Thanks to all the players, teams, and vendors that came out to the Waukesha County Expo center yesterday to make the 2nd Wisconsin Airsoft Expo a success.
The North Hall of the expo center was considerably larger than the VFW from the year before and the room for growth is encouraging. The facility was great and the kitchen staff were nice and accomodating, serving food for a majority of the day at very reasonable prices.
The array of booths were a bit fewer than the first year, but very diverse as well. With several vendors present, there were plenty of items to browse and with several teams present, there were plenty of players to chat with.
Contest Winners
- BEST BOOTH: The Midwest Ostfront Association (the WW2 airsoft guys) showed up with the most impressive booth so far seen at the Wisconsin Airsoft Expo and blew away the competition. An armored tank, a Russian water cooled machine gun, a Pak artillery cannon, WW2 accurate guns, and booth attendees in both German and Russian uniforms/gear easily won them the award.
- BEST COSTUME: The best costume award went to Jared with his impressive WW2 Russian outfit/impression. It looked great and he had a cool pointy hat to go with it!
- BEST LOADOUT: This contest was tough for people to vote on almost resulted in a three way tie. Jedibgp with his MOLLE rig and .30 cal and Rattler with his contractor look came in at a close second, but the winner was a younger player who is new to airsoft that showed up in a full ACU loadout with MOLLE gear and a helmet.
My team, Wolf Recon, had a lot of fun running two "Airsoft Tactics 101" Seminars at 11am and 4pm and seemed to be a big hit with some new (and especially some younger) players. The "Nervous Parent's Guide to Airsoft" seminar at 1pm seemed be a hit as well and involved many topics that were discussed to help parents understand the sport.
By the end of the day, a significantly large number of new players, younger players, and parents bringing younger players had passed through the expo. A pretty good amount of safety brochures (thank you to the WAA and MAA for providing the safety brochure material) got into the hands of young players and parents alike. If the sport of airsoft is to grow and be safe in Wisconsin, getting this material out and into circulation with the new players is critical for our sport.
For all of you who decided to sit on your bums and let the expo go by, you missed a fun filled day! :) Also, a MASSIVE amount of free stuff was given out. At least 1 AEG or high end gun along with probably 10-15 other prizes was given out every hour on the hour, and most expo attendees who were there all day walked out with something for free due to having roughly 7 chances to win!
Again, myself and the rest of the Wisconsin Airsoft Expo Committee would like to thank everyone who came out to the 2nd Annual Wisconsin Airsoft Expo and helped make it a success. We'll be posting up pictures and other media from the expo soon. Be sure to look for information on the 3rd Annual Wisconsin Airsoft Expo, coming in 2009.
View 2008 Airsoft expo pictures
If you are interested in running a booth for your business/team/event/organization please contact the Expo Committee by sending us an email.
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2007 Wisconsin 
