2022 Overland Expo Event Series Announcement!

[Dave]

Overland Expo Heads to the Pacific Northwest with New, Fourth Annual Event

Indianapolis, Indiana — Lodestone Events, producers of the Overland Expo event series, announced a fourth annual event, Overland Expo Pacific Northwest, to be held July 8-10, 2022 at Deschutes County Fairgrounds & Expo Center in Redmond, Oregon.

Tickets and camping packages for all four of the Overland Expo 2022 events are on sale now. Booth space is on sale now for returning clients and will go on sale to new exhibitors on December 15, 2021.

“It was incredible to see the reception and feel the support our fans and exhibitors gave us in 2021 after such a tough year away. Based upon the success of the new Mountain West show, and the overlanding demand we’ve seen in the Pacific Northwest, we felt 2022 was ripe for expansion,” said Lodestone Events Marketing VP Jessica Kirchner. “Central Oregon is a perfect location to round out the Overland Expo event series. We could not be more excited to come to an outdoorsy region rich with natural beauty to outfit, educate, and inspire more overlanders.”

Across the three Overland Expo events in 2021, we welcomed more than 59,000 attendees and hosted more than 855 exhibitors — the biggest attendance and exhibitor numbers the event series has ever seen. It is based upon that success that inspired the expansion of the fourth annual event, Pacific Northwest, for 2022.

Save the Date — Overland Expo Series 2022

West - Flagstaff, Arizona. May 20-22, 2022 - INFO LINK

Pacific Northwest - Redmond, Oregon. July 8-10, 2022 - INFO LINK

Mountain West - Loveland, Colorado. August 26-28, 2022 - INFO LINK

East - Arrington, Virginia. October 7-9, 2022 - INFO LINK


The strongest argument for Oregon as an overlanding destination — and the perfect place to host the newest Overland Expo — is the state’s vast diversity of ecosystems.

From the deciduous rainforests of the Willamette Valley to the more than 50 named mountain ranges dotted with alpine lakes that stretch across the state to the soft, sandy beaches along the western coast to the high deserts in the central and eastern sides of the state, Oregon has just about every environment imaginable to explore and enjoy.

With 340 acres and more than 300,000 square feet of flexible event space and state-of-the-art amenities, Deschutes County Fairgrounds and Expo Center is the premier event facility in the Pacific Northwest. The venue is conveniently located 20 minutes north of Bend, Oregon, and less than a mile from Redmond Municipal Airport.

The facility is surrounded on virtually all sides by beautiful National Forests, too, including the Mt. Hood National Forest to the north, Ochoco National Forest to the east, Willamette National Forest to the west, and Fremont-Winema National Forest to the south. Each of these has hundreds of trails to explore and campsites to visit.

For more information on the event series, visit overlandexpo.com and follow Overland Expo and #overlandexpo on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

About Overland Expo
Founded in 2009, Overland Expo is the world's premier event series for do-it-yourself adventure travel enthusiasts. Hundreds of vendors of adventure travel equipment, camping gear, bikes, vehicles, and services convene at every Overland Expo event. Each Expo hosts hundreds of session-hours of classes, including for off-road driving techniques, adventure motorcycling, inspirational programs, roundtable discussions, demonstrations, as well as the Overland Film Festival.

 

[Dave]

 

[WashingtonTaco]

This is interesting. Eastern Oregon is an excellent area for very remote travel. I wonder if Ray Hyland will conduct the NWOR any longer as this will be less than a month from when the NWOR is normally held.

 

[Dave]

This is interesting. Eastern Oregon is an excellent area for very remote travel. I wonder if Ray Hyland will conduct the NWOR any longer as this will be less than a month from when the NWOR is normally held.

Good question. I hope it doesn’t hurt his event.

 

[Dean]

This is interesting. Eastern Oregon is an excellent area for very remote travel. I wonder if Ray Hyland will conduct the NWOR any longer as this will be less than a month from when the NWOR is normally held.

I think his series of events will be fine if/when he decides to start them up again. In my experience there are people who enjoy the large over-the-top events like Overland Expo, and people who prefer the smaller more intimate events. Usually they are not the same person. I've done the Virginia Rooftop Tent Rally the weekend after Overland Expo East for the past five years, never disappoints. Historically our Appalachian Rendezvous was always the weekend before Overland Expo East when both events were in North Carolina. Never hard getting people to come to the Rendezvous. There are countless other smaller local/regional rallies popping up year after year. If anything I see the larger Expo events drawing in the people "new" to the lifestyle while more experienced people who have gotten what they can (or want) out of Expo move on to the smaller events. So yeah, long story short, Ray's series will be fine as will any other smaller rally.

What will suffer with additional Expo events is vendor participation. I think the days of the old guard of core vendors attending every show has passed. The smaller entrepreneurs that could once justify two shows are going to be hard pressed to do FOUR. Especially when some of them are in back-to-back months. I think vendors will do what they did this year and stick to their "home show" in their backyard.

 

[Dave]

What will suffer with additional Expo events is vendor participation. I think the days of the old guard of core vendors attending every show has passed. The smaller entrepreneurs that could once justify two shows are going to be hard pressed to do FOUR. Especially when some of them are in back-to-back months. I think vendors will do what they did this year and stick to their "home show" in their backyard.

Agreed. Throw in SEMA and KOH and some other distractions like Outdoor Retailer, Shot Show etc and the event schedule is non-stop.

There was a time when we did try hard to schedule our Rendezvous events around other events, but the ability to deconflict our own yearly schedule with that of these other entities is now a thing of the past.

IMO, those "core vendors", or any company that wants to attend all four Expo events are now at the point where they need a dedicated team JUST to cover down on the "show circuit".

This creates many challenges, but it also creates new opportunities for the industrious.

 

[Dean]

This is interesting. Eastern Oregon is an excellent area for very remote travel. I wonder if Ray Hyland will conduct the NWOR any longer as this will be less than a month from when the NWOR is normally held.

Ray just posted dates for NWOR - June 16-19, 2022. Website hasn't been updated yet, but I'm sure it will be soon.

 

[Herbie]

IMO, those "core vendors", or any company that wants to attend all four Expo events are now at the point where they need a dedicated team JUST to cover down on the "show circuit".

You're most likely right. The difference will be that while a company will be represented at all the shows, the chance that you're talking to the principal/president/founder will probably drop to 1/4 or 2/4, and the rest of the time, it'll be the "Event Team", which will be hired PR folks, but not necessarily the most knowledgeable. Some companies can do this OK (talking to a Four Wheel Campers rep at a "Boat and RV Show" isn't quite the same as visiting the factory, but not terrible either), while others will be less successful (I'm thinking of my SEMA days trying to extract info from locally-sourced "product reps" for big companies.)

It's kinda unavoidable, though, as the industry and individual businesses grow.

 

[WashingtonTaco]

Ray just posted dates for NWOR - June 16-19, 2022. Website hasn't been updated yet, but I'm sure it will be soon.

Yep. He emailed me a few days ago.

 

[WashingtonTaco]

You're most likely right. The difference will be that while a company will be represented at all the shows, the chance that you're talking to the principal/president/founder will probably drop to 1/4 or 2/4, and the rest of the time, it'll be the "Event Team", which will be hired PR folks, but not necessarily the most knowledgeable. Some companies can do this OK (talking to a Four Wheel Campers rep at a "Boat and RV Show" isn't quite the same as visiting the factory, but not terrible either), while others will be less successful (I'm thinking of my SEMA days trying to extract info from locally-sourced "product reps" for big companies.)

It's kinda unavoidable, though, as the industry and individual businesses grow.

That was very apparent when I was talking with the Redarc reps at the Panhandle Overland Rally

 

[Dave]

That was very apparent when I was talking with the Redarc reps at the Panhandle Overland Rally

Same when we spoke with them at Expo East. They were in an adjoining booth and while they knew some things, they clearly were not “into” the overland thing other than the gig work they were doing that weekend.