Literally paying a flying visit to a US Navy buddy of mine in Anchorage, Alaska and something catches my eye in the local paper – an aviation trade show is kicking off here on May 2nd and 3rd but guess what – the organizers are experiencing what we’re all dealing with; lower attendance, slower ticket sales and reduced exhibitor activity.

Now aviation is not my line of business but it was interesting to see exactly the kind of promo activity they were hooking up with and a fairly honest assessment of what the problems were they were having.

It’s not every trade show that get’s the US Air Force exhibiting at with state of the art fighter jets (the F-22 Raptor) or huge C-5 Galaxy transports that can swallow my house and yard while still leaving space for the neighbors.  You have to admit it, planes are cool and who wouldn’t want to go to a glorified air show which in itself is nothing short of a marketing promotional exercise – big noise and big toys for big boys.

I was surprised that the top vendor at the show typically only grosses $100,000 in sales (aircraft tires) and frankly, that number is either ridiculously wrong or something seriously wrong is going on in Sarah Palin’s backyard.

The big issues the organizers are having centers around ticket sales – usually they are sold out by the end of the first or second day of the show tickets being made available but still, several weeks after the launch they are still having problems moving tickets.

The center piece for the show is the raffling of an aircraft – $220,000 of plane up for grabs for the price of $225 raffle ticket – with 3,000 tickets printed to cover the cost of the raffle, the organizers are worried they are not going to make the ticket sales they need to cover the cost of the aircraft itself.