At long last I can finally say that the brand spankin' new Southeast Sharkfest website is live and functional! Let me first start off by saying the following: For anyone who has not undertaken a web design project from nearly scratch, I can truthfully say that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Having said that, anyone who enjoys Southeast Sharkfest every year owes Eugene Sherbin (Lucky L6 on the forum) an absolutely huge debt of gratitude for his contribution to our group. Eugene has worked tirelessly with me, at ungodly hours of the night, for months to make this happen for the 2014 event. Simultaneously he holds a full time job as the Chief Software Architect at a New York firm. Anyone here who has met Eugene knows he's the type that would never ask for credit, so I'm forcing it upon him. :) A HUGE thanks to such a devoted member of our community!
That being said, registration is now officially open. The new site incorporates individual profiles with garages for you to add all your cars. We are now collecting the last 7 digits of registrant vin numbers as we move towards creating a Southeast Sharkfest registry of sorts. This will eventually lend itself to a very robust community of increasingly rare vehicles. Eugene is also currently working on an internal e-mail system that will allow you to communicate with other users directly from the site.
For those of you unaware, the Southeast Sharkfest base of operations for the 2014 event will be in Spartanburg, SC. The event kicks off on Thursday, May 1st and will run until Sunday (May 4th) morning. The Saturday show venue will be the Zentrum at the BMW Manufacturing facility located in Greer, SC. Before the show, everyone registered will have the opportunity to experience the thrill of pushing some of BMW's newest metal at the BMW Performance Center. Anyone who attended in 2010 will recall that this is just about the most fun you can have with your clothes on - our group rate is highly discounted, so take advantage of it! The performance drive spots are limited - register early and sign up for that option if you wish to participate. Visit the website for a full rundown of costs and additional information.
We have an amazing lineup of sponsors this year who jumped at the opportunity to support our event - as of now we have over $3,000 worth of goodies for the Saturday night raffle. Our primary sponsors are the following:
- BMW Manufacturing Corporation, who are, of course, our hosts for the Saturday show;
- Odometergears.com will be providing giveaways and sponsoring Rob Siegel, columnist and author of "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic" who will be speaking with us on Saturday night;
- Bentley Publishers;
- Leatherique;
- D H Elliott Jewelers; and
- Maximilian Importing Company.
I look forward to seeing each and every one of you there! For all the details, as well as a direct link to hotel reservations at our discounted rate, visit the Southeast Sharkfest website at http://www.bmwsharkfest.org and sign up today!
