Minelab Partner Conference - Sorry, No Secrets

[Reno Chris]

Well, I attended the Minelab Partner conference this last weekend and got to visit with a number of friends, both dealers and Minelab company folks as well. The ICMJ may not be a detector dealer, but we are a business partner in the sense that we run their ads and help them get the word out on their products. Of course I signed a paper that I could not talk about anything I saw, so that limits what I can say. However, I can say that Minelab has long been a very research and development focused company (no secret there) and everything I did see showed that they are continuing in that direction, with good stuff in the pipeline to come and good stuff in a number of categories. They will all come out in their own good time when the products are ready. The dealers I spoke with were looking forward to the release of the items that were discussed - and that's about as much as I can say.

I could not make the last conference which was held in New Orleans because of conflicting commitments to the magazine, so it was good to make this one. Lots of folks were there who are involved in prospecting and metal detecting. As an example, Steve and I had visited Reed's prospecting shop in Perth years ago, and the owners were there in Las Vegas and I had a fun chance to catch up with them while I was there. There were quite a few folks from the land down under in attendance and not just folks who work for Minelab, but dealers too. The event was very well attended and I think the fact that it was held at the end of the Vegas Shot show was a factor in bringing more people there.

There was a lot of good, open give and take communication. Minelab even gave out little wireless voting devices that were like a small calculator, and then they would ask to get opinions from the dealers and take input via these little voting devices - it was very cool and interesting to see the opinions of the dealers as a group in real time. It didn't take long to see that although there were a number of dealers who were prospecting focused, there were even more that were coin and treasure focused. There were also times to ask questions and make comments, with lots of good questions and comments from Gerry of Gerry's detectors in Boise and Nevada's own Doc Lousignont from Las Vegas. I also got to meet Ben Harvey, the new gentleman who will be leading Minelab North America (Gary Schafer's replacement). Ben seems like a good guy and I'm sure that folks will get to know him better over time - he's only been on the job a short time. So all in all, an excellent trip and the meetings I think were a big success.

Although the forecast looked brutal for my drive down there with a bad snow storm both the day that I was going down and on the day I was coming back, it was not nearly as bad as it could have been as a fair amount of the storms from Fallon south fell as rain, not snow. Going down the snow lightened up considerably east of Sparks and cleared out before Fernley and then coming back I had bad snow over Goldfield summit and also from Fernley to my house, but I've seen worse. I had feared it would be bad most of the way and turn what is a 7+ hour trip when the weather is good into a 15 hour fight with the snow and ice, and it was just not that way. I think it took a little over 8 hours to get there and about 9.5 coming back. I rode the monorail back and forth from my hotel to the Conference hotel and that was a fun thing.

[Steve Herschbach]

Great report Chris, thanks!

[DolanDave]

Hey Chris,

 Good to hear it was a fun time and success, I did not have to sign a paper, so I could spill a little of the beans.... seems a new gold detector called the monster is coming out... It will be under $1,000 , possibly a VLF??? Also new handheld probes, ect... but no new big gold detectors above the 7000....

  Really stinks since there was an aftermarket coil company there, that they cannot make any aftermarket coils for the GPZ... wish Minelab could release the info so different coils could be made.

Dave

[Norvic]

I hope the new ML will be a lightweight PI, we`ve been screaming for a SDC in a better format since it came out. Is there a market for another gold VLF? is XPs Ver4 a VLF breakthrough of some kind that has ML nervous? Sounds like 17 might be a exciting year. MLs not "feeding" the chooks" for no reason.

[Reno Chris]

Hi Dave - Hey I don't remember seeing you there and I did look around for folks I knew. Perhaps some dealer who was in attendance took you into their confidence?

I got to meet Jennifer Bond in person for the first time. She is doing some work with Doc and was there with him.

Dave - about the coils - I've wondered why detector makers (not just minelab) allow others to peel off a portion of their business by allowing others to make coils for their detectors. Its easy enough to make the coils proprietary. Its sort of my understanding that the design of GPZ coils are more complex than the making of most VLF and PI coils and its not just a matter of pressing a button and stamping out 10 different sizes. Did your dealer friend remark on Coiltek's over the shoulder sky hook to support the GPZ with the 19 inch coil?

[Trent King]

Dont tell me they copied General Herculese sky crane! ???  I can feel a new vid coming on !

[DolanDave]

9 hours ago, Reno Chris said:

Hi Dave - Hey I don't remember seeing you there and I did look around for folks I knew. Perhaps some dealer who was in attendance took you into their confidence?

I got to meet Jennifer Bond in person for the first time. She is doing some work with Doc and was there with him.

Dave - about the coils - I've wondered why detector makers (not just minelab) allow others to peel off a portion of their business by allowing others to make coils for their detectors. Its easy enough to make the coils proprietary. Its sort of my understanding that the design of GPZ coils are more complex than the making of most VLF and PI coils and its not just a matter of pressing a button and stamping out 10 different sizes. Did your dealer friend remark on Coiltek's over the shoulder sky hook to support the GPZ with the 19 inch coil?

Hi Chris,

  No wish I could of attended, but didn't get an invite :(....  Sounds like a bunch of great folks went. 

  I did not hear about the shoulder sky hook, but funny you mention the sky hook. If it's anything like the picture, I used one on the 5000 when it first came out using the Atlas support. But to me the pro swing harness by minelab is much better.

  I also heard about the new coil for the ctx 3030, which will be nice.

 Dave

[Reno Chris]

The coiltek sky hook support is similar to the camera support photo but did not stick up so far above the top of the head. I know Doc is also considering some such product with a more or less similar design.  The problem I saw is  the support was all metal and I could not see how one could get down on one knee for target recovery with out setting the detector off.

[Guest Jennifer]

13 hours ago, Reno Chris said:

Hi Dave - Hey I don't remember seeing you there and I did look around for folks I knew. Perhaps some dealer who was in attendance took you into their confidence?

I got to meet Jennifer Bond in person for the first time. She is doing some work with Doc and was there with him.

 

It was great to meet you Chris and thank you again for the back issues, I stupidly let my ICMJ subscription lapse during my move and will be renewing it for another 2/3 years (forgot which I did last time) this week, am in Phoenix at the moment for training, nice to see some sun here after a miserable week in Vegas, albeit it poured here last night.

Jen

[Guest Jennifer]

On 1/24/2017 at 11:39 AM, Reno Chris said:

The coiltek sky hook support is similar to the camera support photo but did not stick up so far above the top of the head. I know Doc is also considering some such product with a more or less similar design.  The problem I saw is  the support was all metal and I could not see how one could get down on one knee for target recovery with out setting the detector off.

I agree with Chris, I don't see a lot of people brave enough to swing a 19" coil, let alone a 14" coil within a few feet of essentially a huge aluminum can. :)

Although... that being said... I'd still (like any of us crazies) buy one. :)

Jen