E-Scrap 2017 Conference

Laughable is my word for it. $625 to register, hell my registration for CES was free this year. Word to the wise about trade shows, if they are very expensive and small, it's not a trade show its a back room deal you don't really want a part of. What are these people going to tell me that I don't know already?



Anyone actually going to this? Did anyone attend last year?

Yep, and I dont know if they have a list. The resources available will always pale to SMF in my opinion.

I do think we should have an SMF get together. Here me out on this one. I know it's been brought up before, but many of our resources are retiring or simply too busy to contribute often online. I for one would be happy to have a casual meet and greet, maybe a bbq and then a games day, yanno standard stuff, cornhole...horseshoes etc. The point would be to connect resources, collaborate and sort of break the classic mold of "the big scrap yards always win". We can share stories of finds, pictures, whatever lol. I do think its worth a plane ticket and two days of our time. A beach or similar venue, maybe a national park would be a good place to do this. Certainly, again my opinion, would be more valuable than a scrap conference in which half the exhibitors don't even have working websites let alone phone numbers. (I am guilty of a bad website lol).

Ecycle Atlanta, I gained WAAAAAAAAAY more contacts just going to CES. The biggest trade show in the world and one which is usually only $100 to get into provided your in the consumer electronics industry. My chicago project was a direct result of making contacts with other CES attendees. I finally got a chance to see the exhibitor list and took the time to one by one check out who they were, websites and whatnot. It just IS NOT what I expected. I normally wouldn't talk down upon any exhibition but some of the companies in attendence that do what I do but provide only a fraction of the return, sell direct to china, behave in a manner I dont condone towards their incoming sellers...I'm trying to change that part of the industry, the USA to China, remarket back to the USA and Europe network is just pointless and for what? Labor savings or just because someone doesn't understand or care? None of the attending remarketing companies are actually american. (Save for one, but according to their website that is not true either they are just dba)

Anyways, rant over, I can host something next year for basically a food fee, or maybe no fee at all if I can convince some food trucks to hang out lol. That's about it from me, back to work and all that. I'll check back in later. I do have some questions:

Where? What time of year? One day or two day? I have some big hitters for copper in my area and a refiner I use that might be interested in attending at least one day if we say...have a get together in the Chicago area. Let me know your thoughts on the subject.

I wouldn't do chicago in the winter. That's a really bad idea for a few other reasons including upredictable great lakes weather. I am not available in spring, I manage the business and do tree transplanting from april to june whenever im not at the shop. We also have apple harvests so that's out too. Anything Mid September to Mid October is probably an excellent period imo.

Originally Posted by armygreywolf

I do think we should have an SMF get together. Here me out on this one. I know it's been brought up before, but many of our resources are retiring or simply too busy to contribute often online. I for one would be happy to have a casual meet and greet, maybe a bbq and then a games day, yanno standard stuff, cornhole...horseshoes etc. The point would be to connect resources, collaborate and sort of break the classic mold of "the big scrap yards always win". We can share stories of finds, pictures, whatever lol. I do think its worth a plane ticket and two days of our time. A beach or similar venue, maybe a national park would be a good place to do this. Certainly, again my opinion, would be more valuable than a scrap conference in which half the exhibitors don't even have working websites let alone phone numbers. (I am guilty of a bad website lol).

why doesn't Sir Scrappy host........I don't drink but would get a good laugh at his expense wandering around the sandbar