The Hamilton Adventure Expo

Listen to learn all about Ontario's newest adventure expo.
A phenomenal group of presenters, vendors, musicians and a bunch of other cool stuff awaits on January 25th, 2025!!

https://www.hamiltonadventureexpo.com/

https://www.instagram.com/hamiltonadventureexpo/

https://www.facebook.com/people/Hamilton-Adventure-Expo/61557155680697/?_rdr

Transcript

00:00 - 00:01
Hello and good day, eh?

00:01 - 00:03
Welcome to the Super Good Camping podcast. My name is Pamela.

00:03 - 00:04
I'm Tim.

00:04 - 00:05
And we are from supergoodcamping.com.

00:06 - 00:09
We're here because we're on a mission to inspire other people to get outside and enjoy camping

00:09 - 00:11
adventures such as we have as a family.

00:12 - 00:17
Today's guests are the creators, organizers, and just everything, managers of a brand new adventure

00:17 - 00:19
expo here in Southern Ontario.

00:19 - 00:20
We have so much to talk about.

00:20 - 00:22
We're gonna get right to it.

00:22 - 00:26
Please welcome Jason Machado and Bretton Kennedy from the Hamilton Adventure Expo.

00:27 - 00:29
Yay. Welcome. Hey. Thanks for having us.

00:29 - 00:30
Thank you.

00:30 - 00:32
Thanks for coming out, man. This is I

00:32 - 00:34
Sunday morning, early.

00:34 - 00:39
Early Sunday morning, but but I don't care. I'm so excited.

00:40 - 00:43
I love I love the out outdoor adventure things.

00:43 - 00:48
So it you know, the the fact that I get to go and I'm gonna now hang out in January.

00:48 - 00:50
The end of 20 25th is the show.

00:51 - 00:51
Yeah. Yeah.

00:51 - 00:59
So January 25th, I'm gonna go hang out with with all all my all the people that I'd spend so much time virtually with.

01:00 - 01:03
Yeah. Cool. You get to see them all in person, all in one spot. Right?

01:03 - 01:04
I know it's gonna be awesome.

01:04 - 01:05
I don't even know where to start. Okay.

01:05 - 01:10
Let let's start with what is the Hamilton Adventure Expo.

01:10 - 01:15
Like, what what it's different from any other adventure show that that I'm used to.

01:15 - 01:18
So so explain the the difference of that.

01:18 - 01:23
Okay. So what we wanted to do was create a show that we would want to go see ourselves as guests.

01:23 - 01:27
So what we tried to do is get a really distilled version of an outdoor show.

01:28 - 01:31
We wanted to have it close to us, which is why we did it in Hamilton.

01:31 - 01:33
It's taking place this year at the Ancaster Fairgrounds.

01:34 - 01:35
It's really close to us.

01:35 - 01:37
We feel like it's an underserved market.

01:37 - 01:40
Any show that we've gone to, we've had to drive to.

01:40 - 01:43
So this one is nice and close, really close to home.

01:43 - 01:45
It's a really distilled show.

01:45 - 01:51
So we've got all the vendors that we've selected for this are really all part of one kind of

01:51 - 02:00
unified vision of outdoor adventure, bushcraft, canoeing, kayaking, exploration, without any adulteration.

02:00 - 02:06
So we wanted to have it smaller, more intimate without any of the kind of fluff that you might get somewhere else.

02:07 - 02:12
And most importantly, whoever we're fans of, we wanted to contact them first, which is where we started.

02:12 - 02:17
We started right at the top with our guest speakers lineup, reached out to some guest speakers.

02:17 - 02:22
We're honestly surprised that we got responses from a lot of them.

02:22 - 02:24
And they signed up, said yes.

02:24 - 02:26
So we were off to the races from that point on.

02:26 - 02:31
Once we got our guest speaker lineup confirmed, then we started reaching out to vendors that

02:31 - 02:38
we were fans of, retailers that we liked, manufacturers that we liked and they started saying yes. So we're excited.

02:38 - 02:43
Yeah. And is it Canadian themed or it could be It's Ontario themed.

02:43 - 02:47
Yeah. It's Ontario themed. No big corporations are involved.

02:48 - 02:52
They're all local makers or local businesses in and around Southern Ontario.

02:52 - 03:00
I mean, we're definitely open to other Canadian businesses, but we really put the focus on Southern Ontario businesses. Oh, thank you.

03:00 - 03:05
Ontario's so amazing. Right? Like, you you're exploring Ontario as well.

03:05 - 03:10
And I think that just honing in on Ontario, there's so much to cover here and so many small

03:10 - 03:13
businesses that, you know, deserve to be represented.

03:13 - 03:22
Yeah. I absolutely agree. We we've had a a handful of people that have said, so are you going to expand the podcast?

03:22 - 03:27
Are you going to you're going to, you know, go other places like people from other places? Like, sure.

03:27 - 03:32
I'm not certainly not adverse to it, but do you have any idea how many like it's absolutely

03:32 - 03:35
ridiculous amount of adventures just here in Ontario?

03:36 - 03:41
Like, we could do we could do, you know, 7 years of podcasts without without going outside of,

03:41 - 03:47
you know, outside of Ontario for sure. But it's crazy. It's which is awesome. I mean

03:47 - 03:53
Yeah. We have abundant abundance of talent here, not only in, you know, the the the retail space

03:53 - 03:57
of, you know, people that are selling products or or designing them here in Ontario, but local

03:57 - 04:03
services and, you know, authors, outdoor influencers, there's there's so much going on here

04:03 - 04:07
in Ontario that, yeah, you you could fill up your your entire roster for the year without having

04:07 - 04:10
to to call anyone outside of, outside of the province.

04:11 - 04:15
Yeah. Yeah. And that's even if you only got, like, a tenth of the people got back to you, but

04:15 - 04:18
it it's still that's a still a full season. So absolutely.

04:18 - 04:22
The outdoor adventure community in Ontario also seems very generous with their time and with

04:22 - 04:25
their, you know, their willingness.

04:25 - 04:26
Availability.

04:26 - 04:31
Yeah. So, I mean, we we've been so honored with people that would just show up for us as far

04:31 - 04:35
as doing a podcast and talking with us, spending their time with us.

04:35 - 04:35
Yeah.

04:35 - 04:36
Everyone's been so amazing, honestly. Yeah. Everyone's been

04:38 - 04:44
receptive to not only just participating, but to also supporting the show as well, which kind

04:44 - 04:49
of lends back to the idea of the outdoor philosophy is all about kind of sharing the experience

04:49 - 04:50
and kind of passing it down, passing it along.

04:50 - 04:53
So that doesn't just go away. It doesn't die. Right?

04:53 - 04:55
If anything, I feel like it's really growing now.

04:55 - 05:00
Like, I feel like we've seen it kind of mature into this, you know, bigger space that we can

05:00 - 05:05
start calling people up and making a show because we didn't have an experience with this this

05:05 - 05:08
type of show prior to this. Right?

05:08 - 05:10
This is this is a first foray for us.

05:10 - 05:16
So we're pretty impressed as to the the the turnout of, of interest so far.

05:16 - 05:21
Well, I'm surprised you guys haven't had something like this prior because driving down our

05:21 - 05:23
youngest is at university in Brantford.

05:23 - 05:28
So driving down past, you know, through the escarpment around past Hamilton, it's so gorgeous

05:28 - 05:33
down there as far as the out outdoor landscape. It's just beautiful.

05:33 - 05:39
So I I'm really surprised that you guys haven't had much more, in terms of an expo already or outdoor adventure shows.

05:39 - 05:46
Yeah. It's wild. We have, like, over a 100 waterfalls here, endless hiking trails, Bruce trails everywhere.

05:46 - 05:52
And we have lots of organizations here too, like Bruce Trail Conservancy is here. And we're surprised too.

05:52 - 05:56
I think it's a really, underserved market, so we're glad to be tapping into that.

05:56 - 06:00
It must have been underserved because the fact that, you know, we were just able to pick up

06:00 - 06:04
the phone or send off a couple of emails and and get some great responses back, I think, improves

06:04 - 06:07
that, the area was, it was in need.

06:07 - 06:10
So we're excited to be the the ones to do it.

06:11 - 06:14
It is. Well, I mean, we're I don't know what the right term is.

06:14 - 06:18
We we we are very thankful to live in Toronto because this is where this stuff happens. Right?

06:18 - 06:25
So I I don't have to I don't have to drive 3 hours to go out to to London or Guelph or whatever

06:25 - 06:29
for for a, like, a winter camping symposium or something like that.

06:29 - 06:30
Right.

06:30 - 06:33
And that's often a pain point at least even for us.

06:33 - 06:37
I mean, here being here in Hamilton, Toronto is not that far away, but making the track down

06:37 - 06:43
the 403 or down the 401, you have to ask yourself, do we really wanna go to this thing?

06:43 - 06:48
Whether it be a concert or something like a speaking engagement, which is why we wanted to do

06:48 - 06:56
something on this side of Toronto, serve London, Cambridge Kitchener, Waterloo, Brantford, Niagara Region.

06:57 - 06:58
It can pop right in.

06:58 - 07:03
They can see a whole host of great presenters, great speakers, great musical acts, and see some

07:03 - 07:08
amazing vendors that can plan what their 2025 spring and summer is gonna look like.

07:08 - 07:11
Mhmm. Let's start sort of with, like, vendors.

07:12 - 07:14
I know you've got a whack of them.

07:14 - 07:14
Mhmm.

07:14 - 07:18
I don't know. Tell tell me some highlights of some of the some of the cool ones that you've got happening.

07:19 - 07:28
Well, we've had a a we started with, you know, just talking to some people that we knew that were vendors. So just personal relationships.

07:28 - 07:33
So we thought, Hey, listen, if we tried this, would you be on board? Would you say, Yeah?

07:33 - 07:35
And we got some guesses right away.

07:35 - 07:36
So that started the ball.

07:36 - 07:42
So special shout out to Erin at KAYAK Ontario who we kind of pitched the idea.

07:42 - 07:43
We had nothing in place.

07:43 - 07:45
Yeah. It didn't exist.

07:45 - 07:48
It didn't exist. It was just a concept. And, he said, yeah.

07:48 - 07:49
If you're doing it, sign me up.

07:49 - 07:49
So

07:49 - 07:52
that was like, okay. So we can start there.

07:52 - 07:56
So the ball started rolling and then Greg over at Organic Boat Shop, we met up with him.

07:56 - 07:58
We met him in person, and we pitched the idea.

07:58 - 08:00
And he's like, where do I sign?

08:00 - 08:02
Where do I sign? So Oh, I'm Greg. Yeah.

08:02 - 08:05
That Instant support definitely lit a fire under this, for sure.

08:05 - 08:06
For sure.

08:06 - 08:10
And to touch on just some other people like Karina Alexis, we had a phone call at the very,

08:10 - 08:12
very beginning, her and I.

08:12 - 08:14
We chatted for, like, 45 minutes about this.

08:14 - 08:18
And she was became, like, really, like, just an ambassador for the show.

08:18 - 08:20
She really helped, get this going as well.

08:20 - 08:25
So like we were talking about, there's just so much support in the Ontario community and we're

08:25 - 08:26
really grateful for that for sure.

08:26 - 08:32
But we're with in terms of our vendors, so we started really with Aaron, and then Greg at Organic Boat Shop.

08:32 - 08:36
We we like our our preferred pastime is kayaking Yeah.

08:36 - 08:37
And getting on the water.

08:37 - 08:43
So there's definitely a lean in this direction for this year in that regard because that's where

08:43 - 08:47
our interest is, that's where most of our network is and we did definitely try to reach out

08:47 - 08:49
to get more vendors in different outdoors directions.

08:49 - 08:51
But there's definitely a lean this year.

08:52 - 08:55
Next year, we're planning on obviously doing this next year again.

08:55 - 09:00
We can have a whole paddle support section just to dedicate it to those vendors.

09:00 - 09:06
But yeah, so we got a lot of great local businesses, people that are artisans that are making

09:06 - 09:10
products with their own hands, I think that's what we're really excited about.

09:10 - 09:17
A lot of these businesses are smaller in scale and the product that you buy, the makers are

09:17 - 09:21
making the products with their own hands, which is a big focus for us.

09:21 - 09:25
That was when we first sat down and spitball the idea with each other.

09:25 - 09:30
That was one of the things that came up that we wanted to encourage those types of businesses.

09:30 - 09:35
Cool. But well, I'll I'll interject a little bit before we get to the guest speakers.

09:35 - 09:37
What made you go, yeah.

09:37 - 09:41
This this is a massive undertaking. Sign me up.

09:41 - 09:44
Well, I I feel like I don't have enough going on in my life.

09:45 - 09:51
Oh, man. So I'm a small business owner myself and with a very full schedule.

09:51 - 09:54
And my background is, actually corporate event management.

09:54 - 09:57
So I did that for well over a decade.

09:57 - 10:00
But then I've started my own business about coming on 6 years now.

10:00 - 10:08
So I have the experience and we had just gone to a few different trade shows, like different theme trade shows.

10:08 - 10:10
And we were just sitting here and having coffee.

10:10 - 10:12
We're like, why don't we just do this?

10:12 - 10:13
Well, it was a housewife.

10:13 - 10:14
It was a Thursday morning.

10:14 - 10:18
Every Thursday morning, a little- We have our coffee together- Oh, yeah.

10:18 - 10:21
In the living room before we go off and go to work.

10:21 - 10:27
And the weekend prior, we had gone to a trade show where we had to make a drive for it. Yeah.

10:27 - 10:32
And we started saying to each other, What if what if this was here?

10:32 - 10:34
Do you think we could do this ourselves?

10:34 - 10:39
And immediately, Brenton with the utmost confidence in herself, I could definitely do that, is what

10:39 - 10:39
she said.

10:39 - 10:41
Okay. All right. I'll pick up the phone.

10:41 - 10:43
So that's that's how it started.

10:43 - 10:49
I mean, I wasn't sure whether it was gonna get to this this point.

10:49 - 10:53
You know, we were from from my perspective, I I was just exploring the idea of it.

10:53 - 10:54
You know, is this even feasible?

10:54 - 10:56
But in Bretton's mindset, she was she was already there.

10:56 - 10:57
I was at the finish line.

10:57 - 11:01
Yeah. She was at the finish line already. So yeah.

11:01 - 11:05
And, I have to give her all the all the credit in the world because, without her, this would

11:05 - 11:07
Oh, thank you. Yeah. This would

11:07 - 11:09
not be this would not be anything.

11:09 - 11:13
I'm just, I'm just out here to, you know, help out, I guess, because she's really amazing.

11:14 - 11:16
She's really the the the the impetus for this.

11:16 - 11:18
She's the the brain behind it all.

11:18 - 11:20
I I I know that.

11:21 - 11:21
I Yeah.

11:21 - 11:23
How the podcast started. It's

11:23 - 11:24
like Yeah. Exactly. You're earring

11:24 - 11:26
to camping. Why don't we do a podcast?

11:27 - 11:32
Sure. And and here we are. Cool.

11:33 - 11:35
I still I still wanna get to the music.

11:35 - 11:38
Tell us tell us, who do you have for guest speakers?

11:39 - 11:41
Oh my god. We have so many.

11:41 - 11:43
We're so lucky this year. Okay.

11:43 - 11:46
So off off the hop, we've got Adam Schultz, of course.

11:46 - 11:48
Everyone knows who's Adam is. Yeah.

11:48 - 11:54
Trina Alexis, amazing since the beginning. So helpful. Tory Baird, of course.

11:54 - 11:56
Then we have Amanda Nelson.

11:56 - 11:58
She's actually an ultra runner out this way.

11:58 - 12:01
Just a machine of a woman. Just incredible.

12:01 - 12:09
She recently ran I'm gonna get this wrong because it's off the top of my head. 60 hours over 400 kilometers. Yeah. Oh my goodness.

12:09 - 12:12
The brain doesn't compute. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. I know.

12:12 - 12:13
When she told me that, I said, this has

12:16 - 12:16
to be there's no way this is possible. But, yeah, I need

12:16 - 12:18
she's yeah. Just amazing. Yeah.

12:18 - 12:25
And then we have Jesse Thistle who, he's actually my cousin, and he is a renowned author from from the ashes.

12:25 - 12:29
He just broke 250,000 sales of his book.

12:29 - 12:32
He's also a historian, so we really wanted to get him in there from that angle.

12:32 - 12:35
He's talking about the Canadian canoe routes. I'm actually really excited

12:35 - 12:41
about that. Canadian water Canadian waterways, at Yeah. The Trade routes. Yeah.

12:41 - 12:44
The trade the trade routes and the, the first highways of Canada.

12:44 - 12:46
So he's gonna be doing a speaking engagement on that.

12:46 - 12:48
So I'm most excited for that one.

12:48 - 12:49
Yeah. For sure. Cool. Fantastic.

12:49 - 12:51
And then we just added Kevin Khaled.

12:52 - 12:54
Yay. Good old uncle Kevin.

12:54 - 12:54
You bet.

12:56 - 12:58
So it's just a stellar lineup.

12:58 - 13:02
We really focused on like, who would we wanna see? Yeah.

13:02 - 13:04
And that's really what we based this on. Yeah.

13:04 - 13:05
Who would we wanna see?

13:05 - 13:07
And those are the people that we reached out to.

13:07 - 13:08
And then they started saying, yeah.

13:08 - 13:10
So it was it was incredible.

13:10 - 13:15
So there's definitely a sense of imposter syndrome for sure because we're fans of all of these folks.

13:15 - 13:19
And then before you know it, you're communicating over the phone and over email, and you went

13:19 - 13:22
from just being a fan to, you know, trying to nail down some dates.

13:22 - 13:27
So it's it's it's truly bizarre. But we're we're excited.

13:27 - 13:28
We're excited to have them.

13:28 - 13:33
And and it's gonna be it's the full lineup taking place over, you know, the course of the day.

13:33 - 13:37
So the way that the the space is set up, you know, out of I imagine the room is, you know, in

13:38 - 13:43
thirds. 2 2 thirds are gonna be all the vendor spaces, and then the other third, we're gonna

13:43 - 13:47
have, like, a, you know, a partition wall and people can go in and it'll be a different different

13:47 - 13:49
vibe, different feel, and that's where the presenters are gonna be. Yeah.

13:49 - 13:53
We wanted to create, like, a really intimate environment where people can do, like, Q and As,

13:53 - 13:56
meet them, get their books signed, things like that.

13:57 - 14:01
And and I want us to be really focused so that they're the main main event kind of thing.

14:01 - 14:02
Mhmm.

14:02 - 14:07
And we also really want to take a a focus on females in the outdoor space too.

14:07 - 14:14
So we've really, it's like 5050 men to women on the stage, which was really an important, perspective, I think.

14:15 - 14:16
Yeah. I I totally agree.

14:16 - 14:22
It's weirdly when I was looking through the website to see who to see all the things, I I spotted

14:22 - 14:28
that it was about a 50 50 split, and I went, that's awesome because we're we're actually we're

14:28 - 14:32
doing we we're recording an episode with Tori, this coming Thursday.

14:32 - 14:41
And it's it's a thing for me to make sure that I reach out and try to bring women are underserved in in the community.

14:41 - 14:43
It's not that they aren't out there doing the things.

14:43 - 14:51
They're just I don't wanna be that guy, but but it's it's that it's a male dominated sport.

14:51 - 14:53
They're they're the ones that get all the vision.

14:53 - 14:58
They're the ones that get all the all the recognition, and and yet the ladies are doing, you

14:58 - 15:02
know, their their own thing and and despite the adversary that

15:02 - 15:03
Adversity?

15:03 - 15:05
That's it. Thank you. Wow.

15:05 - 15:10
They're under recognized and underappreciated and don't get the limelight as much as the dudes.

15:10 - 15:13
Yeah. So same same deal. I still

15:13 - 15:13
think

15:14 - 15:18
I was gonna say, I still think there's a little bit of sort of a toxic environment in camping.

15:18 - 15:23
Like, as a as a woman, like, I don't see it as much anymore admittedly, but you still run across

15:23 - 15:28
it where they think, you know, you can't do it. You you're a woman. You can't portage. You can't backpack.

15:28 - 15:30
The idea of the the guys trip.

15:31 - 15:31
Yeah. Right?

15:31 - 15:32
So So

15:32 - 15:37
I think we need to just smash through that and show that women are just as capable, if not more, in

15:37 - 15:39
a lot. If not more so. Yeah. I think Absolutely.

15:39 - 15:42
I think Camper Camper, Christina, and Chris Prouse would like to have a word.

15:42 - 15:44
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

15:45 - 15:45
Absolutely.

15:46 - 15:46
Yeah.

15:46 - 15:46
So

15:46 - 15:49
that was a really important focus for us from the beginning, for sure.

15:49 - 15:53
Well, I'm I'm glad that that I'm glad that that's a thing for you.

15:53 - 15:58
You you there's a couple of other things going on that aren't necessarily inside the hall.

15:58 - 16:01
There are extra events outside.

16:02 - 16:03
Fill us in on that.

16:03 - 16:07
So we wanted the whole day to be interactive, and all of our speakers are throughout the day.

16:07 - 16:11
And I feel like a lot of people are going to stay for all of them.

16:11 - 16:16
So we're like, we wanna make sure that the whole show is entertaining. Right? Yeah. Same. Well, I'm working.

16:16 - 16:21
But, so we want to create an environment that's, like, fun. Yeah. I have to. But I would anyway.

16:21 - 16:28
So, there's not like a speaker that I'd wanna miss personally, and I feel like a lot of people might feel that way.

16:28 - 16:31
So we've created a really interactive space.

16:31 - 16:36
So outside, we've got, like, actual bonfires, s'mores kits, food trucks.

16:36 - 16:41
We have some artists coming in that are going to be, like, painting Ontario landscapes live.

16:41 - 16:42
You can watch them do that.

16:43 - 16:45
We have a kid's art section.

16:45 - 16:47
A friend of mine's like a forest school educator.

16:47 - 16:49
She's coming in to do arts and crafts with the kids.

16:50 - 16:53
So there's just really going to be stuff going on all day long.

16:53 - 16:58
And so as the presenters and music schedule is happening in one room, we also have planned and

16:58 - 16:59
we're going through it right now.

16:59 - 17:02
We're talking to all the vendors to create a sub schedule.

17:02 - 17:09
So while they're switching off or things are transitioning over in the main presenters room,

17:09 - 17:18
People can go pop back into the vendor space and someone's doing at Camp Kitchen, they're doing a cooking demo outside.

17:18 - 17:23
So you can see how their stove works, see a live demo take place.

17:23 - 17:28
Hawkeye will do be doing a presentation for kids, on the birds of prey.

17:28 - 17:33
So there'll be a a totally second schedule that, you know, you can either follow the main schedule,

17:34 - 17:39
check that out, or pop open pop over to the, sub schedule and see what the vendors are doing.

17:39 - 17:43
They are gonna be having their own series of presentations throughout the day, so no one will ever be bored.

17:43 - 17:45
Yeah. That's the goal.

17:45 - 17:46
Yeah. That you can't be bored.

17:46 - 17:49
It's it's it's really like a festival, which is why we Yes. Promoted it.

17:49 - 17:51
You know, it's not just, you know, a trade show.

17:51 - 17:54
Trade show seems so dry and stuffy and seems

17:54 - 17:54
They're all

17:54 - 17:57
their own businessy. Yeah. It's like a festival, really.

17:57 - 17:59
Yeah. We're trying to create more of that space for sure.

18:01 - 18:03
Jason used to be a musician in a band.

18:03 - 18:07
I used to work in the music space, like, doing concerts and shows and things like that.

18:07 - 18:10
And we wanted to make it feel just like more like a concert.

18:10 - 18:11
More like a show.

18:11 - 18:13
More exciting to be there all day.

18:14 - 18:18
Okay. So I am circling back to music now.

18:18 - 18:21
So I saw a listing for for a number of artists.

18:21 - 18:23
How how is that gonna play out?

18:23 - 18:24
Are they are they in the hall?

18:24 - 18:28
Are they out bonfire area? Like, how is that?

18:28 - 18:29
We're not gonna put them outside.

18:29 - 18:30
We don't wanna do that to them.

18:32 - 18:37
So so we're calling it the campfire music sessions, because we're gonna kinda take the seminar

18:37 - 18:42
stage, dim the lights, light a bunch of candles, project the campfire, and then we have these

18:42 - 18:46
amazing local musicians coming in doing, like, acoustic sets.

18:47 - 18:52
These are people that, you know, are doing big shows in Hamilton. They're really fantastic musicians.

18:52 - 18:57
We've got Marshall Veroni, Alex Mason, and Heather Valley on the stage throughout the day.

18:58 - 19:03
It's just gonna be this, like, really chill, cool vibe for people to, like, sit around and listen to some music.

19:03 - 19:06
And really dynamic. So as a speaker comes off Yeah.

19:06 - 19:08
There'll be a little bit of a break.

19:08 - 19:11
Artist will go on, perform some music, gives people

19:11 - 19:11
a chance

19:11 - 19:15
to kind of shuffle out and kind of plan which speaker they wanna go to next, which musical act

19:15 - 19:16
they want to go see next.

19:16 - 19:19
So it's going to be very dynamic in that room.

19:19 - 19:22
We are going for definitely a chill vibe, but it will be super dynamic.

19:22 - 19:27
People coming in and out and waiting to see their favorite speaker or artist.

19:27 - 19:30
That's so cool. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah.

19:30 - 19:31
It's It's different. Right? Oh.

19:32 - 19:36
Yes. Yeah. I am going to spend the whole day.

19:37 - 19:37
That's the goal.

19:37 - 19:40
That's the goal. People there all day. All day.

19:40 - 19:43
I mean, it sounds like it's gonna be a pretty full day.

19:43 - 19:49
A, checking out vendors, you've got you've got a handful of speakers that are fabulous presenters.

19:49 - 19:51
So that's gonna take up some time.

19:51 - 19:52
Put some music in between.

19:52 - 19:53
Go out to a bonfire.

19:54 - 19:56
You know, check out some people doing cool paintings.

19:56 - 19:59
They had demonstration. Yeah. Yeah.

19:59 - 20:01
Yeah. We'll just get live demonstration. Get some grub.

20:01 - 20:04
There's gonna be some, food vendors there.

20:04 - 20:06
So and walking.

20:06 - 20:10
I was gonna say people, like, we're gonna have a wristband when you enter and you can come and go.

20:10 - 20:14
Like, if you wanna go into Ancaster Village and go have lunch and come back, you're you can do that.

20:14 - 20:17
Ancaster's a fantastic little town, great little restaurant.

20:17 - 20:21
So, go for a hike, come back, whatever you want to do.

20:21 - 20:25
We really want it to be worth the while of the vendors as well. Right? Yeah.

20:25 - 20:26
Worth the drive to Ancaster.

20:27 - 20:30
Yeah, absolutely. Like, come check out Hamilton is awesome.

20:30 - 20:32
Yeah. It's a great spot.

20:32 - 20:36
For most event vendors, it's not too far from where they're at.

20:36 - 20:44
We've even set up something for our vendors and our presenters the evening before the show,

20:44 - 20:50
a networking opportunity for them to go either meet for the first time in person or, you know,

20:50 - 20:57
revisit an old friend and really give them a chance to to network pre show. Yeah.

20:58 - 21:02
So that was something that we had discussed, and we're we're excited to to get going as well. So Yeah.

21:02 - 21:04
We're doing it at a brewery, and we're bringing we you should come.

21:04 - 21:05
We'll send you an invite.

21:05 - 21:07
Oh, we'll send you an invite. Yeah. You should come. Ahead.

21:11 - 21:13
Okay. It's a yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

21:13 - 21:17
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be really cool because, again, we're really trying to focus on the fact

21:17 - 21:21
that these are small businesses, and community is everything when you're a small business owner.

21:21 - 21:27
And, like, there's lots of opportunity for great collaborations, networking, marketing, like so many opportunities.

21:27 - 21:33
So we really wanna place the focus on the fact that this is a community event, both for the

21:33 - 21:35
people attending and for the people vending and presenting.

21:36 - 21:37
So yeah, it's gonna be really cool.

21:37 - 21:42
It's gonna be at the brewery, then everybody gets to meet and then go to the show the next day.

21:42 - 21:47
Yeah. We we really wanna make it beyond the trade show. Right?

21:47 - 21:49
It's it's for us, it isn't a trade show.

21:49 - 21:51
I know we have to market it as that.

21:51 - 21:55
And when we were talking to the venue about booking the venue for it, that's what we told them

21:55 - 21:57
we were doing because it just made sense for them. Mhmm.

21:57 - 22:04
But it really is far and away beyond that from the the opportunity to network prior to the show

22:04 - 22:09
to the type of entertainment that we've got going on, in 2 different streams. Yeah.

22:09 - 22:12
We really feel like it's it's it is an expo. It's an exposition.

22:12 - 22:14
It's it's a it's a festival for sure.

22:14 - 22:20
Well, this is a this is a thing we've done with other adventure shows and and gone and and hung

22:20 - 22:30
out and, you know, had wings and beers and and yak with so so just to spin back for 3 years probably. We're having a

22:30 - 22:30
a a

22:30 - 22:33
very extended yak with, Chris and Julia Prowse.

22:34 - 22:38
And one of the it still sticks with me.

22:38 - 22:45
Chris said, well, but it's it's great to hang with like minded people, and that's exactly what the community is.

22:45 - 22:46
Like, they're just That's right.

22:46 - 22:49
Everybody is sort of in it for the the same things.

22:49 - 22:54
So to be able to sit around and just yak with them and, you know, we I mean, we we, we all do

22:55 - 22:59
virtually through our social media stuff, but to actually meet them in person and and go, yeah.

22:59 - 23:04
You're the cool chick that I thought you were. You know? It's it's Yeah.

23:05 - 23:06
Yeah. Absolutely. Good.

23:06 - 23:08
How's the other one going to offer right here?

23:08 - 23:08
Where

23:09 - 23:13
so so tickets went on sale on Friday 15th. Right?

23:13 - 23:13
That's right.

23:13 - 23:14
That's right.

23:14 - 23:17
Cool. How how do people buy tickets?

23:17 - 23:20
Online. So through our website, hamilton adventure expo.com.

23:20 - 23:23
You can just buy them through there. And there's also giveaways.

23:23 - 23:25
So highly encourage you to do it in advance.

23:26 - 23:32
Not only is it $5 cheaper than if you buy them at the door, but you get entered into, 4 different prize draws.

23:32 - 23:39
So the first prize is a $250 giveaway to Recreational Barrel Works, which is awesome. Yeah. You did.

23:40 - 23:42
Fantastic guy, by the way.

23:42 - 23:44
I have a big red barrel in my basement.

23:45 - 23:47
Oh, Oh, you got the red one. Okay. Yeah.

23:47 - 23:48
That's good for the bears.

23:48 - 23:49
You can really see it.

23:51 - 23:52
Not getting in though.

23:52 - 23:52
Not getting

23:52 - 23:54
in. Yes. Oh, boy.

23:55 - 23:58
No. They're they're fantastic. They've been great to work with.

23:58 - 24:04
And then the second prize, we have a remora bag coming in from Bowman gear, the custom making

24:04 - 24:08
one for whomever enters the giveaway, buying their ticket.

24:08 - 24:10
And you can choose your colorway.

24:11 - 24:16
And working with William is awesome. He's the coolest guy. Yeah. He's awesome. Yeah. He is. Yeah.

24:16 - 24:20
He's so he's been such, like, a big support of the show. We really appreciate him.

24:20 - 24:24
The third one is you get a $100 to spend at the show, however you wanna do that.

24:25 - 24:30
And then the 4th prize is you'll get Jesse Thistle's From the Ashes book, and then you can meet

24:30 - 24:31
him and get him to sign it.

24:31 - 24:33
So that's pretty cool too. Sweet.

24:33 - 24:40
So those are all those are all the, the benefits of of buying tickets online at, hamiltonadventureexpo dotcom.

24:41 - 24:43
And then also at the door as well.

24:43 - 24:45
So we're not really sure.

24:45 - 24:46
So this is on the back end.

24:46 - 24:51
So we're not really sure what takes back in terms of online sales prior and then how many people

24:51 - 24:54
are going to be buying at the door. Maybe around 5050.

24:55 - 24:58
We've never done something like this before. But, yeah.

24:58 - 25:04
So we really want to get some to get an idea of gifts get numbers beforehand so we really know

25:04 - 25:06
how to prepare for the show.

25:06 - 25:10
So people buying online, we want to incentivize that so we have an idea of, you know, what to

25:10 - 25:14
expect and then maybe just double that for door sales.

25:14 - 25:14
Yeah.

25:14 - 25:20
We don't know. Yeah. I would be I'm I'm a I plan way ahead.

25:20 - 25:28
Like, when when Ontario Parks has that 5 month thing, I am ready to go at 5 months and one minute. Right? So Yeah.

25:28 - 25:29
And we definitely

25:29 - 25:30
saw set. Yeah.

25:31 - 25:36
We've definitely seen those. So people were buying right away. So people bought online. The marketing was working.

25:36 - 25:38
People were buying online right away.

25:39 - 25:46
And then folks like me, I'm the opposite on the show up the day of and get a ticket at the door.

25:46 - 25:49
So I have to expect that there's a lot of mes out there that are gonna be showing up on the day of.

25:49 - 25:50
A lot of mes.

25:50 - 25:54
And it is still, like, 70 7 days away, something like that.

25:54 - 25:54
So

25:54 - 25:56
So so so far, it's been well subscribed.

25:56 - 25:58
People have definitely been buying tickets.

25:58 - 25:59
So we're we're we're excited.

26:00 - 26:00
Yeah.

26:00 - 26:03
Yeah. Well, they I mean, the information's certainly out there.

26:05 - 26:09
I spotted it for I'd like to think fairly early on, and then and I honestly, I think it was

26:09 - 26:19
probably Will from Bowman gear mentioning it that went, what? Another show? Wait. Never check my calendar. Very cool. Slightly off topic.

26:19 - 26:25
But so the Ancaster Fairgrounds, that's the is there is it a drive destination?

26:25 - 26:30
Is there a way to do something approaching public transit to get there kind of a deal? Or

26:31 - 26:35
Ancaster's lacking. So it's kind of in rural Ancaster, like, towards the country

26:35 - 26:35
Mhmm.

26:35 - 26:38
Which definitely has its benefits, mind you, because the parking is easy.

26:38 - 26:41
There's no traffic, and it's actually quite pretty.

26:41 - 26:43
And it's right off the highway.

26:43 - 26:43
Right off

26:43 - 26:44
the highway.

26:44 - 26:44
There's a

26:44 - 26:46
immediately off. There's an there's an exit there.

26:47 - 26:51
So for anyone coming in from, you know, Brantford or London or coming the other way from Toronto,

26:51 - 26:54
you're one exit right off the highway and you're immediately there.

26:54 - 26:55
So that's a huge advantage.

26:56 - 27:00
Public transit, I think for anyone who lives in Ancaster, who's listened to this is going to

27:00 - 27:03
know, notoriously bad before public transit.

27:05 - 27:07
But yeah, we are excited about the venue. It's really good.

27:07 - 27:15
It's really well located and very pretty venue, if you ever if you've seen the the the photos online. So It

27:15 - 27:21
kinda has like a Canadian almost like a Shelley vibe on the outside, for sure.

27:21 - 27:25
The inside, of course, looks like a vendor hall, but it it is quite pretty.

27:25 - 27:26
It has like nice big windows.

27:26 - 27:30
Hopefully, we get a sprinkling of snow, not too much. Yeah. And so

27:30 - 27:31
And in January, we should.

27:31 - 27:34
So are you guys outdoor adventures yourselves?

27:34 - 27:36
Is that part of why you're

27:36 - 27:41
Yeah, for sure. So that's that's really how this started because we were kept going to all these

27:41 - 27:47
different types of shows and expos to get ideas of what we wanted to do in the coming season.

27:47 - 27:49
Like I said, we like paddle sports.

27:49 - 27:50
So for

27:50 - 27:55
me, it started with canoeing and then we've migrated into kayaking and camping.

27:55 - 27:57
So we do the whole gamut.

27:57 - 28:06
We go from super compressed down, where we have small tents and small everything and try to

28:07 - 28:10
everything light and try to carry on our backs to the whole glamping setup.

28:11 - 28:12
Winter camping, everything.

28:12 - 28:14
We do winter camping. So we do it all.

28:15 - 28:20
So that's why we wanted to create a show that we would want to go to ourselves with the types

28:20 - 28:23
of vendors that we like and some of the products that we use.

28:24 - 28:28
Awesome. So kayaking, do you guys do backcountry camping with kayaks?

28:29 - 28:32
For sure. We love the touring. That's actually my thing. That's awesome.

28:32 - 28:34
That's my favorite thing to do.

28:34 - 28:40
So loading up the dry bags, stuffing them into the kayak and then just going for several kilometers.

28:40 - 28:43
This year we did the French River.

28:43 - 28:47
The second time doing the French River, we did the old Voyager channel this year.

28:47 - 28:52
So we started at Hartley Bay, went all the way down and then came back to Hartley in a loop.

28:52 - 28:53
That's one of the trips that we did.

28:53 - 28:55
What else did we do this year?

28:55 - 28:55
We did so much.

28:55 - 28:56
We did so much. We did so much.

28:56 - 28:58
We did so much. We did so much. We did so much. We did so much. We did so much. We did so much. We did so much. We did so much. We did so

29:05 - 29:07
gorgeous. I love it. I love Newfoundland.

29:07 - 29:07
It's amazing.

29:07 - 29:10
Highly recommend. But last year What did we do last year?

29:11 - 29:13
The year prior we did Montana, Glacier National Park.

29:13 - 29:15
Glacier National Park in Montana.

29:15 - 29:18
We hiked, did the Pinemack and Dawson loop there.

29:18 - 29:21
We kayaked the Segney fjord.

29:21 - 29:22
We did a nice section

29:22 - 29:30
of Segney fjords. We have beluga whales playing with our boats. Out of control. Amazing.

29:30 - 29:34
And every kilometer or so in the fjords, there's a waterfall cascading and seals.

29:34 - 29:40
It's like you're like, am I in Canada? This can't be right. Right? Looks like Norway.

29:41 - 29:44
But we also do like just a lot of like regular old Crown Land camping things.

29:44 - 29:49
Stuff that's close by. Not everything is so epic. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

29:49 - 29:54
That's that's probably the meat and potatoes of of what we do is to, you know, kindly call our friends.

29:54 - 29:56
We've got a group chat with all of our

29:56 - 29:56
our little

29:56 - 29:59
camping friends. So we just let them know, Hey, Crown land next weekend. Yeah. Sure.

29:59 - 30:01
So we all kind of go on up.

30:01 - 30:05
We've got a little spots that we can go to check out. So that's yeah.

30:05 - 30:08
So it's it's our it's our favorite pastime in season.

30:08 - 30:10
You know, what we're gearing up to do.

30:10 - 30:16
If we're not camping or or touring or something like that, then we're gearing up to be camping and and touring.

30:18 - 30:19
And now this has taken, you know All of

30:19 - 30:19
our time.

30:20 - 30:22
All of our time, so we're we've got nothing planned.

30:22 - 30:27
Really like okay. Right away, week after the show, what are we doing? I'm like, okay. Let's do Killbear. We're gonna

30:27 - 30:28
do Killbear. Yeah. We'll probably

30:28 - 30:29
go to Killbear.

30:29 - 30:31
Anyone wants to come, hit us up.

30:31 - 30:32
We'll do some winter camping.

30:32 - 30:33
Post show.

30:34 - 30:35
Yeah. And our last trip, I guess, was Killarney.

30:35 - 30:38
We did Killarney in late October.

30:38 - 30:40
Oh, yeah. That was our last trip. We did Killarney.

30:40 - 30:41
Whereabouts in Killarney? Like, sorry.

30:41 - 30:48
I'm thinking I'm I'm picturing lugging a kayak versus, like, there our canoe is, you know

30:48 - 30:51
Not fun. Not fun.

30:51 - 30:56
So we do see in the main campground, like George Lake, but we do day trips from there.

30:56 - 30:57
We may do something different next year.

30:57 - 31:03
But this year, we went all the way to OSA with our kayaks, our sea kayaks, which was psychotic.

31:04 - 31:07
18 feet long through the Oh my God.

31:07 - 31:08
No. Thank you.

31:09 - 31:09
No. It was

31:10 - 31:14
No. OSA lake, yes. But the kayak part? No.

31:14 - 31:14
Wow. No.

31:14 - 31:16
It was psychotic. It truly was.

31:16 - 31:18
We were just like, why are we doing this?

31:18 - 31:19
Because like even the bends, right?

31:19 - 31:21
The boats are too long. Yeah.

31:21 - 31:22
So they're like hitting off a tree.

31:23 - 31:29
Yeah. Jeez. Yes. And when you're on the water, it's not a problem. Hey. Yeah. Yeah. It's just

31:29 - 31:35
through the trees. What a totally different way to like, as soon as you started talking about

31:35 - 31:37
that, it's like, backcountry kayak.

31:38 - 31:41
I think I'd be planning things way differently than I do for you.

31:41 - 31:43
Like a like a pack boat. That's that's nice

31:43 - 31:43
for us.

31:43 - 31:44
Pack boat. For sure.

31:44 - 31:45
For sure.

31:45 - 31:49
Yeah. Like river kayaking with the sea kayak is a lot easier when there's no portaging.

31:49 - 31:51
But when you're going lake to lake, like

31:52 - 31:57
Yeah. Like, your your partly very French French river thing, that that trip would be perfect. No problem.

31:57 - 31:58
Or sagne.

31:58 - 32:01
Or sagne. Yeah. I'm still in a straight line. Not not a problem.

32:02 - 32:02
Yeah.

32:02 - 32:09
But, yeah, going going into the interior is slightly different. I was

32:09 - 32:12
fortunate though. It was, like, there was a lot of, Yeah.

32:12 - 32:14
We did we did it all as a day trip.

32:14 - 32:16
So we went from George Lake all the way

32:16 - 32:17
And came back.

32:17 - 32:22
To Freeland, into Clarny Lake, to OSA, and then back all in a day.

32:22 - 32:27
I think it was like 23 ish kilometers. So something like that. And yeah.

32:27 - 32:31
So it was my back hurt after that. Oh, yeah.

32:33 - 32:34
I had, like, a bruise on my shoulder.

32:34 - 32:37
I'm like, why why did we do this to ourselves? But Yeah.

32:37 - 32:39
And then we hiked Silver Peak too.

32:39 - 32:41
Highly recommend that hike too. Amazing hike. Yeah.

32:41 - 32:43
We've done the crack. We haven't done Silver Peak.

32:43 - 32:51
We I looked at it once, one of one of the years we were in there and and went, I don't know.

32:51 - 32:53
I'm not a spring chicken anymore.

32:53 - 32:54
All you do

32:54 - 32:58
is You could do it for sure if you like, definitely. Oh my god.

32:58 - 33:00
We saw this group of women on the trail.

33:00 - 33:03
They were doing Le Hola Klaus, and, like, not joking.

33:03 - 33:05
They were in their seventies.

33:05 - 33:09
I was like, man, if I can be that when I'm in the 9 seventies, that's incredible.

33:09 - 33:14
Like, full packs, just going for it. So anything's possible. Right?

33:14 - 33:16
This is true. This is true.

33:16 - 33:17
That's it for us for today.

33:17 - 33:21
Thank you so much to Jason and Brenton from the Hamilton Adventure Expo.

33:21 - 33:22
And their website is hamiltonadventureexpo.com.

33:24 - 33:28
You can get tickets there and check them out on Instagram, and you can reach out to us anytime.

33:28 - 33:29
We're on all the social media.

33:29 - 33:32
We are on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube.

33:32 - 33:38
We would love you to subscribe there, and we are brand new on Blue Sky as of yesterday.

33:38 - 33:43
And, if you wanna reach us, you can email us anytime. We're at SuperGoodCamping.com.

33:43 - 33:47
That's hi@supergoodcampaign.com, and we'll talk to you again soon. Bye.

33:47 - 33:49
Bye. Bye.

33:49 - 33:50
Thank you. Bye.