A new member asked in the Scottish Group thread a perfectly reasonable question, which I thought merited debate in a more appropriate place.
He has a new layout and feels the obvious itch to show it. So... how do you get "known" as an exhibitor?
The obvious route for those of us within a decent distance of a local Group would be to join it and take it along.
Something, I would suggest, is a tad difficult in Scotland.
These days, posting on Social Media seems a good way to get your layout known - and get invitations. Nothing helps your case more than a few (many?) photographs!
Over to you good people...
There's the UK Model shop directory, which maintains a list of layouts (for exhibition)
here https://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/ (https://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/)
Thanks Hugh, and thanks for your response in the Scottish Region Group section.
As I mentioned there (and in the 009 News!) a good way to get started exhibiting in Scotland is as part of a ScOONs stand. Our name is getting known and we are receiving some invitations.
As Hugh says, for other areas, if there is an area group, then contact them as they are likely to have member days and other locally organized events and once a layout is seen I'm sure the word will get around. If there is no Area Group within reach, another possibility is to contact your local model railway club and work with them.
I suspect coming at it 'cold' and seeking invitation to a model railway exhibition without showing some sort of provenance is likely to be a struggle.
Addendum: I hope John doesn't mind me posting this, but the way he got at least one of the invitations for his Glendhar layout was that an exhibition manager asked if he (or the group he was exhibiting with) had another 2 mm scale layout to exhibit and he said no, but I have an 009 one.
Another thought: have your "c.v." ready. Have one page with an essential summary of the layout, photo and plan of the exhibition space needed and technical requirements ready to hand out to any exhibition scout.
The first step is to become a member of a railway modeling club who holds an exhibition.
Once your layout has been to one show organisers from other shows will see it and you will get an invitation to their shows. That is if the layout is what they want.
Not only am I new to 009 I am also new to Forums so not sure where this reply is going to land! Thank you for all of your comments and suggestions. I will be at ModelRail Scotland in a couple of weeks so I shall seek out ScOONs stand and have a chat. I've [hopefully] attached a photo of the current status of the layout.
Keith
That looks good Keith. I look forward to seeing you in Glasgow.