I know it's a little premature but I'm wondering if the new RBI organization will be staging any sort of yearly event for its members. If so, I would suggest talking to Tom about doing it the same week and at the same location as the big Rod Building Exposition. In my mind this makes a lot of sense. You'd have all the manufacturers and dealers already there so they wouldn't incur the expense of having to travel and display at two separate events. And you'd have a ton of rod builders already on hand. For the RBI members you could possibly reserve a separate area or hall for any specific RBI activities that you'd need to do for the members.

Just thinking out loud. An idea is worth about the cost of the paper it was written on but I'll throw it out just for future consideration.

You’re right on 2 counts - first, it’s a little premature to worry over such a thing when RBI hasn’t officially launched yet. And second, it is indeed a good idea to try to combine things so the exhibitors can get perhaps twice the exposure without having to double their expenses. I’ll address the second point first.

We know that the biggest problem that the manufacturers and dealers face at such events is being able to at least recoup their expenses. And most don’t simply want to recoup expenses, they want to make money. That’s why they’re in business. Small club or organization type shows have a hard time attracting exhibitors because they typically don’t draw enough people to make it cost effective for most companies to attend and display. We’ve already cracked that nut with the International Custom Rod Building Exposition in that we draw a ton of builders and the exhibitors pretty much all make money. That’s why they keep coming back.

So yes, it would allow an organization such as RBI to have their yearly event at a location where you already have most of the major rod building supply manufacturers and dealers present. Certainly it would be a great help to RBI and make their yearly event an almost guaranteed and immediate success. Their members could do whatever business they need to do with their organization plus attend the world’s largest custom rod building event in the same 2 or 3 days. No doubt about it, your idea is certainly a very good one.

On the other side of the coin, however, it seems that everybody wants a piece of the ICRBE these days. I’d have to feel that RBI was bringing something to the table in order to work with them in any manner that would actually make their yearly event part of my event. In other words, anything I do that increases my expenses needs to put something back into the till in some way or another.

Joe hasn’t approached me about anything like this and obviously he’s the one that would have to decide what RBI is going to offer along these lines and what he wants to do. He may have no interest in a yearly gathering of RBI members at the Expo. Then again, he might. If he does, I’m sure we can work something out that would be mutually beneficial to RBI, the Expo and all the companies and builders who display and attend the Expo.

Some things happened over this past weekend that indicate that we’ll effectively double the size of the Expo next year. We have the room, the Showplace is more than willing to work with us on anything we want to do or any sort of growth we anticipate, and there are certainly a great many possibilities we can pursue here. But let’s get past this year’s event and see how everything turns out. Then we can properly consider what we want to do for next year.

Your idea has great merit, but as you said, it’s a little premature.


....................

I'm also interested to see if RBI takes interest in other hunting and fishing shows to get out to more fishermen that dont build. There's one out my way every year, and coming up this weekend, that has a couple of custom rod builder booths, and most "fisherman" I know will attend these "all-in-one" shows rather than a specific rod building show.

Don't know how cost effective it would be for them, depending on what they want to accomplish. To try and buy booth space and travel to various sportsmans shows in order to attract custom rod builders wouldn't be very cost effective. How many custom rod builders do you expect to be at the show you mention? Unless there's going to be a few hundred there, RBI would lose money big time at such an event. A handful, even if they all joined, wouldn't be enough to cover the costs of attending and displaying.

Of course, if the goal is raise interest in custom rods, then any such show would be a great idea for RBI. But I think the national print ads will still be more cost effective in the long run.

What I think Ken was getting at, was that if RBI plans to have a once a year annual gathering of its members in order to conduct business, the ICRBE would be a great place to do it. They would be able to take advantage of all the exhibits and displays without having to plan and spend their own money to host and organize such an event on their own. But as I said, that's probably a bit premature at the moment.


...........

I see good logic here. Early on it will be difficult if not impossible for RBI to convince many rod building companies to attend and display at an event where you might have only 100 - 200 guys attending. Not worth their while to travel and display. But those companies are already AT the ICRBE event. So all RBI would have to do would be to establish a yearly international meeting there at the ICRBE. I would expect that many of their members would then see this as an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. They could attend the ICRBE and enjoy the exhibits and displays, attend the seminars AND participate in their organization's seminars or business meetings or whatever. If the RBI group caused the attendance at the ICRBE to swell even more then that would be a plus for the main show and those companies that exhibit there. I may be missing something but from what I can see this is a real win-win situation for all involved. Plus it would bring more of the entire rod building universe all under one roof at least once each year. I do not see how this could be a bad thing.

RBI has no objection to an annual event or to participating in other outdoor related shows. I basically agree with everything above. I must confess that, at this time, I have not spent much time thinking about it as I seem to have all I can handle getting ready for the ICRBE show. Once that is history, I'll be ready to consider all other options.

Of course, we'll grow only as quickly and as far as funds allow. This means we need members and sponsors all of which kicks off at the show in High Point. Based on the responses I have received, I don't think we will have a shortage of either but it will take time to grow.

Raising awareness and interest in the fishing public regarding custom rods is a primary goal of RBI. We are scheduling print ads now to appear in June magazine issues. Off the top of my head, since there is only one of me and many sports shows around the country, perhaps we need to create an ambassador corps to staff booths at various shows? With the right materials and a little training (which we just happen to do) any RBI member could be very successful at spreading the message. I'll think about this more in a couple of weeks.

Any ideas or suggestions regarding the topic of shows or annual events that any of you have would be most welcome and very useful to me.

Thanks, Joe

Joe Douglas