Hello. I wanted to announce an upcoming event we are hoping to be a part of and wanted to get some early feedback on.

Huey and I (Ryan) have been in talk with Jeff Chao, a Nissan North America's Marketing Specialist. He contacted us regarding seeing whether or not our club would be interested in participating in Nissan's "Xterra Lifestyle Exhibit" at the upcoming Sacramento Auto Show here at Cal Expo in Sacramento Nov 9th to the 12th.

His general idea is to see if there would be a possibility of up to 4 NCCX members donating their Xterra's for use at the Auto Show (display) for a total of 4 days (Thursday thru Sunday November 9th to the 12th). General thinking is our club's Xterra's would be displayed at this exhibit in hopes of showing the over 100,000 people that attend this show how versatile the Xterra can be in the everyday and outdoor lifestyle. Ideally he would like to have 2 heavily (visibly) off road modified rigs along with two other Xterra's that could show and represent well the general theme of the "outdoor" lifestyle by holding bikes....kayaks.....gear....etc. All this is still up for debate but this has just been what has been discussed and thrown around so far. This would still be Nissan's display so of course they would have total control over the finished product, but they still are actively seeking our input to make it as good as it can be. There would be no compensation for those who were to donate their vehicles for the display for the 4 days, but in doing so it would help garner exposure for our club by the heavily attended public event and media coverage it receives.

Jeff has also arranged for our club to have a display table at the event to help promote our club even further. Early plan is to have it "unmanned" but stock it with a informational flyers on what we are and what we do.....pictures of some of our Xcursions......and how people can contact us should they have any further questions on the vehicles or should they want to join us on some of our future outings? Early on we are trying to identify the best way to show photos from the club outings so input would be much appreciated here as well. Power will be available if anyone has any "electronic" ideas on how to show trip photos.

I have sent a long laundry list of questions to Jeff regarding details on the event such as but not limited to what security or insurance would be provided for the trucks of the club owners who donated their vehicles for use in the exhibit. As I get more information from Jeff I will post it here......he will be back in the office this Wednesday so expect more information after that.

Jeff would also like to invite everyone to offer up any further detailed ideas for the display to help Nissan promote the Xterra and our club in the best way possible. Jeff said he was going to monitor this forum to see what the involvement may be like and any ideas that we may have to further improve the effectiveness of the display.

If you are interested in having your Xterra be a display vehicle at the Auto Show, please send a description of your Xterra to my email ( slamson00@yahoo.com) and a couple pictures where upon I will forward it to Jeff for his consideration. He would like to receive all information and pictures on possible display vehicles by October 23 (the decision on which club trucks to use will be made later that week). Please include a short description of what modifications you have to your Xterra in the email and what outdoor attachments (aka bike, kayaks, canoe, skies, gear baskets, etc..) you already own that you could mount for display at the show.

In addition, like stated earlier we don't plan to "man" or "woman" our club table at the show just because the standard weekday 8 to 5 work shift won't allow it, but if you have a different shift and would like to sit at the table and help promote the club, directly answer questions etc., please let me know as well. The event is a Thursday through Sunday thing so the weekend may be easier for some people to do should they want to participate in this way.

My apologies for the long email but I wanted to get this out now so we could start to garner interest and ideas on participation in this event. I will be the contact for this event since I am physically located here in Sacramento and I will be directly working with Jeff when he comes into town. Still, if you are physically located in Sacramento and are willing to help.....or willing to drive from where you are and willing to help...............I would love to hear from you too. All help is much needed and much appreciated in advance!

Anyway....please email or post here should you have any questions. Thanks in advance for any help or involvement you may have in making our involvement in the Sacramento Auto Show a success.

Ryan "Slamson00"
slamson00@yahoo.com