I think Valentine’s day is a crap holiday but I still give it my attention.  My wife knows how I feel about the day, too.  But she likes the holiday.  It’s important to her.  That kinda’ makes it important to me, too.  It’s a lot easier for me to respect the holiday than it is to defy it and deal with the fallout at home.  Seriously.  You’ve got to pick your battles and decide when it’s time to fall on your sword.  Valentine’s day isn’t one of those times for me.

So imagine my surprise when I see that the Havre De Grace reptile show is scheduled on Valentine’s Day.  It’s either brain damage or the show promoter has been devoid of companionship for so long that he doesn’t remember that it’s a day of significance.  Scheduling a reptile trade show on Valentine’s Day is silly.  The same can be said for any other holiday worthy of note.  My best guess is that not only will vendors not show up (myself included) but customers will tend to stay away, too.  Should be a great show…

We had the same thing a few months ago when the Long Island reptile show was scheduled the day after Halloween.  I can almost accept the error of thought on that one.  It’s not Halloween, it’s just the day after.  That makes it OK, right?  I guess the show promoter failed to realize that Halloween is usually from 6PM-8PM at night and that’s the time that most of the vendors are traveling to the show.  I’m guessing somewhere around zero show vendors actually live on Long Island so pretty much all of us with families had to either bail on the kids or drive to the show.  Me?  I held my daughters hand as we walked door-to-door … in Virginia.  I think the show promoter got the message when most of the vendors were no-show’s.  The customers who came to the show were probably a little pissed, too.

Now, if you’re into reptiles AND your significant other is too then a reptile show could be a cool Valentine’s Day date.  I recently met a couple at the Hamburg, PA show that was on their honeymoon (that’s “Dream Date Barbie” in my book).  But I suspect that many of you are like me …my wife won’t think that spending the day at a trade show is a cool way to spend a “romantic” holiday.

Wise up show promoters.  Wise up.

Colin