FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Sainte Marie]

Dear Lluís

You are such a sunshine :)
Of course there is an airport in Colmar,
But did you know this is for sport & private jet only?
So NO passenger’s traffic at all.

Well if some one would have a private jet, that’s good for this person, so he or she can come to Sainte Marie easily after arrival (Sainte Marie is 40 km away from the airport).
For all other couple of ten thousands of visitors, this airport is just meaningless to them.

Have a great day

Regards,
Murphy

[Carles Millan]

[Sainte Marie]

[alfredo]

I think almost all visitors coming to Ste Marie come by private car or rental car, so public transportation is not a relevant question. A few people take the public bus to Ste Marie - yes, there is one - slow but very cheap. And I suppose parking in Ste Marie, which used to be a huge headache, will be much easier now, with fewer dealers there.

I'm quite optimistic about the prospects for two simultaneous shows in Alsace. In the USA we are long used to the idea of shows with multiple venues. Each one will develop a distinct style, and visitors will fall in love with one or the other, or both. Some dealers will choose one, a few might open two booths and do both of them. (In Tucson, a well-known Russian dealer sells from even 3 different venues! And I know one dealer who sells in Tucson and Quartzite, separated by almost 3 hours driving.)

It might even be more fun than before, so everybody please stop panicking and whining! :-)

[Jordi Fabre]

[Carles Millan]

[Sainte Marie]

[COLMAR 2012]

Hello everybody,

here you can find some photos from the Colmar Parc Expo, than you can see the location better than of google map.
The Colmar Parc Expo is located just close to the vineyards and the mountains.
These photos were taken during the Colmar "Foire aux Vins". One of the greatest event in Alsace. You can also see some villages of tents outdoor.

You can also find other pictures from Colmar City and parc expo on our Facebook page.

[simonoff]

Rumors are flowing that the Colmar Mineral Show (replacement for Ste Marie) has now been cancelled. Is this true?

https://www.mineralien-welt.de/Seiten/MW_News.html
(link normalized by FMF)

In English

MINERALS World News
"Mission Colmar" has failed:
Michael Schwab is on
02/17/2012. Tucson is just over, here comes on the 14th February by Michael Schwab, the organizer of the market by 2011 in Ste-Marie-aux-Mines, the bad news: Due to lack of exhibitors is the stock market in Colmar 2012 does not, Schwab is on the event.
This is the preliminary conclusion after a months-long tug of war and many quarrels between him and the follow-up organizers in Ste-Marie (as reported in our last issue). Schwab, the great hopes for the sudden move to Colmar has continued, claims to be able to attract enough exhibitors to make the event economically perform.
In an official letter to the press writes a team led by Michel Schwab reported going from 430 exhibitors, but well-informed circles believe that there have been some applications need much less, and this led to the cancellation. Other events such as the "mineral-hamburg" have the same number of exhibitors in order to work with and very successful.
The cancellation is, of course, very regrettable, especially Michel Schwab made in the last 30 years the stock market into a global event in the field of minerals and fossils has - she was the world to Tucson and Munich is the third largest event. With a unique and valued by many collectors and exhibitors flair in the city of Ste.-Marie-aux-Mines was the place thanks to Michel Schwab, a major "market place" has become a high volume.
Now, the new organizers around Mayor Claude Abel in Ste.-Marie have responsibility to ensure that the end of June 2012 besondes high expectations will be attained. And exhibitors and collectors now have less a problem, namely, to have to choose one or the other event ...
Thank you, Michael Schwab, for 30 years of successful trade fair year, and best of luck and success, Claude Abel, for future exchanges.
Rainer Bode
Editor-WORLD MINERALS


Thanks
Bob

[Jordi Fabre]

[as]

Just now found further information on the site of Règne Minéral:
https://www.minerauxetfossiles.com/index.php?page=045

[Jordi Fabre]

I copied below the text of the notice (in French language) published in the Le Règne Minéral web page. There Michel Schwab confirms the fact that Colmar will not start, he complains about the campaign of Ste. Marie against Colmar and he wishes success for Ste. Marie in its new format.

So, now officially Colmar Show is cut off and only Ste. Marie in its new format will run in 2012.

Link: https://www.minerauxetfossiles.com/fichiers/CommuniqueRegneMineral.pdf

Annulation de la 49ème édition EURO MINERAL & EURO GEM 2012 au Parc EXPO de COLMAR.

En Juin 2011, MINERAL Concepts sarl annonçait le transfert en 2014 d’EURO MINERAL & EURO GEM vers COLMAR pour une mise en conformité de l’événement. En octobre, poussés vers la sortie par la Ville
de Ste-Marie-aux-Mines, nous nous sommes retrouvés dans l’obligation d’avancer ce transfert à juin 2012.

Dès l’annonce par la Ville de Sainte-Marie aux Mines en novembre 2011, de la création d’un événement concomitant organisé par ses services et financé par de l’argent public, MINERAL Concepts est victime d’une importante campagne de désinformation et d’une concurrence inique. Celle-ci est appuyée entre autre, sur une offre tarifaire à laquelle MINERAL Concepts sarl ne peut faire face.

En jetant la plus grande confusion à la fois sur l’image de notre événement et parmi l’ensemble de notre
clientèle à l’aide d’une communication désobligeante, l’équipe du maire et ses partenaires étrangers ont
réussi à semer un trouble considérable parmi nos 1000 exposants, pourtant convaincus pour la plupart que
leur avenir est à COLMAR.

Confrontés à un choix difficile entre l’attachement au succès d’EURO MINERAL & EURO GEM à Sainte-
Marie aux Mines et le transfert vers le Parc EXPO de COLMAR avec son confort et ses facilités, les
exposants sont désemparés. Beaucoup attendent qu’un hypothétique élément leur permette de se décider.
D’autres expliquent qu’ils feront encore un dernier Ste-Marie, pour annoncer qu’ils seront à COLMAR en
2013!

Malgré de nombreuses campagnes d’e-mailing, de phoning et des déplacements, à ce jour 450 exposants
sont inscrits à EURO MINERAL & EURO GEM COLMAR. Notre objectif de 700 exposants, nécessaire à la
bonne tenue de l’événement 2012, semble désormais hors d’atteinte et au regard des charges qui nous
incomberaient, nous sommes contraints, avec d’infinis regrets, d’annuler la 49e édition d’EURO MINERAL & EURO GEM qui devait
se tenir du 21 au 24 juin 2012 au Parc Expo de COLMAR.

Après avoir construit en 30 ans, une incroyable success story et porté EURO MINERAL & EURO GEM au
3ème rang mondial, cette situation est particulièrement douloureuse. Je garde le sentiment d’avoir, avec mon
équipe, fait un magnifique travail dont nous pouvons être fiers. Je déplore cependant de ne pas avoir su
mieux convaincre nos exposants de continuer cette aventure avec nous à COLMAR.

Je regrette amèrement de ne pouvoir donner suite à notre projet que nous considérons toujours comme
étant la seule voie de pérennisation de la manifestation.

Suite à cette annulation, MINERAL Concepts sarl est dans l’obligation de licencier 4 salariés.

La ville de Sainte-Marie aux Mines est désormais confrontée à un énorme challenge : accueillir les
exposants et les visiteurs dans les meilleures conditions possibles, conformément aux attentes et aux
réglementations en vigueur.

Nous espérons, dans l’intérêt de toute la communauté, que cette manifestation sera un réel succès.

Bien cordialement
Michel SCHWAB – Gérant
et toute l’équipe de MINERAL Concepts sarl
Brigitte SCHAEFFER, Flore COTTEL, Eric JACOB, Luc SPATZ

[Jean Sendero]

This is an old topic, it takes us 10 years back, but reading it and seeing how divided the community was in regard to rustic SMAM vs modern Colmar, etc...I was wondering if this topic came up again.

I recently was in Alsace, I spent time in Colmar and less time in SMAM (one month late or 11 months early depending on how you want to see it) and I remembered this thread so, now I am curious.

Did the changes promised and done in SMAM made a positive important difference? Or should Colmar be revisited as an option?

Looking forward for your opinions.

Cheers

[Roger Warin]

Return of the transfer to Colmar?
I don't think that would be a good idea.
Of course, for professionals, attendance would be easier. But the public loves the holiday atmosphere that is not found in Colmar.
There is also the charm of staying in small chalets in the mountains and meals are better in the villages.
My first visit to SMM dates back to 1967…
And I love going to Munich, about 40 times!
Regards.

[alfredo]

I was at SMAM last month and heard nobody at all talking about moving the show to Colmar or anywhere else. Dealers were in general very happy with their sales, attendance was a record of over 30,000, traffic during set-up and tear-down moved smoothly and was better organized than in the past, and of course best of all is the SMAM "atmosphere", unique among major international shows.
So, if anyone wants to attempt to organize a competing show in Colmar or elsewhere, I wish them the best of luck but I predict that it will be a total flop, just like the last attempt to have the show in Colmar.