Ducks Unlimited has held their Great Outdoors Festival in Oshkosh for
the past four or five years. Given a majority of its membership is in
WI/MN it only made sense. The first year, many vendors elected not to
attend due to the untested waters of this new location. However it was
an overwhelming success and has continued to grow each year.

The west ramp and two of the exhibit hangers are turned into much like
they are for EAA, full of vendors. The area between the museum and the
Red Lot are set up with outdoor exhibits. The ponds feature fishing,
dog and watercraft demos. It is fun to paddle around the pond on a hot
summer day in a new canoe.

EAA offers rides in the Tri-Motor and I've seen someone there giving
ride in a Bell 47.

http://www.ducks.org/Events/GreatOut...sFestival.html

The grounds are used by other organizations too. I believe John Deere
hosts their dealer convention prior to EAA. There is an agriculture
equipment trade show. A church organization holds a convention/retreat
in the campgrounds. There has been R/C airplane competitions held
there.

The contractor who supplies the potties learned early on that there's
gold in them thar turd tanks. The potties are cleaned, loaded onto
trailers and hauled back to their facilities. They supply events
throughout the region. EAA is probably their largest single user. But
considering the number of large scale events like EAA that happen in
Wisconsin throughout the warm seasons, there is a lot of crap to
capitalize on. Now if they can invent some sort of self shading unit
so the temperatures aren't near broiling, they'd be better.

Oh just so you know, those toilets reserved for exhibitors only...some
which have locks...are sometimes much worse than the public ones. Take
a large group of sales people, fill them with nasty greasy food, mix
in copious quantities of booze an beer. Leave to digest overnight,
awake with complimentary hangover, top with much needed hot
coffee...activate waste disposal process...potties become toxic health
hazards in short order.

The events I've planned whether regional or national start 18 months
prior to the event date. The real meat of the process starts about 13
months out.