Some tool and machinery companies use junkets to influence the coverage of their products in the woodworking press and online. What does a typical press junket look like? I was assigned to go to two of them during my time at Popular Woodworking Magazine, and they were by no means the most extravagant woodworking junkets.
Normally, I declined to go on these trips and insisted that the magazine should pay its way (this is what I learned in journalism school, and I still believe it).
This was met with genuine and loud laughter from my bosses.
My first junket was to England to see DeWalt’s factory there and to try the company’s new DW735 planer. They flew us to London and put up all the editors at a mid-range hotel. We were given a couple days to wander around London on our own (and on our own dime, thank goodness). Then we met DeWalt’s U.S. public relations people at a pub on the Thames.
I always try to pay for my own meals when eating with manufacturers, and I mostly succeed.
Then we got on a bus and were taken to the factory where DeWalt made (among other things) saw blades. Let me say that I am a sucker for factory tours. I have taken dozens of them in my career and never get tired of them. This was the highlight of the trip for me.
After the tour, they sat us down for High Tea in a conference room and we watched slide presentations from the DeWalt product managers for a few hours (“Here’s why our blades are DeWalt tough.” “Here’s our new packaging for our accessories.”) A couple of jet-lagged editors fell asleep. Then they took us down to a workshop to use the DW735 for a couple hours.
The next day we flew back to the U.S.
At the time, DeWalt was not very good at junkets (they might be good now – I don’t know).
Who was the best at junkets? In the 1990s and early 2000s, it was a tie between Craftsman and Delta, both of which no longer exist in their mega-big junket-throwing forms. Delta was famous for renting out strip clubs during woodworking shows where they would wine and dine editors, their big wholesale customers and their best sales representatives.
One year they took editors to Taiwan – all expenses paid – to see the factories. And Delta even supplied each editor with an escort for dinner and entertainment (not for sex, you filthy-minded maggot). The escorts were “betel nut girls” (not my choice of words). When you bought a betel nut from the woman, she would flash her… betel nuts?
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