National Geographic’s popular series, Doomsday Preppers will hold a casting call at the Doomsday Expo in Denver . The Colorado city will be the sight of perhaps the largest ever gathering of American preppers. The first ever Doomsday Expo will offer educational experiences, instructional discussions, and ample gear shopping opportunities. The first known Dry Food Cook-Off competition in the country is also a part of the prepping convention. The Denver expo is the first of 18 similar events currently being scheduled across the country. The prepper expo will be held June 27 through 29.
The Inquisitr recently sat down Eric Fischbach, the Doomsday Expo organizer, to learn more about the massive gathering of folks from the survival, homesteading, and prepper community.
IQ – The Doomsday Expo is being promoted as the largest preparedness gathering of 2013. Why has news of the event generated so much excitement from your target audience?
EF – This is the first year of the Doomsday Expo. The expo was created to give people a more direct and focused event towards preparing for their families and loved ones, whether it be for a natural disaster like a hurricane or a nuclear attack or financial collapse. It is also an event that was created to support our police, fire, EMS, and military departments who are struggling financially and to also help us with our school safety initiatives that will be paramount in getting safety implemented in our schools immediately.
Most survival and preparedness events out there are disguised as gun shows. This expo is designed to give the novice and expert preppers a more focused and informative solution on all aspects of prepping, rather than just a focus on weapons and ammo. I believe our vision and our agenda is what is generating the excitement behind this event. We have a fantastic slate of speakers and presenters that not only bring real life experience to their presentations, but will also give preppers a broad base of prepping topics that will be important as they start or continue to prepare their families.
With the great people we have presenting and the support we are getting, this proves to be the biggest and most educational and exciting survival and preparedness event out there. We look forward to sharing our vision and expo through 13 cities over the next 18 months!
IQ – The Doomsday Expo includes a list of notable preparedness and survival speakers of expert speakers. What are some of the primary topics that will be discussed during the Colorado event?
EF – We are excited about our speakers and working with them across the United States over the next 18 months. They will be covering a wide range of topics starting with Jay Blevins and the “Six Foundational Aspects of Prepping” Scott Hunt and his presentation on “Retreat Design” Survivor Jane will be doing a presentation on “Survival Preparedness for Women” followed by Nicole Sundine with “10 Realistic Safety Strategies Girls and Women Will Need to Survive a Catastrophic Event,” – just to name a few.
This way not only the fathers and husbands can be prepared, but this will give the much needed information to the mothers, wives, and daughters should something happen and they will be the primary defense and care for their families. The great thing about connecting with the female audience is that they will be getting it from another female’s prospective.
IQ – National Geographic’s Doomsday Preppers will be holding a casting call during the Denver expo. What should prospective cast members expect when meeting with the hit show’s producers?
EF – We are excited to have Doomsday Preppers at our first event, and working with them across the United States. For season 3 Doomsday Preppers will be looking for engineers, mechanics, electricians, and preppers with enough skills to build something from scratch. Season 3 will focus less on your prepping, and more on what you can build.
Anyone that has a unique DIY invention or product should be at the show to speak with the casting director. The Doomsday Preppers questionnaire will be available on our site for anyone interested that cannot attend. I do suggest anyone interested meet and speak with the casting director in person to make that lasting impression. These vendors, sponsors, and speakers are all good people that are really out to inform and educate anyone interested and helping them care for their families and be prepared. Whether you are an expert and been preparing for 20 years, or you are just attending the event to learn where you should start this is the event to be at.
IQ – How do you feel about the stereotypes often said about preppers?
EF – Really when it comes down to it, it doesn’t matter what situation you are preparing for. The important thing is that you are preparing. The important thing is to be prepared for short term and long term situations and have a plan in place. There really is no way to dispel the stereotypes. I can say the people that think anyone that is prepping and preparing is overreacting or being too cautious, is going to be the one that will be in trouble should something happen or will be looking to these same people they are judging for assistance to protect and care for their families.
We definitely are not discriminating against anyone or their beliefs in whey they are preparing and what for. Like I said, the main goal is just to be prepared for yourself and your family for any situation. Our goal is to make this the most informative and educational event for preppers so everyone can get the basics and advanced information no matter what stage of prepping they are in.
Doomsday Expo Presenters:
Scott Hunt : Scott is the owner and manager of Practical Preppers LLC and a consultant for Doomsday Preppers . Hunt helped develop the “How Prepped Are You Test” used on the National Geographic series. He is also a sustainable living design engineer specializing in off the grid water and energy systems.
Survivor Jane : Jane refers to herself as a oblivious to politics and other current issues until she was the victim of a crime. In 2008, Jane quit her corporate job, sold her home, cashed in her 401k and moved to the Appalachian Mountains to live a more self-sustaining preparedness lifestyle. Since that time, Survivor Jane has made it her mission to educate other women on how to better prepare for uncertain times
Rick Austin: Austin is a long time survival, solar, permaculture gardening, and off-grid living expert, and has been using sustainable living and home building practices for 30 years. He is also known as the Survivalist Gardener , and is the author of “Secret Garden of Survival-How to Grow a Camouflaged Food-Forest.
Jay Blevins: Jay is an author who has appeared on National Geographic’s Doomsday Preppers , Access Hollywood Live , The Steve Harvey Show , The Today Show , and CNN Headline News’ Jane Velez-Mitchell Show .
Patrick J.G. Troy : Troy is the founder of LMS Academy, a boutique self-defense training academy operating in Northern Virginia, a Staff Instructor with Defense Training International, and an NRA certified Pistol Instructor. He offers training courses in Rifle, Shotgun, Pistol, Close Quarters Battle, Force on Force, and Tactical Treatment of Gunshot Wounds.
Nicole Sundine : Sundine is an author and speaker. She uses modern methods that resonate with girls and women to teach personal protection skills in an entirely new way.
Damien Gardner : Damien is custom knife maker, the owner of Calvary Knives LLC, and a self-defense specialist. Damien is a former federal law enforcement officer.
Dr. Tom Stoner : Stoner is a board certified adult medicine specialist with expertise in gastrointestinal, infectious and hospitalist medicine. Tom has been prepping for over a decade and both he and his wife Sheila are co-owners of TSSP Inc., a corporation that provides medical prepping counsel and medical/survival kits.
Dr. Joel Wallach : Dr. Wallace is the author of two alternative health books. In the first, entitled Let’s Play Doctor, he reviews over 400 diseases and describes his own naturopathic strategies for dealing with each.
Ryan McCullough : Ryan is knowledgeable about financial collapse and uses real examples from history to show the chaos and instability produced by financial collapse to different parts of the world.
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