP's. Could that be of any meaning? Who knows..... (http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/amiga/ar/ar407/feature6.HTML)

Mr. Does of Vesalia and his wife were on the show, too.

Matay showed a first class product; who missed it ..., what a pity, what a pity.

There was another premiere, too (more about this later on); the first game (Asteroids look-a-like) for the AmigaDE by an unknown SDK user (I could not find the name).

Some of the VIP's whispered some nice news to the print magazine 'AmigaScene', which we will publish in the next issue (in cooperation with amiga-news.de). For example there are good news regarding Amiga OS4.

One small anecdote: On his train journey to Rotterdam Fleecy really was in dire need of a toilet, but nobody informed him that he was floundering waiting in front of a strictly and all-the-time closed toilet for staffers only, for minutes.... Poor Fleecy.

There were visitors from Norway, Germany, Poland, Belgium, France, England, and Spain (20 hours by car....!).

An editor of a Dutch TV station talked to Petro, Juergen, Alan, Fleecy, and many of the visitors about the Amiga and it's cult status. She was very impressed and will - like already announced - do a broadcast about Amiga only, after summer. She will talk to even more Amiga personalities. It is planned to take more shots in Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.S.A..

People from a Dutch radio station were also on the show and on the following Saturday a special broadcast about the show and anything to see there will be put to air.

Petro acted as a fairy of fortune at 4:00 pm and drew the winners of the lottery in which any visitor could take part. He twice drew visitors from Germany but which unfortunately already had left the show. Those missed among other things an Amiga poster with Bill McEwen's autograph on it, a number of Amiga CD's, a music CD by Bjorn Lynne, and a VIP diner.

Between 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm we closed the show. The show was followed by the VIP diner with 27 guests. These guests had the opportunity to talk to each other about the show and Amiga subjects, without ruffle or excitement in an easeful atmosphere. The VIP's were very excited about the multitude of visitors. This encourages them to go on developing.

About 11:00 pm it all was over. Petro and Juergen were picked with a long Mercedes and taken to the hotel, like super-stars. Then the rest of the people went home, too.

Still many pictures will follow by us - from the set-up to the after-party - and Juergen Haage promised to send us pictures from the secret VIP meeting at 11:00 am.

We would like to use this opportunity to heartily thank all of the visitors of the show. You really showed that the Amiga is alive and has good chances to return strong. We thank amiga-news.de for reporting; the way Petra Struck supported us really rules!

More information, pictures, and links to other reports can be found at amiga-news.de and of course on the BAS 2001 website.

A lot of greetings to the Amiga community
The organizers of the Benelux Amiga Show 2001
(ps)

[News message: 25. Jun. 2001, 13:14] [Comments: 0]
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