As mentioned earlier, we will be having a rod building social gathering after the National Rod Builders' Show regular hours on Saturday (February 26th). This will take place upstairs in one of the main seminar rooms and run from 6:30PM to 8:30PM.

If you would like to bring rods to the gathering, or tools or whatever, you are free to do so. The event is informal with no planned itinerary. We're just getting a couple hundred (or more) builders together in one big room to meet and talk rod building on an informal basis. There may be some door prizes given out, in fact, I'm sure there will be.

Refreshments will be provided at no charge (cheese, crackers, dips, chips, salsa, etc.) and there will be a cash bar for those who would like a beer, wine, etc. The event is sponsored by RodMaker Magazine and there is no charge to attend. You will, of course, have to have bought an admission ticket to the rod building show, otherwise you won't be able to get into the seminar area. If you plan to leave the Convention Center and then return for the social, remember to have your hand stamped on the way out so you can get back in later.)

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where can I get info for lodging and such, if I come down it will be for the weekend.
working on my first rod build and pardon the pun but I am hooked,
course the wife thinks my rods are breeding as it is, everytime she turns around there is a new on hanging on the wall.

There are several hotels near the Convention Center. The host hotel is The Westin at 866-837-4148. Tell them you'll be in town for The National Rod Builders' Show. We had them block off 200 rooms but that won't be nearly enough. In the event that they're already sold out email me and I'll steer you to some other hotels close by.

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Tom you don't need to keep footing the bill for all these things. Charge everybody that comes through the door two or three bucks to cover expenses and the refreshments. And don't feel bad about doing it. Have you seen what some of these clubs charge just for their seminars? We're talking about over $100 in some cases.

Thanks for the suggestion but I really don't like hitting people up for money at every turn. The whole affair will cost me just over a grand and I should sell enough back issues at the show to cover it.

I have firmed up some things which include having name tags for anyone who wants one when they come through the door for the social gathering. Plus we'll have several door prizes one of which will be an American Tackle Power Professional Rod Wrapper.

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Sounds like I better get on ordering those backorders I been wanting right now.
Mike

Mr Kirkman I live in Port St Lucie Fl,on the east coast,could you tell if there will be a show coming this way in the near future.Thank You Mr Ciampa

Not that I'm aware of. The size of the rod building market and the finances of the various vendors means that it's almost impossible to stage such shows unless the demographics and venue can almost guarantee that they'll be money makers for the show owners and promoters. The Charlotte/Atlanta area just happens to be a truly excellent area for doing something like this. And, we happen to have a venue available that can accomodate such a thing without the cost of starting from scratch elsewhere.

Obviously, everybody would like to have a show in their own backyard, but in reality it's not going to happen. Plus, it's going to be cheaper for you to travel to a show that it is for the vendors to do the same. I wouldn't look for too many large scale rod building shows to spring up around the Country anytime soon. Figure on Charlotte and Ontario, CA (2006) being the major rod building shows.

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