Sgt. Peppers

It was 20 years ago today that Acorn made the Risc PC play… at the Cumberland Hotel, Marble Arch. Multimedia presentation & roomful of machines to play with.

Those were the days, my friend…

Indeed – and in case you haven’t seen it, ROOL have posted a news item about it.

And there’s a little something on RISCOSitory too :)

Ah, was in the pub when I posted & hadn’t seen those. If RISCOSity are correct about the event being for dealers & developers, my invite must’ve been in error as I was neither.

I may have misread something¹ when I wrote that paragraph, then – but in my defence I’ll point out that I said the events were “attended by” dealers and developers rather than being for them.

¹ Although I’ve been planning to write it in time for today for some while, I did my usual thing and left it all until the last minute, so crammed looking back over twenty years worth of news (usenet, web, old magazines) into a weekend(ish).

I may have misread something1 when I wrote that paragraph, then – but in my defence I’ll point out that I said the events were “attended by” dealers and developers rather than being for them.

Wasn’t nit-picking, just hoping I’d got away with something for once in my innocent life. :-) Enjoyed the article.

I’m more miffed that I never had an invitation than anything else. I really do envy those who did.

Especially after reading Druck’s account and the mention of dancing girls, no matter how tacky or superfluous they were. Ahem.

IIRC.
The launch was over I think four or five days.
A press day, one or two dealer days and two or three enthusiast days. I think dealers and enthusiasts had invites for the morning or afternoon.
In a bit of inventive marketing I had a tabard printed up with something like:
“Get you new Acorn Computer on 0% Finance” “Ask for a leaflet” I then paid someone to stand outside the hotel giving out leaflets for two days. We only made a handful of sales but many were ACB45/AKF85 packages about £2400 at a reasonable margin¹. Only afterwards did I find out that there were two entrances to the hotel:-(
Anyone remember the little old lady?
Or the grid references?

¹ Those were the days. System sales now are often less than £240 at lower margins, hence why I’m not driving a new car!

The press launch was on the 15th April, then Acorn ran it again on the 16th for enthusiasts. I was there, 20 years ago today :-)

There were some sort of clues to find the grid reference of the hotel, but I can’t remember the details.