2011 ILLINOIS DEER & TURKEY CLASSIC Saturday

[Castle Mountain]

I just got a call from Target Communications who report that the Illinois Deer & Turkey Classic attendance numbers
were down by two thousand from the event held in Bloomington, Il. last year. Nevertheless they realize that marketing
and advertising efforts for this event need more time. All in all an estimated 20,OOO people were in attendance at the
Peoria Civic Trade Center for this three day event. Naturally Sunday had a large fall off but still busy. Saturday was swamped.
We could have and did expect more help than we had but thankfully Karl & Viper, Joanne and Out of Ammo and Patriot Gal
were able to join Pappy, Missouri Brigade and I. So were were manned up for the remainder of the day. Pappy was so hoarse
from talking he had to do a cough drop throat lozenge run to lubricate his voice to keep speaking. He was great!

We made great contacts with possible increases  shooting range availability with two main ranges.
Established great rapport with the Women's Hunter Magazine out of Michigan who want to do a magazine article
on Appleseed and interviews. Moreover, they want Appleseed ( ARE YOU LISTENING 'In The Burbs' ) You
will be shoot bossing an all women's shoot with their complete office staff from the magazine. They hosted
our 18" x 24 inch AR Girl Poster on the wall of their trade show booth and loved it. They expressed desire to
use the 8 1/2 x 11 page for the complete front page of their next magazine issue. The manager came over to our booth
and visited for some 45 minutes , watched all our videos and soaked up what it is what we do. The banner
provided great ambiance.  Great things to come from this. On Sunday, Viper, EM, Joanne and Patriot Gal visited with
the magazine folks again further solidifying our rapport. I suspect they will be attending the Wisconsin event and
and Old Glory, you need to get over and meet these folks. I told them about the Texas Diva Wow group experience you had
and they were most interested.

The Illinois Rifle Associate displayed a rack of our Tri-folds as well and we had good meeting with the NRA also along with
other vendor meeting opportunities. Illinois Wild Life enforcement officers were greatly impressed with what we were doing
along with several police officers who were attending a major Law Enforcement Conference in held in Peoria this weekend also.
Many of them look forward to their first Applseed event.

The staff were very engaging with the show visitors and I am certain we were well received. I am certain we have
plugged our shooting events substantially and boosted our program efforts for the year. No doubt about it.

We left the show Late Saturday, Pappy was plumb worn out as we all were. Enjoyed a wonderful Anniversary dinner
with Viper and Karl (thank you very much ) and relaxed with their good company before retiring .

Viper and Karl took point on Sunday morning with the much welcomed arrival of the Wurst-macher Clan, Shooter 30-06 and Kay
and Dave Out of Ammo and Joanne. Although the traffic had fallen off from the preceding days they had much to do
with being able to spend quality time with folks passing our booth.

I have made further contact with the Wyoming Illinois Ft. Defiance Pistol and Rifle club with the great possibility of them hosting Appleseed shoots.


Pappy, EEL , Patriot Gal, and the rest of our hard working  team will be posting their own comments I am sure. I had to leave out for Milan Tennessee
at 9:00 Sunday Morning  and Pappy had a gun show to do Sunday up in Princeton, so we were not present for Sunday. Yeah, I Appleseeded several down there too.

Have to head South again today. Looking forward to what others have to say. Thanks one and all for your service this weekend.  Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

By the way, Wisconsin is expected to have a similar attendance of 23,000 people based on last years numbers. Get that booth ready. We are taking your stuff to the
expeditors today.

Target Communications conveyed their thanks to me for all of the four Appleseed States for our participation. I believe that this single event is the most important
event we can do during the year in combination with our gun shows. The Saturday was just huge. Be well manned up for it. I wish Ohio and Michigan had the full
booth display, I did the best I could for you with the time allocation and constraints placed on SpitsStickler whom we all owe a great debt of gratitude and thanks.
Thanks Captain Kirk for coming through just in time.
You are a true professional and a joy to work concepts with.  Please forgive me Kirk for pushing so hard on you.  We just got to the finish line in time. WHEEW!!
I hope other states will follow suit. I know Michigan and Ohio will be on fire next year especially with the promo banner and material. I must say that the dedicated
Appleseed Trade Show Display will compete with the Big dogs as I feel we did with our simple affordable set up. Appleseed is going to look very good at the NRA convention.

Thank you again Fred, for making this all possible!

Cheers,

CM

[Wurstmacher]

I thought that we did a pretty good job of engaging the attendees as they passed by,  e.g. sharing basic Project Appleseed message and shoot information.  However, as I was driving home, I began making AAR observations in my head and feel that the booth arrangement could have been changed somewhat to give more visual impact.  I think that if the Video monitor and the LTR had been at the front of the booth, the attendees would have had more visual access to these items.  Perhaps a shorter length table placed at the front of the booth that allowed access from the sides so that volunteers could be behind the table as well as flanking it.  Perhaps a counter height table instead of dining height table would be in order.   As it was, we volunteers were at the front of the booth, so that we could interact with the attendees, effectively blocking the interesting items at the back of the booth. 

When we are at a gun show, we are behind the table.  At many of the other booths at the Deer and Turkey Classic, the props are at the front of the booth and the workers are behind the props or alongside of them.  Thiese are just my thoughts, feel free to chime in with your observations.

Thank you to all that coordinated this promotional event and to those that volunteered their time to spread the Project Appleseed gospel. 

We can give Americans a reason to get off the couch, but we can't make them get up.   

[Pappy]

Hello Group; I would like to express deep Thanks to each one who made the EFFORT to make the Deer & Turkey Classic a huge success... Without the preparation ground work there would not have been a event of this size in Illinois this year. Thanks to the Illinois Staff who made this happen. Thanks to the Founder of Appleseed  Friendly Fred who holds the purse strings that allowed this event to blossom into what could drive Illinois Shoot attendance for the next year... Thanks Group, Pappy

[Fred]

   Thanks to all who participated in this!

   Looks like it will become a "regular" in the AS annual promotional calendar.

    Ohio feels the same! (See http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=21646.0;topicseen)

    Slim makes the point that "the other 28 days of Appleseeding" can be just a important to growth of the program as a weekend Appleseed. He's right.

    This is indeed a crucial year for the program, and promotions is the key to making it a success!

    A warm round of applause for all who helped out!

[EEL]

What a great show!  I arrived to help set up early Friday.  Castle Mountain began rolling out all the banners, props, tables, coverings, etc.  It really looked fantastic.  Appleseed is blessed to have so many talented people that can:
                              a.  Think this stuff up
                              b.  Put it on paper
                              c.  Play with the graphics to polish it
                              d.  Get the product to whomever it needs to get to so it will happen.

The graphics were an eye catcher.  Appeal to the passerby and they will stop in. 

Friday started slow as most folks were still at work.  Then it picked up around dinner.  As previously stated, it is also a great opportunity to network with like minded organizations.  NRA, ISRA, ranges, magazine folks, etc.  You can get lots of additional mileage by talking with vendors as well as with the patrons.  Lots of tri-folds and fliers passed out. 

Many don't have time to talk at EVERY booth they see at an event this size, so don't be afraid to just hand them a flier & tri-fold.  They drop it in their bag and look the stuff over when they get home.  Either way, mission accomplished. 

Again, my thanks to ALL the folks that put brain cells into the graphic design, Fred the Social for cracking open the coffers, and all those that came out to man the booth.  More thanks to those that covered 2 other gun shows that same weekend.

EEL.

P.S.  Don't fret that I edited all the above posts    Castle Mountain had it posted as 2001    Merely changed all the replies to read 2011.

[bulletsnbows]

Hard to get decent photos at the show with the funky lighting but I told Dave (OuttaAmmo) I'd post this.




We did hand out quite a few trifolds over at the kid's archery booth too.   


edited to add that this picture was taken on Sunday.

[Garand69]

Excellent work and a huge thanks to all involved!!!

Great efforts and so far the rewards are already sneaking in the door.