We will be attending the MakerX 2020 at the Ohio Expo Center on 2/29/20. They gave us a huge area and we need to fill it with ships to display. Come on out and support the club, here are the details they sent me. MakerX takes place on Saturday, Feb. 29th in the Lausche Building of the Ohio Expo Center. Directions to the building can be found here: http://makerx.org/index.php/venue/ Use the 17th Ave entrance to the Expo Center. The Expo Center will charge $5 per vehicle entry at the 17th Ave gate for parking (cash will be fastest). It would be nice if exhibitors did not fill up the parking spaces closest to the MakerX event entrance at Lausche in order to leave those for guests. There is ample parking all around the building. Exhibitor set-up time is 7:30am-10am. We can guide you to your exhibit location but do not have the staff on hand to assist you with move-in or set up. The event headquarters is the IEEE booth at the main entrance, spaces 108 & 109. Ask someone at that booth if you need assistance anytime during the day. The event hours are 10am to 4pm. Exhibitors need to be ready to receive visitors at 10 and remain available until 4. Do not pack up and leave early! It’s really disappointing to our afternoon visitors and we do get complaints about exhibitors who have left early. Attached is a floorplan of the exhibit hall with the exhibit spaces labeled (spaces are mostly numbered in rows left to right). Also attached is a list of exhibitors where you can find the spaces you are assigned. It’s possible that we will need to make a few small changes to the assignments before the morning of the event. I will email you before the morning of the event if so. The event entrance is marked as MAIN ENTRANCE on the floorplan. You can also use the north and south doors on the same side of the building to move in and out. For move in and out of objects that don’t fit through regular doors we will also have available the large overhead door at the North end of the building (right side in the floorplan) from 7:30-8:30am and after 4:30pm. We need to limit that time for safety and to keep the place warm. The green area on the floorplan is for people circulation space. Fire code requires a minimum of 10’ aisles and 20’ around every door. Tables and chairs will be set up for you as indicated on the floorplan. You can move them around in your space as you wish but be considerate of your neighbors. These 8’ tables will have rough wooden surfaces, it’s a good idea to bring a table cloth or other covering if you want yours to look nice and avoid splinters. Conference room 4 is a designated storage/changing room for cosplayers. It will be managed by the 501st/Rebel Legion folks set up in front of it. Conference rooms 5 & 6 will be closed. Each exhibitor will have access to a minimum of one 120v electrical outlet. However, it won’t necessarily be right at your table. There are outlets all along the walls (not marked on floor plan) and additional outlets will be set up in the center of the room approximately where shown on the floor plan. There will be an electrician on site to assist with power and also make sure that exhibitors are conforming with the Center’s requirements, which are that all extension cords and power strips are grounded (3-wire) and UL listed. Everyone who is planning to use electricity should bring a 20’ UL listed 3 wire extension cord plus a power strip with sufficient outlets for your needs. We will not have these available for loan or rent. If you want to use wifi at the event you can purchase access for $20 per two devices from Netsteady once you arrive at the venue. Log on to their wifi network and make your purchase. Cell phone service seems pretty good in the building so tethering to you cell phone for wifi might be easier and cheaper. The Expo Center does not allow anything to be attached by any method to walls, columns, or building fixtures without paid arrangement through them. Thus, your exhibit needs to be completely free-standing, including all signage. Cox Concessions will be selling food and beverages and will have their own seating available. This is the in-house concessionaire for the Expo Center so expect the food to be basic. We have worked with them to reduce the wait times and other issues that turned up last year but I encourage you to bring your own lunch or pre-order a box lunch to be delivered to your exhibit space via the attached form. This is especially important if you are there alone. There are large decent restrooms in the building and the building is heated. It’s all one flat floor. You can find more information about the Lausche building here: https://ohioexpocenter.com/rental-facilities/buildings-and-floorplans/lausche-building/ Our space is circled in red.
This was a very successful event for us. Five captains brought 34 ships ranging from the 1/96 scale HMS Hood down to the USS Nokomis tugboat at 8.3". The area we had for the display was huge, which was really nice. We talked to a lot people that showed a lot of interest in our hobby. Many just thought we were a scale ship club. When we pointed out that we shoot and sink the ships they would stop and ask more questions.
How many new captains are buying a ship and getting into the hobby. I’ve gone to many events like this and get tons of interest but have yet to hook a new battler. One year we were at an event and battle the next day. No one even came to watch us battle. It was very disappointing.
I learned of this hobby from GLAS members being at an rc airplane swap meet, and I was there looking for deals on servos for my racing buggy and short course truck. It was a couple years after I joined though, as I was still heavily into racing then. Once my group of friends and I got new jobs, we all fell out of racing, and that's when I started into this hobby.
I would guess that only 2 or 3 will follow up and contact us. I think some families might also come see us battle, although I don't think they are interested in joining the hobby. I think these maker events get us more people that are interested that we see at RC events.
For some reason it doesn't seem to translate over for the airplane guys. Myself and some others being exceptions. Not sure why.
GLAS snagged one from a Flint area RC swap,took him 2 years to show up, and one off Craigslist. disheartening sometimes.
Based on last year Von Scores we had about 65 active battlers. We have 330 million people in this country (men, women and children) That would be ONE BATTLER for every 5 MILLION people. Good news - based on what we do for a hobby, WE ARE NOT QUITTERS . We will "GETTER DONE"
