MiM Cooker Caravan

As far as I know its just a value added, something created maybe 5 years ago to help connect crowds with the roped off teams. Its one guide leading a dozen or so folks to a few sites and yÓu get to hear about their cookers, history, etc. Then amybe taste something. I sat in on one and its cool for a spectator but its also MIM with a few hundred teams most folks can't access vs a smaller comp.

your a legit journalist now with smoke signals, dont waste your time with the tour, just get your press credentials from MBN, you will have access to all the teams, tents etc, its all about having the right credentials or wrist bands... have fun down there

Eric: Swinebucks BBQ - Too Sauced To Pork will be in R-078 in the rib section. As just mentioned contact MIM and get your press credentials. It is the golden ticket. The application is on the MIM web site. We always participate in the Cooker Caravan. We enjoy talking BBQ with the public and showing off our Stumps GF-223. The tours are FREE to the public. We have three groups of about 12 - 15 people with a volunteer guide come to our booth. We tell the group the history of our team, how our smoker works, how we prepare our food and sauces. We then pour the sauces our and distribute spoons so they can taste what we describe. Next we distribute individual portions of pulled pork as they can taste the rubs and texture of the meat. We feel it is our responsibility to put on a good show. We always get good feedback from the tourists. Some have told us later in the day that we were the only booth that served samples so each booth treats the caravan differently. It is the luck of the draw if you get a great show or a regular tour. The teams do volunteer for this and are not compensated so a free show is a free show. I would love for you to come by our booth and say hello. We have twelve guest cooks from this and other BBQ Forums joining our team for MIM. We have not met these people as yet, just talked with them over the forums. We are having a BBQ Brethern meet and greet on Thurday if you have time. Fox 13 news has already contacted us and is doing a feature story for broadcast on Thursday. Please come by and introduce yourself and meet some of the contributors
Thanks
Mike
Swinebuck

I got to try an amazing prime rib sandwich from Ubon's on the tour a couple years ago and made my own version recent. As Mike said, it's a great way to see the cooks in action and, if you get lucky, taste some of their work.

http://blog.smokeindaeye.com/2009/01/27/the-ultimate-prime-rib-sandwich.aspx

We did the cooker caravan during the first several years, when we were still cooking MIM. It is like Mike has stated, small size tour group (12-15) with a guide that go to about 3 teams over the course of a few hours on Thurs & Fri. We were like Mike and his team putting on a big production for the visitors, both as a tune up for the judging presentation and to help the general public understand what goes on inside the fence. MIM draws 250'ish teams and over 100K spectators, most of the teams can't be too sociable to the general public, out of self defense.

The same concept might work on a smaller scale if the teams are willing to participate. Many teams don't have the type of set-ups that are on display at MIM for a typical contest, especially if an "all blind" type of contest.