you need to have an expo out west you guys get to have to much fun.
maybe you could try vegas one time.
but really have they ever been out west or allways the same place

this has been discussed many times and i believe that due to the population density of the east coast makes it a better choice. i know tom knows the facts and stats and may chime ine

Sixty percent of the US population lives east of the Mississippi River and that population contains a higher percentage of anglers. Exhibition halls, hotels and more are less expensive on the East Coast. It isn't possible to do two shows per year - cost and logistics prohibit it. In addition, most attendees, and exhibitors, are fortunate to have the time/finances to attend one show per year. If you alternate the show between coasts, you lose the "energy" and consistency PLUS you run into issues with booking arrangements - facilities like a "steady" schedule year after year.

I believe another group has tried it and it failed after a short time. Am I wrong?

______________________________________
Super Tight Lines......Don

Don is correct, sort of. It's maybe not fair to say they failed, but the demographics involved are never going to be kind to any rod building show held on the west coast. The thing is, there's no great density of rod builders located anywhere in the U.S. You have to pull the guys in from all over the Country in order to have a good turn out. Where we're at now, the majority of the rod builders are within a single day's drive of us. In California, Oregon or Washington, you're faced with the fact that most of your attendees, if you're going to have a really good turn out, will have to spend several days on the road or incur the expense of flying. Sure, we have many guys that fly in or drive for a few days, but the majority are close enough to drive here in a single day. (That also means they have a vehicle with them to haul stuff back home.)

It's possible to have a rod building event anywhere, but to have something like the Expo you're going to have to locate it in the eastern half of the Country. I've done a lot of research on this stuff and hosted ten very successful Expos now. Not trying to sound arrogant but I know what I'm doing. At this point I wouldn't consider moving anywhere outside the Atlanta to Richmond corridor and frankly, as good as everything was in Winston-Salem this weekend, see no reason to go anywhere else. There are a lot of other factors involved, of course, but at this point this Expo is the only one that's been able to pull everything together and deliver a rod building event on this size and scale. Nothing against anyone else that puts out the effort and gives it a try, but any time I see anyone announce "we're having a rod building show" I can look at the location, time of year, advertising dollars spent, etc., etc., etc., and tell you in an instant how many attendees they're going to have and what the outcome of their event will be. At this point, some things are immediately obvious to me as far as rod building events go.

Hopefully there will continue to be some regional style events around the Country each year.

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

I would bet more west coast guys come to the Expo here on the east coast than ever went to the one on the west coast. The problem is that Tom makes it look easy and others start thinking they want or are going to do the same thing without knowing all the stuff that has to go on behind the scenes to do something like this.

When I got my copy of the IGFA quarterly magazine back in January I found a nice big color ad for the Expo inside. Saw another Expo ad in Coastal Angler, every month from last October right on through to January. I thought to myself, what other rod building event have I ever seen an advertisement for in any fishing magazine? None came to mind. Tom does it right for the vendors and the rod builders and spends the money to make sure the word gets out. Location is important but so is knowing all other little ins and outs that spell the difference between failure and success.

Tom,

Speaking of attendance, how many were there this year?

Steve Hartzell
Lake Conroe - Willis, Texas

Don't know yet as I haven't had time to count tickets or look at the numbers. We do know the Rodmaker Reception saw about a 10% increase in attendance over last year and the overall Expo attendance usually mirrors that. So I'd guess it was up by a little. It's safe to say that somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 people came through the doors over the weekend. Saturday, of course, was the much busier day as is the case with nearly all weekend shows of any type.

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

About 3 years ago, there was a rod building show in Pasadena. I just happened to be in Southern California that weekend and stopped in. I don't remember who all was there, except for a few highlights. I shook Bill Batson's hand and he gave me a hat I still wear! I met the guys from Anglers Resource, American Tackle had a booth, and a few others. I don't think Mudhole was there but could be wrong.

I don't remember any seminars, but there was a fly casting pool and a "certified" instructor there teaching the basics of fly casting.

There were a bunch of booths touting charter fishing boats in SoCal.

All-in-all, I had a pretty good time, but other than the fly fishing guy, and some Batson blanks, there was virtually no fly fishing stuff which was my main interest.

Whether this is an ongoing event I don't know, but it was tried at least once. It did not seem as well attended as what is described at the IRCBE.

Drew

Mudhole was not there because they were not allowed to be there. The show was put on by another dealer who is a competitor of Mudhole. Only a few hundred people attended. Not even close to the ICRBEs thousands.

I think one thing that some do not consider is that Tom does not compete with any of the companies that attend his event. He does not sell blanks or guides or finish or anything else that these other companies sell so there is never any conflict between what he does and what they do.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2013 12:17PM by Chris Stanley.

Whether or not a show has succeeded or failed really depends on what the goals and expectations of the organizers and attendees was. A regional group gathering that only draw forty guys cannot be said to have "failed" because it was not as big as the ICRBE. The people who put it on and attended never intended it to be that big or involved. But there have been a few shows that tried and thought they could duplicate the ICRBE. With that goal in mind they definitely "failed" and more than once and in more than one case.

Tom's success at doing this also puts a lot of pressure on each successive ICRBE. The first year that "only" 1500 people show up, people will say he "failed."