It's always good to see bullies get their just desserts...

Most of you have heard of the Peter Trapp computer shows. You may also
recall some of the policies Mr. Trapp insisted on when staging these
shows. One such policy was requiring facilities to not have any other
events within a 45-day period in which computer hardware or software
were sold. This affected a few hamfests that were held at the same
facilities. The Peter Trapp people threatened to pull the plug on
their shows if any other such event was held within that time period.
(A rather lengthy discussion of this topic occurred on the amateur
radio newsgroups during the Spring of '97. Use Google to read some of
the posts)

These shows drew huge crowds throughout the 1990's, but attendance
began to drop off about five years ago. Last year, shows were canceled
and no dates were given for future shows. E-mails that I sent went
un-answered. Today, after several months of not visiting the Peter
Trapp web site, I redirected to a search engine when I entered the
URL.

The quality of the shows had fallen off the last time I went to one,
which was over a year ago. I have to say the same about hamfests, but
they are still around, and will be for some time. I noticed, too, that
vendors seemed to be more aggressive towards people who just want to
peruse the wares that wear offered for sale. You'd think people would
learn that it's a turn-off when you have someone gets in your face and
gets too damn pushy when trying to make a sale.

As far as the shows themselves, it's good to see that the online world
presented a form of competition to Peter Trapp that he couldn't bully
into submission. Good riddance...