[8/24/2010 SteppersUSA Daily News]
Really, Would You Travel If?
By Markie Bee
National Chicago Style Steppers Day
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A lot of people have thrown many ideas my way from the beginning when we started the National Chicago Style Steppers Day back in March and now that it has come to fruition even more ideas have come my way from every direction.
I fully intend to engage everyone who is interested in promoting and planning next year’s event (August 13, 2011) when we have a teleconference after the World’s Largest weekend.
I was wondering how many people would travel to a large unified event for example. It’s not like everyone who steps is willing (or financially able) to jump on a plane to fly to another city for a steppers event. From what I gather from what I hear, have seen, and read the high end is somewhere around 1500 (give or take a couple of hundred) people are willing to travel to step at a big event.
We’ve seen that number go up and down at some events but as I just said earlier, the number usually seems to either grow or shrink by about 200 each year. The real estate industry has a saying, "Location, location, location" and I have to think that plays heavily in some people's decision to travel to an event in another city. For example many Chicago steppers from Chicago don't really give the trip up to Milwaukee, St. Louis, Indianapolis, or Detroit a second thought. These cities are just minutes (Milwaukee) or a few hours away by car. They used to call these "one tank trips".
 

 

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Then there are the other event related expenses... hotels (even with discounted prices) aren't cheap and the cost of rental cars and meals on the road can cost quite a bit too.
Don't get me wrong I'm in no way discounting the idea of travel as an option for people to step but I'm wondering if by some "wave of a magical wand" tomorrow there were twice as many Chicago style steppers would that translate to twice as many people traveling to get their dance also?
If I had the means and the finances I know I would probably travel at least once a month if the event seemed interesting enough to me.
When you're in a big city like Chicago, New York or Los Angeles where virtually everything and anything is literally an hour or so away there needs to be a pretty compelling reason to leave town for any type of activity. Other dance genres manage to get tens of thousands to travel to their events (yes I understand Chicago style stepping is still in its comparative infancy) but the question still begs to be answered.
I guess it really comes down to a whole lot of factors to make a big event worthy of an investment in travel and the related expenses and I'm not sure what other things might also may need to be considered. If you have any thoughts please share!
At the same time what would a compelling draw for you to go to another city to step when you know you'd be able to step at home in your own city? What kind of agenda or features of a party package would make the draw of the event so great that you just have to jump on a plane, train or an automobile to be there?WLSC News Of The Day
A letter to the contestants is posted on the WLSContest.Com site (it's on the contestants page) by Pete Frazier. If you're in the contest, it's important information.
Also don't forget to answer the poll about the contest this week.  (poll below)

When asked if there will be a 2011 National Chicago Style Steppers Day Event, The short answer is yes it will be an annual event held on the weekend of the second Saturday in August. Overall, the event was a smashing success in that we managed to pull the whole thing off. Once we've had some time to digest and machinate what happened over the weekend we will have a teleconference (probably after the WLSC) to discuss what went right and what went wrong and to entertain ideas for next year.

The J.E.P. Productions Hotter than July steppers contest is now on sale and can be ordered online here. Or Right Here!

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