HUGE story in this mornings High Point Enterprise Newspaper about the 2007 rod building show! I tried to access it online to share the webaddress so everybody could read it, but you have to a paper subscriber to access that part of it.

Anyway, Donart and Pac Bay were pretty prominant in the picture used and it painted the craft of custom rod building in a very good light. I think a lot of local fishermen will see custom rod builidng in a different way after reading this story.

When you start this kind of quality promotion this far ahead you know it's going to be another great event. Only problem is having to wait a full year!

Tom. is there any way we could reprint the story and photos on this site?

It was filled with the usual newspaper "mis-quotes" but overall I'm not going to complain. It was good PR and the city is making a big deal about "landing" this event. I have to question their figure for the economic impact it will have - they claim it will bring in $685,000 to the local economy. I have no idea how they figure that, but somebody there gets paid to figure those sorts of things. I'll have to defer to their knowledge on those type matters.

I can't reprint it without permission. I'll ask the reporter if he can get that for me. I can't promise anything.

I will say that it was one of the first times I've seen something on custom rod building in the newspapers that didn't make us sound like a bunch of dubs, building "poles" in our basements. The writer did an excellent job of representing custom rods and builders. And, because I helped him with information on this one, he has agreed to get us a couple more articles next January as we get close to show time. This will help greatly with our efforts to market to the regional market.

Most of you who attended any of the past events in Charlotte are in for a big surprise next February. The 2007 event isn't going to be a little bigger or better - it will be something on an entirely different level.

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$685,000 to teh local economy. Figure there will be AT LEAST 500 hotel rooms sold at $200 each. 100,000. Feeding 2,000 people 2 meals per day for 2-3 days. Figure each person spends $15 on average per meal, figure that is 7000 meals at $15 = another $100,000. Add to that all the union contracts to set up, maintenance at the actual show site, it's probably like $80 per hour for a couple hundred people for the entire weekend? Gas stations, car service, airports.

That figure of $685K split up over 2,000 attendees is only $350 per person, they probably have a fixed number a person spends and jus tmultiplied that by teh overestimated numbers to come up with a big number ot get everyone excited, lol.

Other than the union stuff (they aren't involved in this event in any way) you're probably not far off. It was a big enough deal for them that the City gave me $5,000 to make sure I'd do this event here. That money will offset the cost of renting the outstanding ShowPlace facility so I can reduce the booth and admission fees for everyone. (It has been suggested that I just put it in my pocket, but I have no intention of doing that.) It allows me to compensate the seminar presenters for part of their travel expenses. In short, we are going to be able to improve the quality of the event all around.

Last year I was able to squeeze about $8,000 out of RodMaker for advertising and promotion. This year I'll have 3 times that amount to work with. This will allow us to buy color print advertising in major sportsfishing magazines as well rent billboards on the major interstate highways north and south of here. As I said, the 2007 event will be a much bigger deal than the 2006 event was.

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I can't wait.......

Steve Buchanan

Steve's Custom Rods