After hearing Billy and others talk about Mr Ehler, I have had the chance to have some dealings with him after posting about a need for certain guides. I whole heartedly agree with those who have sung the praises of this man!! A more excellent human being would be hard to come by!! I am proud to have been able to make his aquaintance, at least via eMail. I surely hope to personally meet him at the 2010 Expo!!!

Bill in WV

There isnt a nicer human being then BD Ehler and no one in this wide world knows that better then I do. Some years ago at Rod Builder seminar I had the pleasure and honor of meeting him and he gave me advise that actually changed my life. I am not kidding when I say that it was medical advise that changed my life to the point I could function normally without excruciating pain. If he is at the 2010 Expo you could bet I will seek him out to once again thank him for what he has done for me.

I have had the honor as well of meeting BD, he is a wealth of knowledge as well as a great person. Just cant say enough about him. I highly recommend any knowledge you gain from this man be maintained in writing as not to forget it.

Not sure who he is but sounds like a real good guy.

I do not think Tom should supply name badges, but it would be nice if all the attendees got their own and wore it so more of us would know who some of these people at the Expo are. That are just so many rod builders there that unless you know what somebody looks like you can easily walk right past somebody that you might have been wanting to meet.

Badges can say a lot when personalized ?

Electric!

This badge was designed and proudly worn by B. D. Ehler at a recent gathering of rodbuilders at a wandering river in central Tennessee. Ask anyone who attended if badges can be effectively used as an icebreaker at group meetings -

[www.rodbuilding.org]

More:

[www.rodbuilding.org]:

[www.rodbuilding.org]

[www.rodbuilding.org]

There were 53 for this meeting and there is no limit to the variations or themes for each - given the proper time and preplanning this could happen for the ICRBE for everybody in attendance at a cost of materials of less than $ 2.50 each.

How do you plan to reach each of the 1500 to 2200 rod builders that attend the ICRBE and let them know about this?

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Your free advertisement in Rodmaker

Word of Mouth

Internet Contacts

This Board

Vendor Customer Lists Featuring the Vendors Name Who Makes the Contact by Attendees.

Do Will What I Can ( Estimate at least 60% pre show if worked hard )

The above can be done on Gold, Silver and Holo ahed of time and be ready for pick up at registration desk

The rest done at the registration desk/hotel lobby up to 60 per hour on white vinyl

Cost of paper and badge holders only -

I will do all the work pro bono

You can allow this and help or stop it right now

Your Choice

"I will do all the work pro bono." Great, do it. As long as it doesn't add to my workload in any way I'm all for it.

A couple things to remember - The internet only reaches about 100 to 150 of the Expo attendees. That's why events that rely mostly on internet advertising don't draw very well. So you'll have to do a bit of work to get the word out to everybody. I can run a news release in the News column of the magazine and that will reach another 1000 of the attendees, but the remainder will be up to you. I can't put such a notice in any of the print advertising I do for the Expo.

We don't have a registration desk at the Showplace - just a ticket counter. The ticket counter sees about 500 people through the door in just the first hour or so. It's a rush and it's not going to be the type situation where we can stop to make a badge for each person or have them pick up a pre-made badge. It would result in total congestion so that part is out - we're too busy just getting people through the door on Saturday morning.

You can try doing some of this at the hotel desk, but remember that only about 1/4 of the people who attend the Expo stay at the Hotel High Point. There are 4 or 5 other hotels in the immediate area that attendees utilize as well, so you'll have to cover those too.

I would be happy to provide a list of the national and regional magazines I buy Expo advertising in if you would like to utilize those resources as well. You'll have to figure out if the cost to advertise in them can be offset by the nominal cost of the badges. But this is where roughly 1/2 of the attendees are reached.

Obviously, the logistics of doing this for 53 people and for 2000 people using several different hotels is going to be quite different. Do the best you can and we'll see what happens.

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I think you hit who you can and the others will be looking for it. I'm ordering mine in advance.

Easy solution for preorders would be a table set up with the badges simply laid out. I'd suggest this for the reception Friday as that's where last year's name tags were used up first and would not involve the hotel staff. Common procedure for conference name tag pick up.

Obviously not everyone comes to the reception, so a simple table behind the ticket booth with the name tags laid out off to the side would work easily.

Won't hit everyone, but would be an easy solution for distributing the premades.

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If Bill wants to do it I'll spring for the tables.

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I may have made a bad suggestion. It dawned on me this afternoon that there were over a thousand name tags on the table behind the ticket counter last year. Anybody that wanted a name badge could have picked one up for free. There was a table filled with them and pens to fill them out with. I guess they aren’t really popular with the masses. Sorry. I just forgot about the fact that name tags are already available.