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"Chicago Pipe Show 07 " The 12 th Chicagoland International Pipe & Tobacciana Show was held in St. Charles, Illinois, USA, on May 5 and 6. It was a great success! The actual Show activities began on Wednesday, May 2 nd , with the Pipe Makers Forum and ended on Monday, May 7 th , with the Post Show activities. We had 304 exhibitor tables sold out when the Show opened on Saturday and still had an exhibitor waiting list. Other pertinent information concerning the Show was that we had over 100 pipe carvers from around the globe and had representatives from 62 countries, either as exhibitors or walk-ins (general public). Our Show crowd for the weekend was our highest ever and most were buying pipes (new, estate and antique), tobacco and tobacciana accessories. There was intensity to this Show that I had never seen. Most of the people were looking for specific pipe shapes and of course wanting to meet the carvers that they were buying from. Several people came up to me and asked where else can they have a great pipe show, buy what they are looking for and to top that, meet the carvers who created the pipes. Many were suffering from “Sensory Pipe Over Load.” We had over 50,000 pipes on display. Keep in mind that the exhibit hall, one room, was over 38, 500 square feet. With 304 exhibitor tables, if one spent one minute at each table, it would take 5 hours and 4 minutes to view the tables. We had nine aisles of pipe tables. Two men walked the show distance one time each to measure the distance. One advised that it was over 5 blocks of pipes, by going from one aisle to the other. The second gentleman advised that he walked about 7 blocks but that he also looked at the Educational displays, at the entrance to the hall and the Silent Auction area as part of his actual distance. Several people were observed smiling and carrying bags of tobacco and pipes, recently purchased, back to their guest rooms and coming back quickly and starting all over again. Keep in mind that this is a family Show and many women were in attendance with their husbands. Several women were buying pipes for their husband's birthdays, anniversaries or just as mementos of the Show. Our Show consists of many days of tobacciana related activities, starting with the Wednesday and Thursday, two day “hands on” Pipe Makers Seminar and also on Thursday, other seminars. We had a 7-hour seminar on “Slow Smoking Techniques,” given by Jacek Schmidt, from Poland, followed by two Pipe Focus Groups, one for Dunhill (guest speaker Bill Ashton Taylor) and the other for Charatan Pipes (guest speaker Fred Hanna). We also had the smokingpipes.com reception to meet its pipe carvers from the USA, Canada, Europe, Japan, etc. With all of this going on, we also opened our CPCC Hospitality Suite, for all to join us in free cold drinks, snacks, etc. The above was only the Wednesday and Thursday schedule. Coming up on Friday were the Golf Tournament with a Harley Davidson motorcycle as a prize for a hole in one, followed by the Pre-Show, 9AM to 5PM (which drew over 1,000 buyers), followed by our free limousines taking men and women to a high scale discount mall. Those that attended this activity were given champagne during their rides and a 20% discount coupon to use on purchases. There were also afternoon and evening seminars on “Antique Cigar Cutters,” by David Stein, “The State of the Estate Pipe Market,” by Rob Cooper and “Antique Regimental Pipes and Tobacco Boxes Depicting the Pre and Post Unified German wars,” by Dr. Peckus. We also had the International Pipe Makers Forum, where, this year, some of the new US full time Pipe Carvers were introduced and discussed their pipe making creations. Many attendees had question for these men. Then there was the Women's Seminar on making picture frames using tobacciana items for design, given by Linda Cobine. We also had the free Welcome Dinner, for all attending our Show. We had space for 700 plus and most of the tables were filled of dinner guests enjoying themselves and accepting free tobacco samples from Altadis. We also had over 100 guest rooms opened during this time period, for viewing, buying, selling and trading. Most of our visitors were still up past midnight visiting with old friends and making new ones. With all of the above having great visitor participation, the big anticipation was the Saturday Show. We had advised all to pace themselves for the Show had not even started. We could see that many were already tired, with hurting feet and empty wallets. Nothing could relieve the pain in their feet, for fear of missing something else but there was a cure for the empty wallet, called the ATM Machines. These machines were being filled every few hours and still one ran out of money. The Saturday Show came up fast. Most exhibitors were in line at 6:30AM, waiting for the doors to open at 7AM. Some of the exhibitors had not slept the night before and you could see that in their eyes. A few were still sitting at the bar area, where I last saw them at 3AM drinking and discussing pipes, still oblivious to the Show doors opening up and the crowds moving towards the Show Hall. The Show doors were to open at 10AM but due to the large crowd waiting to get in, the St. Charles, Police advised us to open the doors a few minutes early. We opened at 9:55AM and the crowds poured into the Show Hall. The crowds were surprised, almost immediately, upon seeing four CPCC educational glass display cases, upon entry. Four individuals were selected by our Show Committee to present some of their greatest treasures in these displays. The pipes on display were Danish Pipes by Rex Poggenpohl, Charatan Pipes by Paul Bender, Dunhill Pipes by Louise Jones (Hermit Tobaccos) and Dunhill Pipes by Dave Melnick. Many attendees where photographing these unbelievable displays. During our Saturday Show we have a Silent Auction to help pay for the cost of our Show. The exhibitors and walk-ins are very generous and supply us with great pipes and other tobacciana items for this auction. |
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After the Show closed at 5PM, we had more seminars. The first by Tom Looker on “Japanese Pipe Makers,” then we had our Pipe & Cigar Dinner, with great “goodies bags,” followed by two more seminars, one on the “History of Scandinavian Moderne Pipes,” by Rex Poggenpohl and one by Ben Rapaport on “Porcelain Pipes Uber Allis.” We again opened our Hospitality suite for our visitors. Next was our free Ice Cream and Coffee Social, from 10PM to Midnight. Again many guest rooms, throughout the resort, were opened for buying, selling, etc. We now noticed that many of our guests were starting to walk like zombies, with little sleep and trouble focusing their eyes. There was still Sunday and the Post Show on Monday. At 1AM Sunday morning, there were still many people awake and discussing pipes and their personal great buys or trades. Sunday, the Show doors open at 9AM. Shortly thereafter we recognized the CPCC Show Award winners. We gave out our CPCC prestigious Doctor of Pipes Awards and they went to Tom McCranie and Dr. Federico Baylaender, for their work and efforts in helping the hobby grow. Next we gave out four Show awards: The Best Antique Display Award went to Dave Stein, for his great collection of antique cigar cutters, The Best Antique Pipe Collection went to John Godin, for his wonderful collection of antique meerschaum Pipes, the next awards, for Best Briar Display and for the Best Briar Collection both went to Tad Gage, for his wonderful Barling Collection. This was the first time that anyone has won both of these awards in one Show. There were also three very special merit awards given out to Lee Von Erck (US Pipe Maker), Chuck Stanion (Pipes & Tobaccos Magazine) to Diana Silvius (Up Down Tobacco Show, Chicago, Illinois), for their efforts in helping make our Show a success over the last 12 years. At 1PM the United Pipes Clubs of America (UPCA) Slow Pipe Smoking Contest started. With the lighting of the matches, a crowd surrounded the area. The contest was run by Vernon Vig and Dave Bull. The winner was International Champion, Damian Mucha, Poland, with 1 hour, 12 minutes and 53 seconds, the US National Champion was Tom Pfaeffle, with 1 hour, 2 minutes and 43 seconds and the US Women's Champion was Cheryl Self with 50 minutes and 23 seconds. We wish to thank all of the participants for a wonderful job, well done. The Show ended at 5PM but no body wanted to leave. I had to be the last out of the room and sign the liability policy to make sure that all were gone. I signed it at 6:35PM and the Show was over for another year but still there were parties and more parties coming up tonight, rooms opened for viewing and the Post Show on Monday morning. There was a very good turn out for the Monday Post Show, run by our Show Officer, Pat Dennis and many people sold pipes and tobacciana products. This was also the area that people gathered to say good-bye for another year, while waiting for their limos to arrive. For 2008, we face statewide restrictions on smoking in restaurants and other public places, which have been approved by the Illinois legislature. The Illinois Governor is expected to sign it and the law will take effect on January 1, 2008. At this time no one knows what to expect. All are waiting for the definitions, exceptions, and etc. before we can predict the changes we will have to make. We believe that we will be able to continue to have our Show as a smoking show in the Mega Center. However, there may be less guest smoking rooms and other smoking areas in the resort may have to be relocated. We are all prepared to work through any changes to help our Show to grow. If necessary we will come up with alternative smoking areas to make our visitors feel welcome. When we find out the exact ruling, we will advise all. Pheasant Run Resort has advised us to proceed as normally with 2008 pre-show registration for exhibitor tables and guest room reservations. Our Show staff and the Pheasant Run Resort management truly believe that we can work within the proposed bill and still have our Show. We made this known to all at our Show. As a sign of support, at the end of our Show on Sunday, we had 204 exhibitor tables reserved for 2008, as compared with 157 reserved for our 2007 Show. We also had 659 guest rooms already reserved as compared with 539 for our 2007 Show. Now back to our 2007 Chicago Show report. This was definitely a buying Show. We could see the intensity on the faces of the pipe and tobacciana buyers. Several pipe makers came up to me on both Saturday and Sunday to advise that they were sold out of merchandise and their tables were empty. I told them to place a sign, on their empty exhibitor tables, stating that they were “sold out” and to thank the crowd for its support. Several pipe makers were shocked at how quickly they sold out. A couple of pipe makers that I can name, such Lee Von Erck of the USA and Alberto Bonfiglioli of Italy, sold out quickly. One pipe maker from England, Ian Walker, told us that he came to our Show with 80 pipes to sell and that by Sunday morning he was concerned for he only had 13 pipes remaining for the rest of the Sunday Show. Not only did pipe makers do well. A couple of tobacco blenders told us that they had a fantastic Show. One company came with 500 tins of a new blend and was sold out by Sunday afternoon. This company also picked up many retail orders for its new blend. The other company had great sales and picked up a couple of major buying contracts from other countries. The antique pipe buying and selling also went very well, with some rare museum pieces being purchased and others traded. We had several well-known, World class, antique collectors in attendance. It was a great Show. I wish to thank our Show staff, Paul Bender, Craig Cobine, Pat Dennis, Mike Gaffney, Aziz Panjwani, Rex Poggenpohl, Mike Reschke and Chuck Rio. We also wish to thank the four wonderful women who co-hosted this event, Sue Bender, Linda Cobine, Nancy Reschke and my wife, Annette Burla. Frank P. Burla |
