@cruiseroutfit I think it's an issue of perspective. You travel in more rarefied air when you go to an Expo. The vast, vast majority of us have no idea of who the global travelers are and consequently they don't stand out. To us, it's a giant vendor city with bad camping. I've been to West twice (once as a vendor) and PNW once. I've not found a way to really connect with the classes. It seems like the ones that I'm interested in aren't free, are in the baking sun, or are at a time that doesn't work. And as for the camping, parking in full sun packed in with a ton of people who stay up making noise... no thanks!
So while I believe you're 100% correct with what the Expos offer, it's hasn't played out for me that way in reality. I do appreciate your perspective, it caused me to reconsider. Perhaps I'll look more closely at PNW and see if I can attend differently than in the past.
Ask
@Jetboy, he's the only person I know that can identify the overland authenticity of the 20,000+ attendees of Overland Expo West without ever having set foot at one
How do I identify seasoned travelers? Well, beyond simply talking to them... dropping in on any of these free presentations would be a near sure fire method.
Baja Mexico Roundtable Q&A (FJ40 owner Slow Baja is on this one as I recall)
Central America Border Crossings (Lory Perfect, Mexico and CenAm regular)
Pan American Highway (Eric & Brittany Highland, currently traveling the Pan-Am full-time)
A2A Expedition: Africa to the Artctic, Amererica to Asia, Graeme & Luisa Bell
Border to Border, Highway 89, Canada to Mexico
many, many more just like these too
The event doesn't have a gate keeper to determine who's "real" and who trailered their overland vehicle to the event. While I suspect 95% of attendees and vendors do in fact drive to the event... I've never bothered to even put thought to that, it just doesn't matter in the context of a vendor show. In the case of Westcott and the three LC250's they brought, I think one is his and two belong to Toyota. Legalities & logistics prevail and it often makes sense to have them transported and then you don't have to try and pull them in/out of a vendor booth each night when you depart or need to head off to a meal. For many vendors it just makes sense that way. I can't imagine a reason those in the paid camping would trailer a vehicle to the event. I've never paid to camp there so I'm the wrong guy to ask.
As for the hot sun and conflicting class schedules. I don't know how to assist there. Many classes are taught all three days and/or multiple times a day. For example our hands-on tire repair and intro to recovery class is all three days. We get 30-60 in attendance each class. Some often migrate out in the first 15-20 minutes, the sun or rain or snow certainly have an influence on that. About half of those that stay for the 1hr class stick arond another 30-60 minutes after to do additional demo's or answer questions. If they are buying a day pass(s) and $25/day, I suspect 1-2 classes, a wander through the vendor area and sit in on a few presentations and it's a value and they walk away motivated and enthused. The event isn't for everyone and I have zero vested stake in it being considered a success by the members of Mud or not
However, they just celebrated year 15 and the four shows continue to grow and attract bigger and bigger vendors. Toyota and Lexus jumped on just last year. At the West event you could see and sit in a GX550, 6th Gen 4Runner, LX600, TH Tacoma, etc. That's worth $25 to someone shopping cars as you won't be able to do that at a Toyota/Lexus dealership for a year.
Edit, I forgot to mention. Ivan Stewart was at Overland Expo West again this year. It's not uncommon to see him just wandering the show the last couple of years but this year he was in the Magnaflow (exhaust) booth doing a meet/greet and autographs, I'd pay $25 for that... dude is an amazing motorsports legend and ambassador
He too would ask for Jetboys autograph and advice on who's-who at the show
