This morning I received a call from management at the MC Benton Convention Center. They informed me that the Expo has been reclassified as a “convention” instead of a “consumer trade event” and that per the Governor of North Carolina’s edict, the Expo would thus be limited to no more than 100 people in the exhibit hall at a time. Obviously, an event of this size cannot possibly restrict attendance to that amount at any given time. Therefore, regrettably, the 2021 International Custom Rod Building Exposition is hereby cancelled.

I did all I could do to convince the powers that be to retain our usual classification as a consumer trade event, but to no avail. There was an option to wait until the mid-January update and see if the Governor’s orders would be changed or lessened at that time, but full scale preparations and promotion by myself and the exhibitors would simply be too late to perform properly.

Persons that have made hotel room reservations are advised to cancel those reservations as soon as possible.

Again, very sorry we are not being allowed to move forward with another Expo but neither the convention center nor myself have the ability to overturn the Governor’s order. Thanks to all who were already on board and hopefully this has not caused too much of an inconvenience for anyone. We did the best we could under the present circumstances.

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

That is rough to hear as this was going to be my first.

Lets all be prepared for next year!

Tony Boschi
Banana River Rods
Merritt Island, Florida
321~525~1063

* Rapid Prototyping Services
* Custom Beach Rods
* Custom Inshore Rods

[bananariverrods.com]

Tony Boschi Wrote:
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> Lets all be prepared for next year!

Agreed, and pray that there is one next year, Feb. '22. Last year was supposed to be the last.

Without the Expo, what,s left? Christmas is probably next..

As long as we are all still alive there can be a next year i know 2 people that died this week from covid and more since it started .

Thank you David. We're pushing Civil War totals now!

Incorrect --- At the onset of the Civil War there were only about 30 million people in the U.S. So to equalize the numbers against today's population, Covid would have to kill 3 million people here in the US to compare to Civil War totals. We are nowhere near that number.

Beyond that sorry to hear about the Expo. Nobody's fault, just do what you have to do. There is always a tomorrow.

Yeah, that's 500,000 dead guys out of 30 million people. Body count's catching up, regardless of population size. I am sorry the expo had to be cancelled. So many look forward to it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2020 08:21PM by Lynn Behler.

Tom, PLEASE resume in 2022. I’m sure this COVID mess will be behind us by then. I have not missed a show in 12 years and would hope to have the opportunity in 2022.

I agree with Brandan, the show must go on! It’s a great place to meet fellow rod builders. In fact, I met Brandan at last year’s expo, had a great time meeting and talking to him.
Norm

There are many more COVIDS in the pipeline..it,s been too successful..