IWF 2010 Atanta

[Guy Mathews]

It is getting close to that time again, August will be here before you know it. I figured I would throw this thread up. Since this is a woodworking show, Keith or one of the other Mods may opt to move it into another forum category or copy it to another category. I posted it here mainly because of the CNC guys.

For those of you who have never been to IWF, http://www.iwfatlanta.com/ I suggest you go, for those of you who have, you know how good of a show it is. And for those of you who will be going, I may see you there.

I booked our rooms at The Omni at CNN Towers. Right next to the show. We stayed there in 2006 and missed reservations in 2008 so we booked them on the 5th of January to make sure we got them again this year! Basically, you walk out of your room, take an overhead street bridge between buildings, walk outside for maybe 300 feet and into the convention center.

If you want to book at the Omni, the phone number for reservations is 1-888-538-8169.

See you there!

[james mcgrew]

i have been going since 98, the value of visual info, materials tooling and just about everything world wide is at this show.

the first time i went i showed up on sat thinking i could see it in one day and could not have been more wrong and had to wait two years to return, i would not suggest a one day visit on your first time, on subsequent years when i was more focused on a certain aspect of my business then i did a few one day shows.

if you have employess take them it always lead to better organization and efficiency when they saw other methods for work.

write a priority list of what interest you and accomplish that first, you may look several times at several competitors before deciding and racing across hundreds of thousands of square feet is time consuming and exausting.

wear comfortable clothes and tennis shoes, there will be those harkers selling the shoe inserts, believe me they are a waste of money.

more later.

jim

[Guy Mathews]

i have been going since 98, the value of visual info, materials tooling and just about everything world wide is at this show.

the first time i went i showed up on sat thinking i could see it in one day and could not have been more wrong and had to wait two years to return, i would not suggest a one day visit on your first time, on subsequent years when i was more focused on a certain aspect of my business then i did a few one day shows.

if you have employess take them it always lead to better organization and efficiency when they saw other methods for work.

write a priority list of what interest you and accomplish that first, you may look several times at several competitors before deciding and racing across hundreds of thousands of square feet is time consuming and exausting.

wear comfortable clothes and tennis shoes, there will be those harkers selling the shoe inserts, believe me they are a waste of money.

more later.

jim

What Jim said and more. This year we are actually flying in on Tuesday and leaving on Saturday. This show is probably the largest of its kind in the world. You can not see it all in one day is right!

Each show, 4 of us from our company go down. We spend the first day finding everything and then meet that night to talk about areas of interest. The next day is devoted to research, interviews of companies for possible purchases and gathering of info we missed on the first day. That evening we repeat the process. The third day is when we beat the heck out of the saleman and put them through the wringer! Joey can testify to this on my part! We weed out the uglies that evening. The final day of the show, my boss writes deposit checks or has the company send them out.

We leave tired, exhausted and educated. This show is a must do for anyone in the woodworking field!!!

Like Jim said, more to come!

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

15 years in the industry, and have never had the opportunity to go. Should be starting a new job next week, maybe then I'll get a chance. I think they may need some software for their big, shiny Morbidelli. May have to go to pick one.

[Nicholas Bukky]

On the 2010 to do list!!

[Eric Mims]

IWF is unreal. 2008 I missed an entire building (the one with the wooden car in it apparently). I did however see Guy's 'skull' cane at the Polhemus booth. Word of warning though!! If you are a small shop and this is your first time, do not spend half a day staring at all the huge machinery that costs more than your neighborhood. If I come down this year, I'm taking some money to hopefully get some discounts on tooling, etc.

[Guy Mathews]

IWF is unreal. 2008 I missed an entire building (the one with the wooden car in it apparently). I did however see Guy's 'skull' cane at the Polhemus booth. Word of warning though!! If you are a small shop and this is your first time, do not spend half a day staring at all the huge machinery that costs more than your neighborhood. If I come down this year, I'm taking some money to hopefully get some discounts on tooling, etc.

Eric, lots of deals can be had on the last day of the show. In 2006 I had the chance to buy all the cabinets for a booth display for 200 bucks. Had it been my truck and not my boss's CADIE Escalade that we drove down in, they would be in my basement right now.

Cutter companies offer real good deals at the show as well. One booth was selling bits from Onsrud that had the sizes mislabeled on them real cheap. I got a bunch of 3/8 Upcuts last show that were labeled 1/8!

Guy

[Michael Schwartz]

Sounds really tempting to find an excuse to take a road trip down there.

Is there a deadline for registrations?

[james mcgrew]

you can pay at the door, you save a few bucks to pre register, the exibitors will give out free registrations as the show gets closer, i get probably 50 or so invites for passes as the exibitors start bulkmailing.

the cost is usually 20.00 or so and is worth it

jim

[Joey Jarrard]

Vendors have tickets that we give away. the larger the booth the more tickets. And what Guy said about beating up the salesmen is true! He almost killed me that last day. It is a blast as a spectator & alot of hard work for us. We have some things brewing for 2010 so stop in. To all those who are thinking about it STOP just go it is worth it 10 fold.I have been going every year in some capacity since 2000. Word to the wise pack a snack then go out to eat (DO NOT EAT THE CONVENTION FOOD) you will pay more than money for it. The count down is on and we are looking forward to a great show.

[Guy Mathews]

Vendors have tickets that we give away. the larger the booth the more tickets. And what Guy said about beating up the salesmen is true! He almost killed me that last day. It is a blast as a spectator & alot of hard work for us. We have some things brewing for 2010 so stop in. To all those who are thinking about it STOP just go it is worth it 10 fold.I have been going every year in some capacity since 2000. Word to the wise pack a snack then go out to eat (DO NOT EAT THE CONVENTION FOOD) you will pay more than money for it. The count down is on and we are looking forward to a great show.

I didn't almost KILL YOU... I just made you work a little harder selling us that nice shiny yellow CAMaster!

You should feel honored. You beat out Thermwood, Techno, ShopBot, X-Factory, Mulitcam, and any Chinese Company that was there. As well as a few others that I forgot the names of.

I think it is safe to say that I was one of your toughest customers, but also one of your happiest!

Guy

[Joey Jarrard]

From you that makes me feel good

[Andy Tripp]

The last couple of shows, I have found the online IWF show planner to be a very valuable resource to make sure you have all the things you want to see on sortof a to do list - sort of like a paper GPS. Believe me, you need it.

Andy

[Guy Mathews]

From you that makes me feel good

Kind of like a "likeable hard@ss" Huh?

I can't wait to see the show this year. I posted this before but just to reiterate, the big things this year will definately be 4th Axis and 5th axis machines, and software.

Digitizing, laser engravers, scanners and touch probes should be hot as well.

The larger companies like Jet, Grizzly and the gang would not surprise one bit if they have small CNC applications set up at their booths as well.

Vacuum pods should be on everyones list of things to research if you have CNC. Various fixturing methods should be what you are looking at as well. If you are not buying a machine, at the very least, stop by each CNC vendor and see how thay have projects setup on their machines. It will give you ideas to take back to your own shop.

Here is a link to FAQ's for those who area ctually inclined to read it.

http://www.iwfatlanta.com/attendees/attendeeFAQ


Guy

[james mcgrew]

it has long been rumored that grizzley may try the cnc market, however at best we can expect a 1325 jinhan chinese router remarketed like the camwood and laguna, these routers are built in the same factorys as the sonic/vortecs

jim