Maggie Valley Rally Advertisement on Spyderlovers Forum

[south GA Farm Boy]

Guys,
I didn't attend the Rally at Maggie Valley this year because their was very little about it on this Forum! I have been the other years and enjoyed it very much, but this year, no one seem to be in charge, and after several phone calls, e-mails, etc., I decided not to go! This is the only rally we attend since we live in deep South Georgia, and our age is a factor! I may be able to attend one more, but we are not going hundreds of miles, not knowing if they will be vendors there or not!! If we are going to have another rally at Maggie Valley next year, then let us get start getting sponsors, fair ground ground reserved, information out to vendors, motel reservation planning, and letting Spyder world know we are going to do something down south!! I am so disappointed in the lack of enthusiasm for a Spyder Rally in the Southern part of the United States! The Civil War is over, let's pull together and share some fun and excitement for our Spyder members, or close up shop, sell the stupid things and get ready and move on to another hobby, just my two senses worth !!! I am sure a lot of you will disagree with me, but I have the same rights as you do, and that is my opinion!

 

[ARtraveler]

Putting on a national rally is a pretty big deal. In most cases the major items are left to just a few people. There is a LOT of planning to do well in advance, as you mention.

Some rallies do come and go due to diminishing interest for various reasons. It remains to be seen what will happen with Maggie Valley.

Advertising is one part. One technical error that I see is that many rallies seem to be Facebook oriented now. SL is a major Spyder site...so should not be overlooked.

Time will tell how the rallies go. We had three in our area over a three week period...we had to decide on the ONE that we were going to attend. Would have been nice to hit all three, but that was not to happen for us.

 

[bayoubill]

i agree 100%, i didn't go because i couldn't find out anything about what was happening or vendors, and i'm not taking a 7 hour round trip to find out.

 

[JayBros]

I think and am hoping that Maggie Valley this year is an aberration that resulted from the sale of Matthews Fun Machines as they were heavily involved in planning until the sale which itself was a bolt out of the blue. ARtraveler is right in the bulls-eye.

 

[ulflyer]

I went with a buddy who has a Can Am. Not knowing much about what vendors were going to be there, we planned on one night. Enjoyed it so much we stayed three nites. Rooms readily avail. Vendors selling tires, alignments, mufflers, horns, DDS deletes, lights, etc. Small area, but always found parking. Personally, even tho I drive a Slingshot, I enjoyed it more than the Slingshot rally earlier this spring. I think it was due to the smaller vendor/parking areas which caused folks to congregate that encouraged more interaction.
The Slingshot rally was in the fairgrounds and didn't have many more vendors and everything was so spread out. Lot of walking, not much talking.

Jay, made me wish I still had my RT!

 

[Woodaddict]

I went at last minute, as I had break between my duties building a new house. Was a great nice day, (Saturday), vendors were jam packed side by side. I managed to spend about $170. A few former ones didn't show up compared to 2018. This site was minimal parking compared to fairgrounds. I did see some spyders gathering at old fairgrounds, maybe a group ride. Always like riding in the area, so after Butts on the Creek eats, putt-putt golf, went home by BRP to Asheville, then I40
somebody lost their spyder key in parking lot, hope they found before too long

 

[Spyderjuice]

Ga. Farm Boy,
There was a web site. If you go to the top of Spyder Lovers web page you will see "Spyder Events". Click on that and look down the list of events and click on which one you like.

I went this year and had a great time. Great weather this year.

The Maggie Valley event web page is not a real good one, but if you click on Rally Events, you will find a link to vendors, hotels, etc. I heard that Value Assessories and one other vendor are planning to sponsor the event next year. Hope that's true.

Here was the link to this years event: http://spyderadventures.com/home/

 

[BajaRon]

There were some leadership changes this year out of necessity. Though not quite as organized as in previous years, it was, none the less, a better event (in my opinion) than previous years. Lots of vendors, great weather and a good number of people/Spyders. Well worth the trip. I didn't have any problems getting information. But I understand that my experience was not universal.

 

[CopperSpyder]

Guys,
I didn't attend the Rally at Maggie Valley this year because their was very little about it on this Forum! I have been the other years and enjoyed it very much, but this year, no one seem to be in charge, and after several phone calls, e-mails, etc., I decided not to go! This is the only rally we attend since we live in deep South Georgia, and our age is a factor! I may be able to attend one more, but we are not going hundreds of miles, not knowing if they will be vendors there or not!! If we are going to have another rally at Maggie Valley next year, then let us get start getting sponsors, fair ground ground reserved, information out to vendors, motel reservation planning, and letting Spyder world know we are going to do something down south!! I am so disappointed in the lack of enthusiasm for a Spyder Rally in the Southern part of the United States! The Civil War is over, let's pull together and share some fun and excitement for our Spyder members, or close up shop, sell the stupid things and get ready and move on to another hobby, just my two senses worth !!! I am sure a lot of you will disagree with me, but I have the same rights as you do, and that is my opinion!

The rally was list here with a link to their web site and on their web site it had under (mouse over see drop down box) Rally INFO then (click on) registered vendors is a list of vendors (click on) area hotels and a list of then there and a news link also. It was there all along. I did see your post but though that when you got the web site link you were able to find your way around the web page. I did not make that web page so don't look at me.:dontknow:

 

[UtahPete]

You are criticizing a bunch of unpaid volunteers. Not cool.

 

[Peter Aawen]

You are criticizing a bunch of unpaid volunteers. Not cool.

I dunno UP, constructive criticism can help make the next event better, and you've gotta admit that if there were any potentially interested readers here who couldn't readily find the info they needed to encourage them to attend, then raising that as a concern so that the organisers (regardless of whether they're volunteer or paid) can improve on that in time for next year's event, it's very likely a good thing, isn't it?! :thumbup:

 

[UtahPete]

I dunno UP, constructive criticism can help make the next event better, and you've gotta admit that if there were any potentially interested readers here who couldn't readily find the info they needed to encourage them to attend, then raising that as a concern so that the organisers (regardless of whether they're volunteer or paid) can improve on that in time for next year's event, it's very likely a good thing, isn't it?! :thumbup:

Maybe. I think that depends on a number of factors. I think it's important for those who attend events like this to differentiate between commercial ventures and purely voluntary ones. Too much unfair criticism of the latter will result in fewer choices I think.

Apparently this one began as a commercially sponsored event and might not have happened this year at all were it not for some selfless volunteers stepping up to make it happen. They deserve kudos not criticism I think.

If the event suffered from low participation and the organizers were frantically searching for reasons why, the OP's comments might be welcomed. But there's no evidence of that. Besides, there are more measures of success than high attendance numbers for a non-commercial event.

 

[rick_w]

We will be taking over the lead in this event, with help from multiple people. Regina does not have the time to coordinate this event, but will be helping. Also the dealer that sponsored it went out of business. The event had to be moved to a different location because of a pretty big expense in renting the Festival grounds and also having to stay into Sunday for grounds inspection and getting the $1500 deposit back.
It will be held again next year at the same location as this year at the Elevated Mountain Distillery, 2nd weekend in October.
We will have a page up in the next month or so with information. We will see about improving a few things including some signage up front.
We will have rides every day like this year along with a dinner ride and door prizes on Friday night.
If anyone would like to help please contact us.
Rick

 

[bayoubill]

all i ask for is a list of vendors and the services they will be providing, i found the vendor list but i did search and even ask on here and couldn't find out if anybody was doing dess dis-able or alignments.

 

[ARtraveler]

We will be taking over the lead in this event, with help from multiple people. Regina does not have the time to coordinate this event, but will be helping. Also the dealer that sponsored it went out of business. The event had to be moved to a different location because of a pretty big expense in renting the Festival grounds and also having to stay into Sunday for grounds inspection and getting the $1500 deposit back.
It will be held again next year at the same location as this year at the Elevated Mountain Distillery, 2nd weekend in October.
We will have a page up in the next month or so with information. We will see about improving a few things including some signage up front.
We will have rides every day like this year along with a dinner ride and door prizes on Friday night.
If anyone would like to help please contact us.
Rick

Thank you for the update. This is just what most of us were looking for. :bowdown: Kudos to all the volunteers, both compensated and not.

 

[UtahPete]

Rick_W, thanks for taking this on. :thumbup:

 

[Spyderjuice]

all i ask for is a list of vendors and the services they will be providing, i found the vendor list but i did search and even ask on here and couldn't find out if anybody was doing dess dis-able or alignments.

Both were being done this year.

 

[bayoubill]

Both were being done this year.

i found the site with vendor list but couldn't find anything about what they were selling or doing, just the vendor name doesn't help, and i asked on here several times about dess, along with several others with no answer, and i asked on here about alignments with no answer, so if there was a list i would like to know where it was.

 

[CopperSpyder]

i found the site with vendor list but couldn't find anything about what they were selling or doing, just the vendor name doesn't help, and i asked on here several times about dess, along with several others with no answer, and i asked on here about alignments with no answer, so if there was a list i would like to know where it was.

List of vendors. Vendor tel # there, web search of vendor? Ask about stuff here you got the web site. That is what everyone here knew. This year is over, so maybe you can help Rick_W get that info out by posting it here next year.

 

[south GA Farm Boy]

Thanks Rick for your positive comments about the Maggie Valley Rally for next year! It is nice to see good clean positive answers, without someone losing their cool over a statement! Next year, if I am able I will try to be one of those unpaid volunteers that is needed to help put on a rally of this nature! Best to you in all that you do for Spyder owners!