Thursday, July 7, 2011

GeoWoodstock IX: Three Days, Six Shows, 1300+ Miles, a Handful of Geocaches - Part Two



One of the drawbacks for me when at an event like Geowoodstock IX or many of the other geocaching events I attend is I am always working. Either I am filming for GeoSnippits VideosGeocaching World (RVNN.tv) or doing something with a camera or mike in my hand. Because of that I usually do not get to see all the extra attractions as much as I would like. For example the vendors. There were tons of them at Geowoodstock IX but my only real chance was the Friday evening registration event. There I was able to meet up with some of the early birds and one in particular was Beverly at GxProxy ( http://www.gxproxy.com/ ).

Picture a nice set of 10x10 tents with tables filled with all the geocaching swag and traveller stuff you could imagine. I literally was that 8 year old in a candy store and had to keep from drooling all over the place as I examined the wares.  There was a large crowd gathered around the area and for good reason. The quality of the products were outstanding and what caught my interest was the focus on proxies. Now I up to that point was not a big fan of the proxy concepts. I had found them in geocaches in the past usually in pretty bad shape. A proxy for those who may not know are replacement icons that are put in geocaches as representatives of say a geocoin. Many times they are photocopies of the geocoin wrapped in plastic laminate. Many times not even that good. Many geocachers simply ignore them. These proxies were different.

If you purchased one of the many package registrations then you received a Geowoodstock IX geocoin. You also received a proxy coin as well. The one thing that turned me around on the subject of proxies were these coins. They are gorgeous, have a great feel and weight to them and are in my humble opinion geocoins in their own right. I would have no problem moving one if found in a geocache. Now that my interest was peeked I wanted to learn more so I asked for the owner of GxProxy and that was when I met Beverly.
Among all the hustle and bustle was this worldwind of an individual doing sales transactions, talking to customers, answering questions and pretty much running the joint. That was Beverly and through all of this she had time to be interviewed by me and actually show me almost all of the new items they were selling. We will be showing many of the GxProxy product line in future posts and on Geocaching World (RVNN.tv) so keep watch.

Long story short Beverly is an amazing person to know and talk with and I personally think her company is going to go far. They have great ideas and are working hard to make Geocaching even more fun. Again, more to come.

Chris Mackey  is in the red/orange shirt
Hang on that isn't the end of the story with Beverly. Just before I left I made the remark to her about how impressive the laser etching art work was on the Proxies. She smiled and said the artist is Chris Mackey. Now I am a huge fan of Chris and told Beverly no wonder they look so good. That was when she asked me if I wanted to meet him.

Now folks, I have been in the entertainment world in one way or another since I was about 12. Met a lot of personalities from night clubs, radio, television and the like. When she asked if I wanted to meet Chris Mackey my hands started to shake. No kidding. He is THE geocoin artist in my opinion and I have many of his design in my personal collection. He is also, drum roll please,  Beverly's son. How cool is that? So I was able to meet up with Chris and have a great chat. We will also be having Chris on Geocaching World in future episodes.


To Be Continued Tomorrow....  Part Three: The Day of Geowoodstock IX


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