Student Programmers – be good stewards of the budgets entrusted to you!

Gus and I just got back from the NACA Conference in Chattanooga. Later this week we head to Oklahoma City for NACA Central and to Houston for APCA South Central. These are places where college buyers go to maximize their budgets by coop buying. There are also showcases, educational sessions and a lot of networking that go on.

One of the ways that conferences like this can “PAY FOR THEMSELVES” is by taking advantage of coop buying. For the uninitiated, coop buying is teaming up with other schools in your area so an act can travel to one area, work there for 3-7 days (or longer) and not spend each and every day on an airplane flying across the country. It reduces costs and stress for the act and in return, they reduce their show fees as an enticement to make this happen. The benefit for the school, is that the school buyer gets to save on the act and gets to pay shared travel instead of paying for 100% of the acts travel on their own. It’s a win-win.

But only if you participate.

Like many great ideas, they only work if you take advantage of them. In the past 20 years that we’ve been members of NACA we’ve seen coop buying take a nose-dive (it’s less so in APCA as they really stress the coop buying). Many schools are not allowed to make decisions on site. Others have only specific dates that they are programming for, so they don’t have the flexibility to maximize their budgets.

My suggestion to schools… remove the tethers. Send your delegates to these events ready to book. Many companies offer an “onsite” discount. We do on our Game Shows To Go! We also offer a HUGE discount for those who block book. You can save a minimum of $650 if you block book one of our Gold Level Production Game Shows. $650 is a BIG discount. Plus if you book on site you save another $100! Yet very few schools take advantage of these discounts.

As a student programming board, you have a responsibility to be good stewards of the money that’s entrusted to you. Make good programming decisions, bring acts your students will like, AND work to take advantage of the discounts offered to you. We here at Game Shows To Go and To Go Events will do our best to keep our prices competitive and help you deliver maximum value to your students.

Our shows and novelties are always competitively priced and we do our very best to be great representatives of YOU on your campus. If there is any way we can help you be good stewards – please don’t hesitate to drop us a line or give us a call.
CJ Johnson – Oct 9, 2017