Northeast HamXposition 2019 General Chair Mike Raisbeck, K1TWF, wrote to convention vendors and exhibitors on January 23, 2020:
To all our vendors, past, present, and (we hope) future:
Northeast HamXposition at Boxboro, the New England ARRL Division Convention, is now four months behind us. The 2019 show went well. The gate remained steady. Attendance at the banquets, forums, and flea market was solid, and there were many smiling faces. We have a formula that works well.
So now it’s time for us to raise the bar. Some big changes are coming to the Northeast HamXposition.
The biggest is a change of date and venue. Going forward, the Northeast HamXposition will be held at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel & Trade Center, 181 Boston Post Rd., Marlborough, MA, on the 4th full weekend of July. This year, the dates are July 24, 25, and 26. Reserve that weekend – we have it nailed down for the next 5 years at least.
Why change? There are several reasons:
- The Royal Plaza has considerably more parking, and plenty of flea market space. It’s a nice, clean, large, and up-to-date venue
- The Boxboro site was having trouble making commitments to us for the adjoining parking lot. It was only a matter of time before we found ourselves, on short notice, without sufficient parking.
- The Royal Plaza has an adjacent Trade Center complex. While we won’t need to use it this year, we want to have enough expansion space that we can hold a National Convention some time in the next few years
- The Boxboro facility is, frankly, a getting a bit timeworn.
- The Royal Plaza has other adjacent hotels, as well as numerous restaurants and other shops – far more than the Boxboro location
- Unlike the current convention, the 4th weekend of July doesn’t conflict with the September VHF contest
We’re scrambling to update our forms and procedures. I’ll be sending out another message shortly, as soon as these are all in order.
Please reserve the date, July 24-26. We would love to see you there!
73,
Mike Raisbeck, K1TWF
Northeast HamXposition vendor chair