Please bear with me, I'm not very good at writing long semi-detailed posts. Friday and Saturday I went to the Prepper Conference in Black Mountain NC. Times were Friday 5pm until 9pm. Saturday 8am until 5pm. Yeah, it ran over LoL The variety of people there was astounding. Young, old, black, white, asian, indian(the country), handicapped. The majority appeared to be between 40-60 years old. I met an talked with several people. Don't worry I flew the SM Flag. They had blank 3"x4" stickers I presume for writing your name on. I took two & wrote "SurvivalMonkey.com" on both. Wore one & when I carried my work bag Saturday put the other on it. Carried my work bag as it has every thing I'd need without the long hike back to my truck. Just happens my work bag is a Maxpedition Pygmy II Falcon backpack. LoL Sum the speakers, it felt what they was saying was Dumbed Down. But then, I suspect more than a few the folks was only there because they watched Doomsday Preppers. Friday Took the day off from work & since I'd been wanting to for 6 months now visit the store Carolina Readiness Supply, who was putting on the Conference, I headed to Waynesville NC. Unfortunately I got there & found out much to my dismay they had a note on the door saying they was closed Friday & Saturday due to the Conference. The website with its advertisement for the Conference said nothing about this. There was two other cars of people there when I was, equally disappointed. So I puttered disappointed back towards Asheville an went to movies to see Avengers Assemble since had time to kill. Movie hadn't finished but I left at 4:40pm thinking "oh crap I'm gonna be late". Tore thru Asheville & straightened I-40 out getting there. As a bonus, neither the two Addresses for Ridgecrest Conference Center where the Prepper Conference was to be held, would register with my GPS. So had to do it the old fashioned way like I did Pre-GPS. Yup, going 80mph in heavy traffic on I-40 looking at printed out directions. Turned out, first Speaker didn't go on until 6:30pm. If I'd known that I wouldn't have risked getting a ticket so bad on I-40!!! Got there & finally found parking spot waaaay out there. As I parked a 60 year old man on a Victory Motorcycle with long hair braided into a ponytail pulled in beside me. He was to become a new friend. Speakers were: I don't mean to demean any the speakers, this is just what I took from it. But my subconscious is still assimilating, organizing, & filing the info so I might learn more from it later. Friday Mr Modern Survival- Getting Your Pastor on board I left halfway thru it to go smoke with my new friend as I'm not religious but he did give good examples from the Bible of Old Testament Preppers. To use in arguments, especially when as he said you were asked how you could be a Prepper & a Christian, doesn't that show a lack of faith in God. Noah being the preeminent Prepper. One Woman Warrior- Hiding In Plain Sight While very good her presentation seemed more aimed at waking Sheeple up to the dangers around them. Stressing situational awareness it seemed. Tim Glance-<acronym title="Preparedness">Prep</acronym> Vehicles His boiled down the more common the vehicle the more easily parts are found. Store gas or diesel in a metal can with a tight lid. Keep spare parts and tools in your vehicle. As well as 4x4 mid '80s Chevy Trucks. Saturday Engineer775- Finding Water and Energy Though it was dumbed down a bit it was still hard for me to understand sum things. But basically NEVER buy land without Water!!! Springs are the best water source. As well as micro-hydro power & water generation. Southernprepper1-Sanitation and Security I skipped the first part on Sanitation to go smoke with my new friend whom had showed up late. Security was basically Listening/Observation posts, interlocking fields of fire for bunkers, sound & communications discipline, try to turn your neighbors into prepper allies, an we gonna be attacked by Full Military groups apparently, not untrained MZBs. Dr William Forstchen- One Second After author I thought since I'd read his book and met/talked with him when I bought a signed copy of his book, that I didn't need to hear it. Apparently I was wrong as later speakers commented on how great his presentation was. I just wanted to visit the small venders section without the crowds of people as I'm slightly claustrophobic an that many people in such a small room made the humidity & heat go up so bad it was choking me. MrMadMick15- 100 Items that will disappear While being funny as hell he surprised me by being the one I learned the most from. Now alot the things he pulled out of his box I never thought of as prep items yet I already have as household items such as Sevendust, Clorox power Concentrate, clothespins, mousetraps, and more. Infact, except for the Alice Pack w/ shelf for carrying things, I think I have every item mentioned. Just never thought to Stock Them Up!!! Sootch-weapons I was disappointed. Sure sum the stories about his experiences was great, but the weapons part was very generic & small. We've had far more indepth threads on the subject here on the monkey. His actual weapons part boiled down to you need Five Guns. In order of Importance A Handgun, cuz you can conceal it if need be. A shotgun heavy hitting close range firepowe Tactical Rifle AK or AR its a Ford v/s Chevy v/s Dodge kinda thing, just your preference 22 rimfire Handgun or rifle don't matter as its cheap to practice an you can hunt with it High powered rifle deer/elk hunting an Reach out & Touch Sumone power He also said its best to use common calibers as they cheaper & be easier to find once TSHTF. He prefers military calibers. SkinnyMedic-Medication, First Aid Kits Scrawny, looks 14 but is in his early 30s. Paramedic for 10 years. Learned more about the current med shortage an the reason why is Big Pharm companies don't make $$$ when their patent runs out. Also that a LOT of drugs are still good, still 100% effective past their expiration date. Aspirin is still 100% effective 6 YEARS Later!!! I made sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel last night after I got home!! Special Program Events After 5pm aka: Tinfoil Hat Time =X Dr Dan Eichenbaum-Agenda 21 Is Evil Think theres already an Agenda 21 thread here at the Monkey, but lets just say Dr Dan made me wanna start buying even more Ammo. Resistance may be Futile, but i will NOT go Quietly!!!! John Ainsworth-Prepare For The Worst While Designing the Change Part Nut, but explained how one long ago Unconstitutional Act, was the root from which a whole ton of others came from. An if enough of us People got together to push to have that one Act declared Unconstitutional, all the others that came from it would collapse. That act, the Reconstruction Act after the War of Northern Aggression. The one that made us go from Citizens of the States we live in, to National Citizens. Sorry folks, maybe a brighter person, with more patience, without a smoking habit, an a better padded backside for sitting might have taken more away from the conference than i did. My new friend is the one that pointed out to me in one our talks that it seemed dumbed down. Besides being a prepper he also plays guitar, an glancing at a small notebook he had, also draws pretty well. In all I'm glad i went, just wish things hadn't seemed to be at such a hurried pace. Surprised as hell there wasn't sum Gun Shop there in the venders section. At the very least selling Tacticool gear.
P.S. I also learned sumthing not in their presentations. Prepper Women tend to be HAWT AS HELL!!! Lookswise there was three levels of women there. Average, appeared to be uppers 60s & married. Average at that age means they must have been real beauties when younger. Hot, any man would be glad to have for a wife as they'd combine good looks an the brains to be a Prepper Woman! Then there was the Smoking HAWT!! Go to Walmart an you might find one female in the store that looks this good yet there were lots of them at the prepper conference!! I only know what two the Ladies here at SM look like so I know that Carly & Righthand are beautiful and intelligent. But it was a bit of a shock to a single guy to find out that apparently ALL Prepper Women are good looking!!! Almost gives me hope of finding a Pretty as well as Intelligent/Prepper Female one day willing to claim me!! Yeah, I know I'm a helluva FixerUpper Project, but at least I'd be an Honest & Faithful one!
You're making me look bad Stan You're making me look bad, Stan....but I don't mind a hyper verbiage flak catcher on the site to take the heat off me! ; )
Stang, Thanks for the detailed report. It looks like this may become another niche for conferences, complete with speakers and vendors. Interesting idea indeed. How many attendees would you estimate were there? Was it advertised (how did you hear about it)? What was the cost? I'm picturing guys like JC Refuge traveling to these events to set up booths, etc.
Melbo, I'd guessimate well over 500+ attendees. Heard about Carolina Readiness Supply last September from one of SouthernPrepper1's videos, Heard about the Conference a couple months ago on one of Sootch's videos. Was $15 in Advance, $18 at the Door. You could buy Meal Tickets in advance I guess for sum kinda Caterers, but there was the Campus Grill I got my lunch at yesterday instead of eating what I brought. Also was a Starbucks Coffee Shop there too!! Most of the few venders seemed Legit to me, except this squirrely seeming guy selling PCs an his own Version of Visu's SM Donator's dvd. He claimed 200+ Complete books & manuals on the CD for $10. Was tempted to get it, use a crowbar to pry Visu's address out of him, mail it to him to see if there was anything on it his dvd lacked. He was really trying to push it HARD. Finally his pitch quit amusing me, so I shut him down like he hit a brick wall. Told him I already had a dvd with 500+ manuals on it from my Preparedness Forum for Donating. Yeah, I get mean like that when I'm irritated >=)
So that's where that came from. I was helping work a table in the vendor area and an older couple came up to us and mention the groups of roving vets issue. They told us that one of the speakers had said that but wasn't sure which one. That statement is kind of surprising considering he is a vet himself
While there is evidence that sum Gang Members are joining the military & when getting out, bringing that knowledge back to their gangs, I can't help but think the majority of gangs will be your standard thuglife punks. Easy meat when faced with simple tactics. Personally, I do NOT think ALL Military are Special Forces Skilled the way he made it sound. Most are just a hair above your average sheeple with the exception of having made it thru basic training. Gotta remember, only 10% of the Military are Fighting Men, the rest are Support Staff. Personally I'll take my chances against a Mess Platoon any day. Not to mention Military tends to think in set terms. If your Defenses are out side the box thinking, it'd really mess them up. Few would expect the nasty evil things a Countryboy can do when needed. Frank T's thread is an excellent example of Out Side the Box Thinking!!!
Don't worry Marlin, they have one every year. This was the 2nd year. I only found out couple months ago because Sootch on YouTube did a vid on Upcoming Conferences.
SkinnyMedic just mentioned on a vid he posted lil bit ago that he was told there were over 1,100+ People Attended the Conference!!!
When I talked to the event organizer they had sold 760 advanced tickets but were expecting up to 2,000 to be attending
They ought to make it an outdoor venue with camping, bushcraft workshops, etc. 3 day weekend over Memorial or Labor day... I might travel for that. Could still set up a stage for the speakers. Maybe the Monkey should put something together. I can't think of a single skill in the entrire Survival niche that isn't represented here by some expert or other. Interesting that this thread comes up #3 of 216,000 (in one day) on a Google search for Sensible Mountain Preparedness Seminar. Sensible Mountain Preparedness Seminar - Google Search
Well Melbo, it did rain for a lil over an hour Saturday about mid morning. I thought I'd be CLEVER an park under a tree to keep my truck outta the heat. About noon I went back to my truck to refill my bottles from my ice chest. Saw my truck absolutely COVERED with crap from that tree. Fuzzy seedlike things that look like pipecleaners & seed dust!! Yeah, being clever bit me in the arse a bit LoL
I took a Vacation Day Friday & let my Helper have my Saturday to go. Cuz I rarely go anywheres or do any thing. Rare that I find sumthing I wanna go see or do.
