National Cage Bird Show - Your Show Of Shows - Held Every November In The USA To Celebrate The Best Of The Avian Fancy



UPDATE: July 9th, 2010
Members, I wanted to give you an update on the show. As I mentioned before we have been canceled by the Hyatt Riverfront in Jacksonville. Please proceed with canceling any reservation you had with them. Regardless of what happens to the 2010 show we will not be visiting that hotel. Please remember to cancel so that you are not charged a fee for not appearing in November.
There have been rumors that NCBS has been canceled. It has not been canceled and if/when it is you will be notified through this website. Anyone posting info that does not agree with this website is speculating.
We have been spending a great deal of time working with a few of the recent venues to explore possibilities of still having a show. The information has been forwarded to the NCBS Board and a decision will be made in the next few days. Please return to this website for official news and updates. We hope to have an answer for you very soon.

Thanks,
Gary Morgan - President NCBS

UPDATE: June 28, 2010

   First let me say that we have had a great and supportive response to my notice last week. This is extremely difficult and most of you were very understanding. I have been inundated with emails and phone calls asking if you can help. I will try to get back to you all.

   We were disappointed when the hotel chose to add space onto the other group there that week and cancel our contract because they had more experience with the other group. Even more disappointing is the fact that if they had canceled us when they first discovered the problem we could have easily found another venue and made it work.

If you go back and read my articles on the "inner workings" of NCBS you will see that the success or the failure of an NCBS show relies on the contract negotiations with the hotel/convention center. A poorly negotiated contract will mean imminent cost. We typically spend 12-18 months negotiating contracts, even planning, coordinating personnel, lining up judging stations and lights, coordinating judges and speakers, acquiring show personnel and security etc. Now we have to look at doing all this in the short 3-4 month period. A scary proposition.

Because of all this work it is difficult to find a new venue. For this reason we are researching the last few venues we have held the show, asking if the show date is available, and asking them if they would honor the older contract (or come close to it). We are supposed to get some proposals this week. Once we have them the NCBS board will review and vote to choose a new venue or cancel entirely for 2010. I can't tell you how much we appreciate all the calls and emails I have received offering to look for a new venue. As much as we would like to it will probably be time prohibitive at this late in the year.

   I am hoping to have a definitive answer on a 2010 show in the next week. Please know that we are working this hard each day to come to a decision.

Please check back here and tell everyone else to as well. Talk to you soon.

Gary Morgan
President - NCBS

Subject: Official Cancellation of the National Cage Bird Show - Jacksonville , FL

It is with great disappointment that I must make this announcement to you. Due to issues out of our control, the 62^nd National Cage Bird Show to be held in Jacksonville this November is being officially cancelled.

The NCBS Board had been working with the Hyatt hotel since January of this year trying to procure more floor space and rooms for the projected large entries in two of the Song Bird Divisions. John Muscato and I took an extra day and arrived early to the March Board meeting to try to resolve the issue with the hotel staff. We have literally contacted the hotel weekly trying to resolve the issue. The hotel was non-responsive and not willing to bring closure to the issue. We wanted to close the issue so we could direct these societies on acquiring space or extra judges to process their entries. We were straining our relationship with the clubs.

On Friday June 18^th, NCBS was contacted by the Sales Manager from the Hyatt hotel in Jacksonville . He informed me that another group that had an event at the hotel, during the same time as NCBS, has requested more floor space as they are expanding. This group is a repeat group to the venue. After numerous discussions between their event staff and me over the last 4 days, the hotel made a business decision to honor the other group’s legacy attendance at the facility and informed us that they were exercising the Cancellation Option in our contract. I now have the formal cancellation letter from the Hyatt Riverfront Jacksonville.

On Monday June 21^st, I contacted a few of the NCBS executive Board and apprised them of the situation and we have been exploring optional venues. While I am hopeful that we can find some solution I am not convinced we can. With only a few short months to plan what we typically take 12-18 months to do we cannot afford any type of negotiations with a new site over the contract details so we are contacting the last few show sites to see if first the venue is available on our date, and secondly if they would honor the last contract or help us out in light of the inconvenience we are experiencing. My hope is that we can in the near future report to you a new site. In the event that we do we will utilize email lists, yahoo groups, the NCBS Website etc. to keep you informed.

As painful as this is at this late of date I felt it necessary to inform you as early as I could knowing that we may have a possibility of a new location and have to do this communication again. Understand we did not take this lightly and have spent an enormous amount of time trying to negotiate what is best for our membership. We will do all we can to find a resolution and host a 2010 show in the best fashion we can. It is OK to be disappointed and we hope you understand.