Overland Expo Sold!

[smlobx]

Hope it's OK to post here on this forum but the two largest Overland Expositions, Expo West and Expo East, has been sold to an Overland Event company...

https://lodestoneevents.com/f/lodestone-events-acquires-overland-expo

The East event have been plagued by (frankly) poor logistical planning so hopefully this will result in a better event for those of us in the Overland Community...

 

[RainGoat]

ExpoWest had some logistical hiccups as well this year so maybe an improvement there as well.

 

[VCeXpedition]

Some look at this as a further commercialization of the Overland hobby / lifestyle.

Some say, you need to make it what it is for you.

I'm firmly in the latter of these two categories, but I don't like to see it taken out of the hands of the passion-driven few (the Hanson's) that created this.
It seems to have grown beyond their ability to completely control it, the above two comments are correct, it needs logistical help, but is this the right answer?

Should be an interesting future, especially the East Coast event that always seemed to be plagued with bad weather / poor location or a combination of these.



Dan.

 

[OkieDavid]

Some look at this as a further commercialization of the Overland hobby / lifestyle.

Some say, you need to make it what it is for you.

I'm firmly in the latter of these two categories, but I don't like to see it taken out of the hands of the passion-driven few (the Hanson's) that created this.
It seems to have grown beyond their ability to completely control it, the above two comments are correct, it needs logistical help, but is this the right answer?

Should be an interesting future, especially the East Coast event that always seemed to be plagued with bad weather / poor location or a combination of these.



Dan.

I take it as a good sign that the article said, "...we are excited to have Roseann, Jonathan and the original Overland Expo executive team on board to help maintain the original vision of the event.”

When you sell your company, you can sell it to someone who thinks they know better and will take it over from you, or you can sell it to someone who thinks they can help you do better. It sound like Lodgestone did the latter and recognizes that at least in the short term, they can benefit from the original founder's vision moving forward.

 

[Rollin Dirty Overland]

Prices are up. By a lot. $300 for one vehicle and two people to camp at OXW this year. Not gonna happen. We will be very much off site and purchasing probably only one day pass.

And the new owners' current policy for a veterans discount is just plain offensive.

 

[RainGoat]

My experience with ExpoWest last year was definitely that it was a money making trade show. Some good deals to be had & always fun to see other rigs but I think I got more out of the camping & talking with other folks than I did out of the “show”. The different “experiences” available to those who pay & the exclusion of those who don’t pay from even being spectators was very off putting.

What I like best about this explosion of “overlanding” is its inclusivity and welcoming & tolerant approach to beginners. Many of the beginners have limited means, just like me decades ago, or want to get their feet wet before making a significant financial investment in this activity. Setting a high entry price point deters “normal” people from exploring the hobby.

I highly recommend the events by the team that does NWOR, BCOR & now RMOR. They have the personal and egalitarian aspect that I’m told ExpoWest once had. ExpoWest was a “one and done” for me but I’ll be looking forward to these others. Big Sky looks to have that feel as well & maybe Cascadia Expodition?

 

[Rollin Dirty Overland]

My experience with ExpoWest last year was definitely that it was a money making trade show. Some good deals to be had & always fun to see other rigs but I think I got more out of the camping & talking with other folks than I did out of the “show”. The different “experiences” available to those who pay & the exclusion of those who don’t pay from even being spectators was very off putting. What I like best about this explosion of “overlanding” is its inclusivity and welcoming & tolerant approach to beginners. Many of the beginners have limited means, just like me decades ago, or want to get their feet wet before making a significant financial investment in this activity. Setting a high entry price point deters “normal” people from exploring the hobby. I highly recommend the events by the team that does NWOR, BCOR & now RMOR. They have the personal and egalitarian aspect that I’m told ExpoWest once had. ExpoWest was a “one and done” for me but I’ll be looking forward to these others. Big Sky looks to have that feel as well & maybe Cascades Expodition?

I don't begrudge them having nothing more than a profit motive, it's a product after all, but that product has to be the message of, "Come one, come all, come see what an awesome thing this is and how anyone, on any budget can do this!" Kinda hard to do when you want $300 to camp in the trees.

What I do begrudge them in the past couple years was a rapidly decaying ability to manage the logistics of growth, but at least they were never horribly abusive with pricing. Now with this new owner, I imagine the logistics and organization will be better, but the pricing appears to have become abusive. I spoke yesterday to a vendor/exhibitor and the price of his normal booth space has nearly doubled. He's had a booth at every OXWest, but may not participate this year. He's in a pickle because he depends on his OXW revenue.

I agree with the sense that, for the last two years, there is a palpable feeling to the beginner or the curious, that there is a massive barrier to entry. That overlanding is only available to the folks who can part with $50 - 100K to get started. The message of the product now seems to be, "Hey poors, come see how rich adventurers spend their money." A large part of that is exactly as you say, how unless you pay for certain things, you're not even allowed to see them.

I'm very curious to see what the day pass price is when those tickets open up in a few weeks.

 

[Kenstaroni]

Someone bought it and kept the original executive team? I mean we all know what happened at Expo East this year, I don't think the ownership is the issue, it's the team behind it. I made big plans to go to expo east early on but as it got closer and I saw how commercialized it was, how unfriendly it was to spectators (park off site and take a shuttle?...really), that I decided to not go. Turns out that was an excellent choice. They were turning away people who paid to park on site, they turned away people who were not able to attend the day they paid for due to the weather and the shuttle service being abysmal, just nothing about the way it was handled made any sense. I Won't attend 2019 unless they really really get their stuff together and ticket prices aren't so ridiculous.

 

[CSG]

All things must pass. These sorts of shows hold no interest to me but then I don't buy any of the products hawked by vendors in any event. I travel and camp in stock rigs.

 

[OkieDavid]

I went in 2017 and 2018. In both cases, I only paid for a day pass, and the pricing on the website in the comparison chart does not show an increase for the 2019 day pass. The attendance seemed almost double between 2017 and 2018 but that could have all been in my head. I can see where increased pricing might actually help make it a more manageable event by providing for more resources, I don't think it's just a money grab. I could be wrong, and if so, that's OK with me too, it is a business. I don't really like camping at festivals or campgrounds where you're right on top of other campers but sometimes that's how it breaks but I would say this, is the cost really that high? Considering how much I spend in gas just to get there, meals, etc., and comparing it to other events like concerts it's not outrageous. Burning man is about $400, plus they have a VIP pass for $1,200. Coachella tickets are about the same with a shuttle pass costing an extra $75. If I take a Wilderness First Aid weekend I'm shelling out $225 and up. A day-long whitewater kayaking course with a nationally ranked competitor as the instructor is being held in my city this spring and it's $300 for the day. Between security, logistics (from porta-potties to trash) and overall crowd control if they are trying to run a large scale event safely, it costs money. Yes prices may be up, but let's keep things in perspective, its not just a local club meeting in a campground somewhere, its a big, big show. I promise I spent way more than $300 in hotel fees when I went to Outdoor retailer and I wasn't even staying in Salt Lake City. The only other thing I would add is that as they grow and charge more, they are also raising my expectations on how well things like check-in are handled, if you get the money, they better be spending some of it to make the event run smoothly.

 

[RainGoat]

These sorts of shows hold no interest to me but then I don't buy any of the products hawked by vendors in any event. I travel and camp in stock rigs.

Just as an FYI. My first exposure to this was NWOR on a day pass. I didn’t go for the vendors as I drive an old Nissan. Also, for the past 30 years I’ve generally tried to avoid other vehicles & campers & camped primitively in a tent with an essentially stock rig. However, I REALLY enjoyed the event. It was the other attendees that made it for me. Ray Hyland had engineered it to be a mixing ground of different vehicles, experience levels & styles of off-roading & camping. I didn’t even drive the course (open to all) but while spectating I chatted with Jeep guys, Ford F-150 kids, Sportsmobile & Sprinter families, etc. The classes were open to all & the participants treated each other well. Most of the vendors were chatting instead of hawking. The best part was simply walking the grounds, people were friendly, inviting & chatty. Despite what I thought I knew, I still picked up some pearls of wisdom. I would go again in a heartbeat & I’d like to make BCOR as Canada always has an interestingly different angle on things. My point being, you might be surprised at what you found there.

ExpoWest this year was nothing like that experience. It was only saved by the fact that at least I had a mission to explore armor options for my Mom’s new T4R. The best time I had was chatting with people in camp. The only way I’d go again was if I was local and could just hit the camping area in the late afternoon-early evening, maybe with a single day pass.

 

[Todd & Meg]

This was the year my wife and I were going to do the full experience. I’ll have our teardrop mostly done by then and seemed like a fun thing to do. We went on a day pass two years ago and thought it was okay. When I started to check out prices we are looking at close to $600 for the full and almost $300 for just day passes and camping for the weekend. Plus food and gas. Luckily for us it’s only a 3 hour drive.

I think I would rather use that money and use it for trips. That would be 2-3 weeks worth easy. I would miss meeting people in the campground. I hear that is the best part of Expo.

I have no problem with people making money. And if it cost more to make it run better than they need to do it. But if the bang for the buck isn’t there more people will not be going. And it just reinforces the idea that overlanding is for rich people.

Maybe we will just go for Sunday and camp Sunday night in the area.

Todd

 

[sabjku]

My take on any event like this is it's for the experience of going out and meeting like minded individuals that share the same passion and interests as myself, and learning from them. For me, it's not about the show. Let's face it, we've all seen everything on display at a show online in pics and video previously, even though it is cool to check it out in person as well. Very rarely is there a new item launched at an event like this any longer. Yea, walking through the vendor area is a great experience, and maybe you'll land a few decent offers, but it's more about the people attending, and their vehicles and equipment. And where else can you get hundreds and hundreds of really awesome vehicles together like this.

I've only been to OE East once, and that was this year. Despite all of the challenges that many were subjected to, I still feel it was worth it. Four nights of camping, great people, awesome vehicles and gear to check out, and it was under $200 for me and my Jeep and trailer-not too bad.

These are monster events, and take on a huge amount of effort, time, and money, to put on. It's a years worth of planning for a weekend's worth of fun for those on the back end. I'm not really sure what my threshold would be price wise on attending, but it looks like $170(with fee) for the full weekend pass with camping to attend OEW is what I'm seeing on the site right now. I think that's pretty reasonable, at least for that ticket.