Although I’ve only been woodworking a few years, WIA never really interested me. Not to say that I wouldn’t attend if given the opportunity but still. Since I’ve never been to any woodworking convention, it does hold that bit of intrigue over me. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m stuck in Yuma, AZ during both events, I maybe would have tried to go to the one in Cincinnati. Be it as it is, I’m not going to any woodworking conventions this year.
Next year is a different story. Lost Art Press posted some information about Handworks 2013 on their blog earlier this month. It sounds like something right up my alley. So much so that I’ve already registered and got my trip all planned and paid for. Basically it turns out to be an early Father’s Day gift since it’s about 3 weeks beforehand.
Anyone else planing on going?
The Fameless Woodworker 
If WIA or Handworks was closer I would consider going. I have a bit of a problem with WIA on a personal level. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of the “Sawstop Legislation” that just got shot down in California. But PW magazine took a pretty hard stance against it, though they claimed to have no official stance. Their main reasoning was/is that it would add $1000-$1500 to the cost of a cabinet saw. Now I’m not a propopent of the Sawstop corp or government regs for every little item under the sun. But I do think that the government has the responsibility to enforce minimum safety requirements for all items sold in America, and that includes table saws. And after seeing some of the junk being offered as table saws it makes it even more important in my book.
Anyway, sorry to rant, but my point is that unless you live in the Cincinatti area and you are commuting to the conference every day and eating meals at home,the average person going to WIA is going to drop at least $1200.00(bare minimum, I did the math). Every editor at PW will say that the cost is well worth it. I would agree because it sounds like a pretty nice event. But on the same token they have written dozens of blogs and editorials bemoaning the added cost for a Sawstop saw that has a proven track record with thousands of reported saves of serious injuries. That to me means some kind of biased hidden agenda. I personally don’t care if a magazine is biased, but I do care when they aren’t honest with their loyal readers.
Again, sorry about the long rant.
I still plan to try and make it to WIA at some point in the future but for now I’m looking forward to next year at Handworks. Yeah, it still is a bit of money but hopefully it’ll be worth it!
I’ll admit that I do plan on going as well just because I think it will be a good time. But as I said, I read several articles and blogs from PW editor saying that if the legislation was passed it would have some sort of profound effect on Woodworking because of the added cost of a table saw with flesh detecting technology. In all honestly I couldn’t care less about the legislation, what I did care about was an editor who was clearly biased using his magazine’s blog to push a personal agenda. As I see it, you can’t be biased and objective at the same time.
With that being said, maybe I’ll run into you at WIA next year.