What a great event!
We talked with hundreds if not thousands of people desperate to hear a message of hope for this country. Three from Colorado (MtnManPrepper, Prone to Knit, oneshot_onehole) and seven from Utah (rifleman2000, lbsnake925, Buzz, Two-of-Three, LeeAnn, Nate and Austin) were kept busy telling the story of Appleseed and instructing in the safe use of an air rifle.
Everyone I spoke with was receptive to the Appleseed message. These expos are a lot more fun than a gun show, too. Even people who "already know how to shoot" were interested in improving their shooting skills. But like us they became more interested in the history than the marksmanship.
We had a 25-foot air rifle line where we let one and all shoot to their heart's content. There were lots of folks who had "never even touched a gun" before and they all went away with a smile. I'm serious. We helped several with special needs also have a great time. Over all we had almost 250 unique shooters with many coming back several times.
Contacts were made for new ranges to possibly host Appleseeds.
The Self Reliance Expo donated a 70' X 20' area for our table and range (a 10' X 10' goes for $1,000). The other vendors were the most enthusiastic of our customers. We were on three radio/video blogs and have several more interviews lined up. We have been asked to be at all five expos next year with even more space for our own stage to tell history throughout both days of the expo (Exposeed?). These expos draw in the neighborhood of 5,000-15,000 for the two days. This one had an attendance of over 10,000.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/doctorprepper/2011/09/29/doctor-prepper-show
(starts about 32:00)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/doctorprepper/2011/10/08/prn-live-from-the-utah-expo
(starts about 3:30)
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52694483-78/expo-douglas-reliance-self.html.csp
Man, you guys are first-class! There are almost too many benefits to this to even list them all. O0
And where did you get that neat, neat "HERITAGE/LEGACY/REBIRTH" banner? We need about a thousand more of 'em!
One aspect I'd like to hear about: This is the first-time the organizers of this saw the "range" in action. Did it measure up their expectations?
Hi,
Thank you for the kind words.
Prone to Knit and I designed both banners. We bought limited use rights for the eagle photo (yes, we do things legally) that should cover all Appleseed uses. These particular banners were donated to us by a shooter who owns a sign shop and loves our message. He will make either banner in 2' X 6' for under $100 each and around $15 shipping no matter how many banners are in an order (within reason).
The banner images are scalable and the banners can be made much bigger. Isaac Davis is now a scalable vector image. I can post the PDF file.
The organizers of the expo really liked the range and are thinking of expanding. We needed to make some changes to it throughout the weekend to stop missed pellets from bouncing back but we now have that figured out. They, their families and staff all shot with us and had a great time (they are in some of the photos above). Some of the staff even had a shooting competition.
The CEO and his family will probably be with us at the Appleseed shoot in Byers, CO this weekend.
Jim
http://www.royalsigns.com/
The expo was awesome. If Utah ever shows the same dedication and passion as CO your efforts will have paid off. It would take years to meet and greet the same numbers of people. And preparedness people are good people. Good hearts, open minds...just the type of people we need to join AS family.
Sign me up to staff the booth in the future.
Well done Folks, how did you get this set up. Is this a national organization that my have events throughout the country, and others could take advantage of ?
Thanks,
dragonfly
Nicely done!!!
df,
Our CO promotions coordinator, MtnManPrepper, asked for a table at the Denver Expo. They liked our message and asked us to be at all of their expos next year. We agreed to spearhead this for Fred. When the schedule for next year's five expos comes out we will contact the states involved and get the ball rolling.
Jim
Quote from: oneshot_onehole on October 13, 2011, 01:08:55 AM
Our CO promotions coordinator, MtnManPrepper, asked for a table at the Denver Expo. They liked our message and asked us to be at all of their expos next year. We agreed to spearhead this for Fred. When the schedule for next year's five expos comes out we will contact the states involved and get the ball rolling.
I hope they have an event in the Pacific Northwest. It looks like you guys had a great time and made a lot of good contacts. Well done!
- ShadowMan
The dynamic duo of Kim and Jim (Prone to Knit, oneshot_onehole) and their Colorado crew will serve to move the Appleseed Project into the fast lane! :---
As we know, filling lines is about promo. This event was a biggie. The message was spread and seeds were planted in hearts and minds. O0
Thanks for the super effort guys! :bow:
Jim and Kim -- you are the masters of mega-promotion. You both have been innovative right from the start and we are all lucky to have you in our midst. Thank you so much for all of your efforts for Appleseed and especially for making this happen. I am sure you left a lot of excited people in Utah.
/Gill
Dan and Gill:
Thank you so much for your wonderful words. We were only part of the team for this Expo. We were blessed to find Peter (MtnManPrepper) to be the CO Promotions Coordinator and he really knows what he's doing.
It was kind of funny, but the very weekend we were going to talk to him about this position he told us filling the lines was really on his heart and mind. It was a match meant to be.
As Peter says, he ropes 'em and brings them to us and we skin 'em! That synergistic effort seems to be working well.
So, he got us this contact, we put it together and then took it on the road. The next part of the team was the Utah crew. It could not have been done without them. They enthusiastically jumped in. We're hoping great things come out of this for them.
There seems to be a race against time to save this nation and to have opportunities like this to reach so many in a weekend is phenomenal. The heads of this expo really understand what we're trying to do and are all in getting us the space we need. Can you believe it - a private stage for us to tell our stories and do marksmanship demos. We feel privileged to be a part of this. As this expo hits several states next year we'll serve alongside instructors from those states.
As we told people about us and locked eyes when talking about heritage and our primary purpose you could just see and feel their appreciation for our message. Just amazing!
It's a ton of work (we're still tired) but well worth it.
Kim
We just got the blog link for a young man, Dan Carpenter, who interviewed different people at the Salt Lake City Self Reliance Expo.
http://www.the-urban-survivalist.com/daily-prep-episode-48-self-reliance-expo/
Jim (oneshot_onehole) comes in just after 4:00 minutes. Kind of fun.
Dan will be going to an Appleseed and wants to stay in contact. If he blogs about it, we'll post it for you to see.
Jim has another interview lined up for November 2nd. When we have more information, we'll post it.
Kim
Here's the radio interview from November 2nd. The sound is not the greatest - guess our internet isn't fast enough for Skype.
http://www.survive2thrive.net/2011/11/04/survive2thrive-november-2-2011/
Kim