Tuesday, April 5, 2011

National Barbecue Association 20th Annual Conference Part 2

One thing about these posts, I will not reveal the contents of the seminars. 1. I do not have the permission of the NBBQA. 2. I do not have the permission of the seminar presenter. 3. I along with other attendees paid good money and took time away from our jobs, businesses, and families, to attend.

On Thursday, March 24th, we had lunch with Kell and Janet Phelps of Douglas, Ga. For those who might be scratching their heads thinking, "I know that name", let me help you out on the brain strain. Kell is the publisher of Barbecue News (http://www.barbecuenews.com/), is also the President of the NBBQA (http://www.nbbqa.org/) and with the other members of his family and an army of volunteers, they are the organizers of the National Barbecue Festival (http://www.nationalbbqfestival.com/). We were joined by Marc Hash from Marion, Va. and Mike and Mary Lou O'Rouke of Suwanee, Ga.

We had Dave Anderson of Famous Dave's as the keynote speaker. Dave spoke about how he started his bbq business, and how he went from rags to riches. Famous Dave has a energy about him and the way he related the story of how he took a backyard hobby and turned it into a $500 million dollar empire. Say what? That's right, $500 million dollar bbq empire. Holy smokes, that's a lot of ribs and pork and people served.

Famous Dave spoke about being broke, filing bankruptcy and how he managed to turn that all around. Now, I have to ask you, how many people would tell you the failures so that you would appreciate the successes? Not very many. Most want to tell you how great they are and the things that they did right. If you would like to see for yourself, most of Famous Dave's speech was filmed by BBQ Superstars (http://www.bbqsuperstars.com/) and is on their website. Stop by and see Daryl Mast at the BBQ Superstars website. And, be sure to tell him that the Lawdawg sent you.

"Startin The Fire"

While browsing through my copy of the National Barbecue News (http://www.barbecuenews.com/) I have come across a monthly column written by George Hensler of "Who Are Those Guys" BBQ Competition Team (http://www.watgbbq.com/). In one of the monthly columns, George wrote about starting a competition team. Well, for the one or two of you who may have read the blog post that I wrote on "How to Start A Competition Team on a Shoestring Budget", I decided that I would read George's article about his book that he has written, "Startin The Fire".

While at the NBBQA Conference in Greenville, SC, I met George. George and I share three common bonds, we both love bbq,  we have both started our own bbq competition teams, and George is a retired law enforcement officer and I am still active. Anyway, I got a copy of "Startin The Fire" and I really took the time to sit down and read it from cover to cover. Now, let me stop here and tell you that other than law enforcement books and training related material, I cannot remember the time that I sat down with a soft copy book and read it from cover to cover. But, I really wanted to hear what George had to say about his experience and how I could relate to it. I was surprised to find that we had a lot of the same experiences.

So, what am I telling you? If you are serious about starting your own bbq competition team and you want to know what it is like, then grab yourself a copy of George's book and read it. And when you are through reading it, send him an e-mail and tell him that the Lawdawg told you about the book.

National Barbecue Association 20th Annual Conference Part 1

On Wednesday, March 23rd, Kerry and I left Brunswick and headed to Greenville, SC to attend the National Barbecue Association (NBBQA) 20th Annual Conference and Trade Show. If you are passionate about bbq, then I suggest that you attend this event. Kerry and I were first time attendees and were really excited about attending. We sat down with the list of seminars and went through and carefully selected the ones that we felt suited our needs, and would provide us the opportunity to learn. And learn we did.

We were able to meet a lot of great folks, some of whom are legends in the bbq industry. Many of these great folks were already "friends" of ours on facebook. So, we were able to put a face with the name. There were so many, I will not even attempt to start naming names, primarily because I am subject to forget someone and then they might get mad at me. Outgoing President Joe Oaster of Porky's Place of York, PA, opened the convention on Thursday morning's general session and brought up Roy Slicker of Slick's Que Company out of Sisters, OR. After Roy gave a brief synopsis of his story (one of the previous ones I had seen on YouTube) he introduced Patrick Murty of Company 7 from Dayton, OH. Patrick's story was similiar to Roy's. They both recalled having attended previous conventions and starting their own restaurants, Roy's two (2) months after the conference, and Patrick's was approximately nine (9) months later.

After exiting the general session, we attended the seminar "Starting Your BBQ Business". Holy smokes, I could take sessions 101, 201, 301 and 401 in that. I later attended "BBQ Business Management" taught by the Legend Mike Mills and his daughter, Amy Mills of 17th Street Bar and Grill and Memphis Championship Barbecue. They actually have another business "OnCue Hospitality". I guess if I want to learn the business aspect of the bbq industry, I will just have to retain their services.

Kerry attended "Food Presentations: From Competition to Catering" and "Using the Internet to Promote Your Business". I will have her come along and do posts telling you about these sessions and the other things that she learned.

So, what does this have to do with you? If you have never attended the conference and you are serious about barbecue, then you are missing out. Want to join the NBBQA? Go to http://www.nbbqa.org/. You can sign up as an enthusiast for free. BUT, to really get the most out of your membership, go ahead and pay the $50 to be an enthusiast and you will see the benefits. Thinking about attending the 2012 Conference in San Diego, CA. and you have never attended? I will include a "First Time Attendee Guide" in one of my future posts.

Time to Update

Well, it has been some time since I last updated our blog, so I figured now was as good of a time as any. To update you on the Lawdawg bunch: We made it through the holidays. When we last left you here on the blog, we were talking about hosting your own competition. I will continue that blog in another post recently attended the National Barbecue Association annual conference in Greenville, SC. I will add another post on that, as well. One of my previous blogs I talked about "Starting a BBQ Competition Team on a Shoe String Budget". Well, another post you will find out about "Startin The Fire". It is everything you always wanted to know about starting your own bbq competition team, except the recipes. It is a well written book by George Hensler. Anyway, stay tuned as I post more blogs and don't forget to follow us here on the blog and sign up at our website at http://www.lawdawgbbq.com/ to follow us. We are also on Facebook, so if we are not friends, be sure and follow us there also.