Heading out to EVCCON

This is the last post until I get to the EVCCON - Electric Vehicle Conversion Convention.  This convention is being put on by Jack Rickard and Brian Noto, hosts of the EVTV car conversion shop and video series.  The speaker and vendor lineup is great.

Here is the blurb on the EVCCON web page.  I'll let Jack and Brian describe it themselves.  I've been registered for a few months now and am looking forward to getting on the plane on Wednesday.

I'll try to do a post each day with the highlights of the activities.

September 21-25, 2011 - Cape Girardeau Missouri

• In April of 2011, in response to a few requests from our viewers, we announced a small gathering of EVTV viewers for the fall of 2011 done in "convention style" with industry speakers such as George Hamstra of Netgain Motors, Bill Ritchie of HPEVS, and a few others for three intense days of educational sessions. Priced at $595, we offered to discount that to $5.95 if you brought your LiFePo4 powered car.
• By June 1, 2011, we had 75 registered attendees with 25 cars already signed up and attendees coming from as far away as Germany, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Having previous experience in the trade show business, we're keenly aware that 90% of attendees commit to attend a convention in the final two weeks preceding an event. And so we are currently planning for a full blown convention at the Cape Girardeau Airport with 500 attendees and 80-100 vehicles and are adding speakers daily. It could quite go beyond that.
• This is NOT a gathering of people who think electric cars are cool, or for OEM's to have an autoshow. It is not really designed to "promote" the electric car concept. Our viewers are a little beyond all that already.
• This is a meeting of people who BUILD electric cars for fun or profit and most of our attendees either operate small conversion shops or plan to. Some are from University build teams and indeed a few actually do work in the engineering group at conventional automotive OEMs. Some will have small businesses providing componentry to this group - indeed we're already aware of several stunning announcements already planned for the date. It will be heavily focused on educational sessions, and very technical - discussing the latest developments in battery technology, drive trains, thermal management, control, instrumentation, and related disciplines along with tips and experiences of some of the veterans who run successful conversion shops NOW.
• We will try to make it fun as well with scenic drives, a car show and parade for the locals, awards dinner, tour of EVTV studios/motor verks, an autocross, etc.
• The OEM's are not going to do it. The government is not going to do it. But we see a new era of thousands of small boutique custom conversion shops converting all manner of classic automobiles, late model automobiles, and even experimental automobiles springing up across the land to support a growing desire for a real, efficient, and AVAILABLE electric car. We intend EVCCON 2011 to mark and celebrate the beginning of this new model for the adoption of electric vehicles of all sorts. This is truly a grassroots revolution in how we build, purchase, and use automobiles, and the landscape will never be the same again. You won't want to miss the beginning.