Today’s Globe and Mail has an article on the front page of the sports section entitled, “The Rules of Trotz” by Eric Duhatschek and it talks about how Nashville Predators coach BarryvTrotz has built his team into a winner by using sound business techniques and principles. The article lists five basic rules that can apply equally to any business including ours:

1. Help the players get better because it is good for the team;
2. Give the players ownership and listen to their input;
3. When something is broken fix it;
4. Always do the right thing; and,
5. See Rule No. 1.

Not surprisingly these same rules can apply to, say, a fly fishing trade show…:

1. Help the (Forum) get better because it is good for the (fly fishing community);
2. Give the (attendees) ownership and listen to their input;
3. When something is broken fix it;
4. Always do the right thing; and,
5. See Rule No. 1.

Just a thought…

On a business note, we are continuing to set up our store in Fergus this weekend so if you are in the neighbourhood please drop in and say hello! The phone number at our new fly shop is 519-787-3474.

I have been watching local chat boards for comments about the Canadian Fly Fishing Forum and one response in particular to a negative comment about the location caught my eye. The initial thread touched on why the event had been held at the Hamilton Convention Centre and questioned the reasons why it had moved that far west. I can tell you the reasons…

A few years ago I was so disappointed with the show as an exhibitor that I sought out the President of the Izaak Walton Club after the event to impress upon him the importance of changing the venue so the show could grow. I was told in no uncertain terms that because the show was profitable for the club the organizing committee at the time was not interested in making any changes. After explaining to him that the majority of the exhibitors felt the show was on the verge of collapse and were not interested in returning unless improvements were made – starting with a better venue – he explained the rational behind the Club’s preference to stand pat was simply because there was no other venue in which to move at an affordable price. His final comment (I am fairly certain out of exasperation) was something along the lines of, “Go ahead and find a venue if you think you can but we don’t think there is one out there.” So I started asking people on the organizing committee and, more importantly, other exhibitors what criteria would make for a better show and I was told the following:

1. Accessibility for the majority of attendees
2. Venue size (both floor plate and ceiling height)
3. Availability of seminar rooms
4. Immediate hotel accommodation
5. Dinner venue at the facility
6. Parking
7. Affordability

There were other less important criteria given such as ease of set up for exhibitors but I focused on the above critical items and decided that if no one else was going to find a better venue I would do it myself. So over the proceeding year and a half during my normal course of business whenever I had a few moments I visited every hotel and conference facility between Pearson Airport and Kitchener that I thought might offer a better solution. It is worth noting that as I visited potential venues I shared my findings with other exhibitors to get their feedback because I wanted to make sure I would not be perceived to be steering the decision in any way. As an aside I can now say without reservation that if you do a search on Googlemaps for “conference facilities” you will come up with a surprisingly long list of facilities which have no business being included on the the list such as the cesspool of a hotel located near the racetrack in Campbellville. What goes on in the minds of the owners of these facilities is puzzling to say the least but such is the wonder of online search tags!

If you overlay the 7 criteria listed above on the search results from Google you come with a manageable list and if you visit every facility as I did you will come to the same conclusion: the best venue is the Hamilton Convention Centre and it is so for a number of reasons – not the least of which is price. Think what you will but this venue is more central to the vast majority of fly anglers than any other. The venue also has the ceiling height necessary for an indoor casting lane (that for the record is VERY difficult to find). It is one of the few venues with seminar rooms contiguous to the exhibitor hall and one of fewer still with a hotel nearby (in this case it is attached to the convention centre). On top of the above the Hamilton Convention Centre has plentiful inexpensive parking and FREE parking options within an easy walk of the door for those who prefer to not pay the $8 it cost for the day in the Convention Centre’s parking facility. Perhaps most importantly, the Hamilton Convention Centre is incredibly affordable and the staff are very accommodating.

The Forum venue did not change because of my efforts. It changed because of the efforts of Sheldon Seale and the rest of the Izaak Walton Club who voted for change and I thank them for stepping outside of their comfort zone this year. The new venue put the Forum back on the right path and it deserves our support. We now have to focus on giving those who complain about the distance they have to travel a good reason to attend in future. Some in the fly fishing community are professional complainers who like to stir the pot and I respectfully suggest that if they are not willing to help implement the change they are so vocal about wanting to see it is time for them to stop criticizing those who are volunteering their time and effort to help.

We need your help to make the 2013 Forum a success so please contact the club and offer to volunteer for a committee. It is fun to get involved and a great way to meet the members of the local fly fishing community. Anyone can complain – that is the easy thing to do – but it is time to put up or shut up…

“The person that loses their conscience has nothing left worth keeping.”
- Izaak Walton

I received a call yesterday from an acquaintance in the fly fishing community suggesting that he had at least 5 members of the Izaak Walton Fly Fishing Club express their disappointment to him over comments I posted the other day about the Canadian Fly Fishing Forum and he asked what possessed me to write them. What I wrote may have annoyed a few members of the Club (of which, by the way, I am a member) and I would like to say the following in response to those who may have taken offense. What I wrote was prompted by years of attending the Forum and losing money every year. Let me put a number on the money we have lost attending this event over the last 15 years: it is approximately $19,000. If you think about that number for a moment I trust you will agree it is an expense I rationalized for 14 more years than I should have.

My comments the other day reflected the frustration of being expected to return year after year without not only being asked for any feedback on how to improve the show but knowing many of the efforts to effect the change that would help make those improvements happen were being consciously ignored and my difficulty is that I have a business to run. I trust you can see how I and other exhibitors might be more than a bit frustrated by our experience.

The person who called me yesterday suggested that my message would have been better received had I sent a private letter or spoken to people ‘off the record’ to ensure no one took offence. Bullocks. I have spoken ‘off the record’ for 15 years and I am at the point of being equally offended by what I can only characterize as the indifference from previous organizing committees that has benefited the Club at the expense of exhibitors like me. The Canadian Fly Fishing Forum has to be a win-win-win: first for the attendees, secondly for the exhibitors and lastly for the members of the Izaak Walton Club. And it should be in that order. If the focus is on what will attract more attendees to the show the exhibitors will do better and so will the Club.

This event has for years not offered the exhibitors nor the public any substantive reason to return and not only can my business not afford this situation to continue neither can the Forum itself. This is a Waterloo moment for many exhibitors and the show but also, and more importantly, for the public. The Forum has to change for the better and moving to the Hamilton Convention Centre was a step in the right direction. I congratulate the Club for implementing this positive change and thank them for doing so.

So. Am I too blunt? Unfortunately, too often. Could I have said this more politely? Certainly. If I had the opportunity would I retract what I said? I doubt it. Would you say the same thing if you had invested almost $20,000 over the years to support the Forum with no measurable return? I think so. I and many others have offered to help build the Canadian Fly Fishing Forum back into one of the pre-eminent fly fishing shows in North America.

My offer stands.

I hope any detractors will politely step aside and let the planning for the 2013 show begin in earnest.

This past weekend we attended the Canadian Fly Fishing Forum and for the first time in many years we walked away from the event saying we were glad we went. This year’s Chairman, Sheldon Seal, and his team of volunteers are to be congratulated for organizing what in future will be recognized as one of the pivotal moments in the show’s history.

The Canadian Fly Fishing Forum is an event organized by volunteers from the Izaak Walton Fly Fishing Club based in Mississauga, Ontario. Let’s call a spade a spade. In my personal opinion, for too many years the focus of the Forum has been myopically focused on the Izaak Walton Club instead of the greater fly fishing community and quite frankly the show has been in a downward spiral for 15 years. Attendance has dwindled to an embarrassing level for a number of reasons: the show seminars did not change from one year to the next, the roster of fly tiers constantly decreased and, to no one’s surprise, the number of booths declined along with overall attendance. As this trend developed the Club chose to ignore the issue instead of address the situation and the show declined year after year after year. Ultimately the organizing committee settled on the Burlington Holiday Inn as a venue first because of the price and secondly because of the the fact that the small space made it look like there were more people attending. This was a fool’s game that benefited no one because it was a path of least resistance that tried to hide the main problem with the show which was simply this: there has not been a good reason to go. The Forum was based on a broken model and no one quite knew why it was broken. Unfortunately, the leadership was not in place to change it.

What I saw in the Hamilton Convention Centre this past weekend is a new path for the Forum that we should all support.

The Canadian Fly Fishing Forum used to be one of the pre-eminent fly fishing trade shows in North America and it initially thrived in no small part because there were no fly shops in Ontario when the show began and, more importantly, nor was there an internet. Accordingly, members of the fly fishing community made a point of coming to the Canadian Fly Fishing Forum to renew acquaintances and buy their fly tying materials and gear for the coming year. The show thrived when there was no competition but soon began to wither when competition appeared on the horizon in the form of fly shops and home computers. The Forum may have been the place where fly fishers came to get their gear in the 1970s through the 90s but that is no longer the case and it hasn’t been for 15 years (oddly, about the same length of time the internet has been around – go figure…). This past year Sheldon Seale took on the unenviable task of championing change within the Izaak Walton Fly Fishing Club by taking on the chairmanship of the Forum and I believe he accomplished his main goal: this year’s event stemmed the bleeding and has put the Forum back on what I believe is the right track.

So where do we go from here? I believe the main reason for attending the Canadian Fly Fishing Forum should be education. If you attend you will learn something regardless of skill level or experience. So I suggest the following:

1. Invite more fly tiers (!) to the show – have dozens of tiers teaching new, innovative techniques
2. Hold casting seminars every half hour (have a lane for teaching & another for the public to test rods)
3. Invite guides from Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, etc
4. Invite manufacturers to give seminars on their products for the coming year
5. Have a casting competition to involve the pubic
6. Invite more lodges and destinations and ask them to donate trips ‘at cost’ for the fund raising dinner
7. Invite other fly fishing clubs to participate and promote their clubs
8. Reserve the 2nd floor of the Convention Centre exclusively for seminars (no other events)
9. Host a Fly Fishing Film Festival on Saturday night to attract younger anglers
10. Invite notable anglers like April Vokey whose presence will draw more attendees
11. Invite B&B’s, pubs and restaurants that are on or near fly fishing destinations
12. Invite Conservation Authorities in Ontario
13. Allow artists to split the cost on a booth with others to make it affordable so they too can attend
14. Have a fly tying competition where members of the public can particiate
15. Invite authors who can do book signings
16. Sell 2013 Forum t-shirts to generate profit
17. Have the cost of the seminars included in the price
18. Have draws for trips with guides – but pay the guide a ‘wholesale’ price to cover his cost
19. Stop what I heard was called a ‘dutch’ auction where winning bidders then had to increase what should have been a winning bid on silent auction items. The current system may make more money for the club but it leaves people with a sour taste in their mouths…
20. If possible, change the date of the show to January before people (attendees and exhibitors) have spent their money attending other shows.

WILSON’S was the first group to purchase a booth at this year’s show. We actually purchased 3 booths which is something we have never done because we believe that the Forum is now in the right place and it should be supported. But just because we stepped up does mean that the Forum will automatically change course. This year’s event changed the direction of the Forum but it is now time to build the show back up to what it once was – one of the pre-eminent fly fishing shows in North America.

The volunteers from the Izaak Walton Fly Fishing Club cannot do this on their own. It is time for everyone to help – and I am willing to take the heat for saying so.

Please consider attending the Canadian Fly Fishing Forum this weekend at the Hamilton Convention Centre. Doors are open from 8am until 5pm both days and not only is there a great series of seminars there is also a wet casting lane to test rods! We have a booth at the entrance to the lanes manned by Rob Heal and Tyler Dunsmore who are promoting our new guiding program and talking up our new Fergus fly shop that opens shortly so please come by to say hello.

We look forward to seeing you there! For more information go to www.CanadianFlyFishingForum.com