Tampa Reptile Mania & Exotic Expo
March 10 & 11, 2007 - 10AM - 5 PM
Florida State Fairgrounds - Tampa
VIP Tickets are available for the Tampa Reptile Mania Show from their website. VIP Ticket holders are admitted to shows one hour earlier than general admission on Saturday, receive available samples and coupons from participating vendors and offers for additional events during a show weekend.
The dates for the new and improved Tampa show have now been released.
This show is being organized by Gila Productions (the promoter responsible for the Raleigh show in NC, New Orleans, and Tallahassee & Jacksonville in Florida) and will be taking place on March 11th & 12th at the State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Florida.
VIP Tickets are available for the new Tampa Reptile Mania show from their website. VIP Ticket holders are admitted to shows one hour earlier than general admission on Saturday, receive available samples and coupons from participating vendors and offers for additional events (if there are any) during a show weekend.
In related news, ReptileRooms.com is now a sponsor of the Tampa show and, all being well, we should have a table setup there where you can come ask questions, pick up care sheets or just swing by for a chat. :)
Florida International Reptile Show set to celebrate its 10 year anniversary
September 30, October 1 & 2 in Tampa in a big way.
Show director Tony Cueto is not kidding when explaining with a lot of pride that the spring show which was terrific, was only a warm-up to September 30, October 1 & 2. The Tampa show will be filled with even more vendors, 260 booths, Gino Sassani of the GE Sassani band debuting songs from the all reptile Rock n Roll CD, Cold Blooded.
The Nacus Awards is having a reptile photography competition at the show and the International Fauna Society is sponsoring the vivarium contest. Lots of prizes, cash prizes and the Nactus Awards picture voted best wins an all expense expedition to Uganda. No fees to enter either contest. Interesting presentations include Dennis Sargent and Tom Crutchfied teaming up for a Boa constrictors, MYTHBUSTERS 101 PowerPoint presentation.
Advance VIP ticket holders receive 1 hour early admission to the show and tote bags stuffed with manufacturer samples and promotional gifts, Reptiles magazine and The Keeper newspaper.and a spin on the Exo Terra $10,000 Reptile Wheel of Fortune. In addition to 240 valuable Exo Terra products on the wheel, many others gifts are being donated for the game including Busch Garden tickets and Hard Rock certificates.
If you wanted to catch a glimpse of some really interesting and unusual reptiles, some never seen before, a few one-of-a-kinds, and some things totally new that never existed before, the NRBE in Daytona was the place to be last weekend. One extremely beautiful animal was a male sailfin dragon (Hydrosaurus pustulatus) named Joxer from the Philippines and other similar species from Indonesia. The sailfin is the most remarkable looking lizard I have ever seen, awesome blues, with wavy crests and a large "fin" on the lower back. Displayed and owned by Scott Corning of Dragon Attack, he appeared to be very tame when handled by Scott and drew a large crowd when he was taken out of his mesh enclosure for these photos.
There was a young albino savannah monitor (Varanus exanthematicus) named Spike, that was very healthy, friendly and beautiful, owned by Brian Barczyk of BHB Enterprises. Other reptiles of note was a lavender albino piebald ball python (Python regius), one of only two known in the world, both hatched recently and owned by Ralph Davis, 3 frisky mini sungazer adult lizards at 6 inches long, a sulfur water monitor, an adorable albino blue tongue skink at Thunder Bay Herp's table and so many more rare, beautiful and unique reptiles. Being able to see these with your own eyes lets you know why these are called exotics. Seeing the animals is a great experience, but meeting the people that help make this industry so special is a joy also. That can only be experienced there.
The Tampa Show last weekend we attended was a real success. We were flooded with traffic all Saturday morning and ran out of care info sheet before noon. We did have more made up for Sunday, but apologize for the people coming by in the afternoon on Saturday when we were out. We did not expect the volume of people that came through.
The show was well run and advertised, every vendor we talked to reported the best weekend show they have done at Tampa. We were next to Rob and Vicki Dachiu “Bearded Dragons and other Creatures” who brought their beautiful baby dragons and some nice adults to display. They also ran out of babies by noon Saturday, so in the future I would recommend anyone planning on attending to get the VIP tickets in advance. That way you get in an hour early to the show. The gift bags make it a real plus along with getting in early to make prime purchases.
Several reptile supplies were set up with some of the best prices I have seen anywhere for enclosures, lights and furnishings. We were selling the New MegaRay lamps and Premium Reptile Carpet that did really well. I was surprised how many of the MegaRay Heat Projectors we sold. They were very popular with snake people since snakes need the heat, but not the UVB and since they are so safe for the reptiles.
