I forgot to mention also. As an exhibitor we are only allowed to give away 50 baseball caps for free to any of our customers without specific branding. If we want to give away more than 50 caps then we have to pay the EAA fee for each free cap we give away.
The idea of this is if all of the vendor's are giving away free caps then the EAA won't sell any of theirs. If you want a away more than 50 caps then you must pay the amount that the EAA will be losing their sales so they may charge you $5 for every cap that you give away above 50....
Same with a party at your site. Every year we host the Pod-A-Pooloosa on Wednesday night before the nighttime you show. This is a get together of media, pod casters and others selling the message that aviation is great to be involved with. To celebrate this event we give away lots of pizzas and soda to the hungry media before they head to the night airshow. All of this must be purchased through the EAA, we cannot ring the local pizza shop and have them deliver and you guessed it, it costs a lot of money, probably 3 times more than going direct to the pizza shop. And, you guessed it Papa John's is the exclusive pizza supplier to EAA air venture