Calendar Site Now Allows Users to Rate Shows

It may go kicking and screaming into the future, but it will go. Or one day it may wake up and find its in the future. We may know when this day arrives when new folks start showing up at antiques shows having read about them online. One place they may be finding out about the great show culture we have come to know and love is the Calendar of Antiques (yes, it’s an affiliated site-we’re up front about that!)

The Calendar of Art and Antiques rolled out a feature recently that allows site users to rate antiques and art shows in terms of merchandise, accessibility, food and overall. The ratings are expected to help consumers and dealers to find quality shows.

“We’re pretty sure this is a first for the antiques show business,” says site co-founder Lin Wang. “Traditionally information about shows has traveled primarily by word-of-mouth from dealers. Many people, especially those in younger generations, will be left out of this loop, however. Using sites such as Yelp and Urban Spoon, they look for information primarily online. Think of this as Yelp for antiques shows.”

Wang says the new feature is designed to provide meaningful content culled from a too often overlooked part of the industry, the end-user.”

The feature requires that those providing ratings also submit a short written review and allows users to rate each others reviews in terms of their helpfullness. The reviews are provided for each show in a given time period.

“For example, you’ll be able to rate the Heart of Country Show for 2011, and then again for 2012,” Wang says. Reviews of past shows will be linked to future show listings.

Currently more than 200 events are listed on the Calendar of Art and Antiques in categories including antiques show, vintage market, auction and gallery event. Adding an event to the calendar is free of charge. Listings allow promoters to link to their show web sites and Facebook pages. The site can be found at http://www.calendarofantiques.com