GUNBLOGGER RENDEZVOUS

The First Annual

GUNBLOGGER RENDEZVOUS

Either October 27th., 28th., and 29th., or November 3rd, 4th., and 5th.
in Reno, Nevada
At a Hotel to be determined

Note: Scroll down for latest updates

We are pleased to make the preliminary announcement for the First Annual Gunblogger Rendezvous, in Reno, Nevada.

This is just the preliminary announcement (read: "Trial Balloon") to try to get some sort of feedback as to how many of you would be interested in attending.

Here's the basic plan:

Friday Evening - Gather for social hour type informal "Meet and Greet".

Saturday - Various activities during the day, including possible range time! Sit-down dinner 5:30pm.

Sunday - Morning is free so far, nothing scheduled. Shopping, gambling, sight-seeing are all possibilities.

Most of the details are yet to be determined, but the basic concept is to:

1. Provide a low-key and informal setting to meet and visit with other gun-bloggers and mil-bloggers from across the continent and around the world.

2. Provide an informal setting for gun-bloggers and mil-bloggers to meet and visit with firearms and firearm accessory manufacturers, shooting sports clubs and associations, and other related groups. The key word here is informal. This is not intended to be a trade-show setting, but a chance to meet and visit on an informal basis.

3. Possible fund-raising auction and/or door prizes for attendees.

4. Possible High Profile speaker at the dinner.

5. Probably other fun stuff I haven't thought of yet.....

Special conference room rates will be available for conference attendees at the Silver Legacy.

Who can attend: Gun-bloggers, Mil-bloggers, other interested bloggers, and the folks who regularly read the mil and gun blogger blogs, and their families.

To make this all come together, there are a couple of things I need you all to help with.

First of all, I need for all of you gun and mil-bloggers to put the word out and help publicize the Gunblogger Rendezvous here at the beginning so we can get some sort of an idea as to how many folks might be attending. Throw up a post and a link to this post, so we can get the word around about the rendezvous.

Secondly, if you are interested in attending, send me an email at

b l o g ( a t ) w h i d b e y ( d o t ) c o m

and let me know how many in your group might be attending. We aren't asking for a commitment that you are going to attend just yet, but we need to get some idea of just how large we need to be thinking. I suspect that the bigger the turnout, the better the deals we get on the rooms, too!

If you are located somewhere along the highway route between Portland, Oregon, and Reno, and you would be interested in riding a group chartered bus to and from the rendezvous, mention that also in your email.

UPDATES:

01/11/2006 - There has been some discussion of dropping the exhibitors part of the Rendezvous, which would leave all day Saturday up until dinner time open for other activities. One suggestion was to see if we could reserve an indoor gun range and get in some shooting, for those interested in getting in a little range time. There are a lot of things to do in Reno, and this would give everyone more time to explore a bit. This is why we are starting the planning stage of this event ten months in advance! What do you all think?

01/15/2006 - Based on the comments I am getting, we may just leave out the exhibitor's part completely, and send invitations to any of the businesses and clubs that might have exhibited, and invite them to attend with the rest of us.

As to doing this first rendezvous in Reno, rather than Las Vegas, or any other location, my feeling is that there are lots of good places for this to be held, but I am more familiar with Reno, and the people I have been dealing with in Reno have been very good at being helpful. Since I am not located there, I need to do it all by phone and email, and the folks on the other end make all the difference.

02/12/2006 - "Exhibitors" has been dropped. We will have more than enough to do as it is!

A number of people have been talking about getting in some range time, maybe renting a range for a while. It can be cool in Reno in November, so an indoor range could be a good choice. Do any of you in the Reno area know what's available there for ranges? Maybe even a range that rents full auto weapons? How cool would THAT be?

Thanks to those bloggers who have linked to this post, and any of you other bloggers that can link also, it will be greatly appreciated. To make this successful, we need to get the word out, and end up with a good turn-out!

1/26/06 - Everyone seems to agree that we don't need to do any exhibits, as Saturday will be full enough with other things to do. Any one who might have been an exhibitor will be invited to attend the Rendezvous with the rest of us if they are interested in doing so. We still need info on ranges that might be available for rent in the Reno area, and anything else that might be interesting to do while we are there.

2/15/2006 - There is a possibility that the date may get moved up by one week to October 27th, 28th., and 29th. We may also move to another hotel that has free wireless internet in all the rooms. I should have more information in a day or so. Stay tuned!