[Mad Mike]

Given the description below, would you be interested in attending the first North American Rally Expo and Convention?

DISCLAIMER - I am only involved in this venture in an advisory capacity - this poll is just me helping out ...

This, the first in a small series of polls, is being presented to gauge interest in a proposed event that will likely be named a phrase that describes it pretty well - North American Rally Expo and Convention. If a middle-of-the-US event this fall (scheduled around US stage rally events) unaffiliated with any sanctioning organization had representation from each of the NA rally sanctioning bodies (CAF, CARS, NASA, R-A, SCCA, USAC, etc), boasted automotive & parts manufacturer, vendor and shop displays, offered seminars aplenty, an organizer's round table and an open, North American Rally Town Hall (for lack of a better name) among other things (maybe a benefit rallycross of some kind), would you be interested in attending?

To date I have spoken with Terry Epp (CARS), James Han (Subaru of America, Inc.), Ray Hocker (NASA), JB Niday (R-A), Sue Robinson (SCCA) and others and everyone has indicated an interest in participating. Future polls (soon) will focus on the event's location, dates and a list of proposed seminars and other activities. For now, the folks considering launching this just want an idea if there is enough interest to pursue the idea further, so vote now and ask anyone who might consider attending to visit ss.com and vote.

Thanks!

Edited minor name change ...

 

[Jeff Hagan]

RE: Given the description below, would you be interested in attending the first North American Rally Expo and Convention?

Great idea, Mike.

Personally, seminars and the "town hall" idea have the most appeal for me. That, and just getting rally people from across the continent in the same place at the same time.

You mentioned that you'd schedule it around US rally events; you might want to make sure it doesn't conflict with any Canadian events either (although I haven't checked to see if that's possible).

Jeff

 

[Mad Mike]

RE: Given the description below, would you be interested in attending the first North American Rally Expo and Convention?

>Great idea, Mike.

Not my idea or even my gig - I'm just helping out. The prospective organizers will chime in here soon - I hope ...

>Personally, seminars and the "town hall" idea have the most
>appeal for me. That, and just getting rally people from
>across the continent in the same place at the same time.

Even though I was contacted about this idea prior to the "Madness" thread, it certainly dovetails nicely with that conversation.

>You mentioned that you'd schedule it around US rally events;
>you might want to make sure it doesn't conflict with any
>Canadian events either (although I haven't checked to see if
>that's possible).
>
>Jeff

I found out during our conversation yesterday that Terry Epp is one busy fella, just about year-round!

Thanks for the feedback!

Halley ...
I wanna be invited to Jake's low water bridge christening ...
http://www.realautosport.com

Edit for grammatical hiccup

 

[Lurch]

RE: Given the description below, would you be interested in attending the first North American Rally Expo and Convention?

Very interested. The sooner a date can be set, the more likely I'd attend. I'd also inform many companies I do business with in case they were interested. You'll have better luck from businesses if you make it very far from any SEMA date or else put it in the same city as a SEMA event on the same weekend. I'd also try to steer around PRI.

Good luck!

 

[jeffy]

RE: Given the description below, would you be interested in attending the first North American Rally Expo and Convention?

I think this is a good idea - however I wonder about the format?
(envision a 5 way big-time wrestling brawl w/ us spectating -haha).

Maybe these open forums and/or some type of questionaire as to what
we as competitors want would give insight to the "Big 5" and they could meet alone, without us (the rowdie crowd throwing things into the ring).

My feeling is that these folks (at least the ones I've had contact w/ in the past year) are working as hard as possible to please their own group.

 

[KMW_MGBGT]

RE: Given the description below, would you be interested in attending the first North American Rally Expo and Convention?

In addition to the seminars open to all attendees, we're planning (with enough support from the rally community of course) on having a few "invite only" sessions. Some for the reasons you mention, some just to give the people involved a chance for some honest discussion.

Organizers/promoters/other "wrestlers" would/could be one, but we are also planning a invite only round-table for photographers -- they are an important part of our sport and I'm sure there could be some great dialog if these guys got together.

With enough attendance we will also make meeting rooms available during "down time" for sanctioning bodies, etc to have private meetings...but the key is to get enough of everyone to show up. It's easy for a lot of "wrestling" to go on here, particularly with the ease of hot posting and so forth. And it doesn't help people are scattered across the continent. Perhaps a "real life" meeting, with some appropriate "filtering" in place, things could be very different. Maybe I'm a dreamer, but I like to think of the positive things that could happen if the right people got together and talked this over a beer or two. At the very least I think there could be some understanding.

-Keith Wheeler

 

[MDBodnar]

RE: Given the description below, would you be interested in attending the first North American Rally Expo and Convention?

While I think this is a great idea, I think realistic expectations should be understood.

Actual turn-out is likely to be similar in number to those who attended the SCCA National Convention. Someone will chime in if I am wrong, but you could count on about 20 people, maybe 30 or 40 in a really good year.

These numbers do not seem to suit the purpose.

If you are also looking at having potential rally shops attend and you expect competitors to show up and buy goodies, I am not sure the suppliers would be happy with their sales or exposure even if 200 rallyists attended (given that all 200 are unlikely to buy Rally goodies).

If this is supposed to be rally Sema, then I am afraid the rally mod crowd just isn't there yet in the US.

All that said -- this is still a great idea, it just needs to be realisticly scoped and sold. It then needs to be grown on an ongoing basis, not only grown with rally, but as an aid to help rally grow.

If this starts as an annual rally meeting and some of the organizers, competitors and interested supports, sponsors showed up to meet and discuss relevent issues I would consider it a great success.

Dream Big, Spend Wisely.

Mike

 

[matt b]

RE: Given the description below, would you be interested in attending the first North American Rally Expo and Convention?

I would be more likely to attend were it near a major air hub, such as St Louis.

I am cheap. Or Poor. Or both.

I can barely get away for a "weekend" to rally with vacation time constraints.

If I could fly into somewhere Friday night, not need to rent a car, and fly home Sunday night, things seem more plausible.


Alternately, if something like this were combined with the PRI show (and I'm sure there is some reason it couldn't be that I'm just too ignorant to know of), that would also be a bit more of a draw.

 

[RichardM]

RE: Given the description below, would you be interested in attending the first North American Rally Expo and Convention?

>
>I would be more likely to attend were it near a major air hub,
>such as St Louis.
>
>I am cheap. Or Poor. Or both.
>
>I can barely get away for a "weekend" to rally with vacation
>time constraints.
>
>If I could fly into somewhere Friday night, not need to rent a
>car, and fly home Sunday night, things seem more plausible.
>
>
>Alternately, if something like this were combined with the PRI
>show (and I'm sure there is some reason it couldn't be that
>I'm just too ignorant to know of), that would also be a bit
>more of a draw.
>
>
>
>
>
>
Pick you up in Dallas. Love Field, home of Southwest is just a mile away from my office.

 

[KMW_MGBGT]

RE: Given the description below, would you be interested in attending the first North American Rally Expo and Convention?

Some quick comments:

First I hope this event would be closer to those great CRS schools rather than the SCCA convention. If we're really lucky maybe no one will talk about insurance increases... I'll be honest, one of the initiators for this idea was my wonderful experiences at the CRS schools...and as I've told some folks already, I think licensing schools are critical to our sport. It's economics 101 -- want more or better of something? Increase the demand.

Second, from the Little Rock airport (plenty of Southwest 737s parked there) to any of the major hotels in Hot Springs it's about an hour drive...and much prettier than the hour or so you'd spend getting from a "big city" airport to a hotel. If we have enough attendees and need we've already planned on organizing shuttles.

Third -- thanks for all the feedback!

-Keith Wheeler

 

[matt b]

RE: Given the description below, would you be interested in attending the first North American Rally Expo and Convention?

thanks for pointing out the Little Rock option.

Looks like lots of flights for under $200 to there.

Are there enough body shops in town to fix all the rental cars before we need to return them Sunday night? }(

 

[Lurch]

RE: Given the description below, would you be interested in attending the first North American Rally Expo and Convention?

>Alternately, if something like this were combined with the PRI
>show (and I'm sure there is some reason it couldn't be that
>I'm just too ignorant to know of), that would also be a bit
>more of a draw.

There is no reason that it couldn't be combined with PRI or SEMA. It would just take some legwork to find an open place to hold it, as the host town gets a little busy. PRI is moving to Orlando this year and that would open up things a lot in my estimation as long as its not on a weekend that Disney is doing a promotion as well.

Better yet, you can speak to the people at either PRI or SEMA and they can help you set up a conference...especially if you are bringing in potential buyers to products that their members are selling. Both of those events have schedules of meetings, classes, round table discussions, etc. in ballrooms that could work perfectly for this type of event. Moreover, many companies are already there and it would save them the cost of committing to another (very unknown) show. It would also make going to PRI more attractive for the rally crowd, as there is something more specialized for us there.

Check out www.performanceracing.com

Not trying to throw a wrench in your plans or anything. Just a suggestion. You have a great idea!

 

[Mad Mike]

RE: N-A Rally Convention Poll

Just a bump so we can keep recording votes.

Be sure to visit Keith Wheeler's thread on this subject - http://specialstage.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=222&topic_id=35482&mesg_id=35482&page=

Halley ...
I wanna be invited to Jake's low water bridge christening ...
http://www.realautosport.com

 

[Mad Mike]

41 total votes so far - anyone else?

TTT ...

Halley ...
I wanna be invited to Jake's low water bridge christening ...
http://www.realautosport.com