#GEMSHOWS - PUBLISHER BRAD HICKS ON HIS "ROCKY" ROAD TO THE EZ-GUIDES

MEET BRAD HICKS, PUBLISHER & OWNER OF XPO PRESS

specializes in publishing Show Guides, not Jewelry, Bead, Mineral, or Fossil Guides. Our goal is to publish the best Show Guide (complemented by the best Show Website) that will most efficiently assist all of the show cultures participating in the event — the buyer, the seller, the show, and the new-to-the show neophyte. This is the reason we've succeeded in major gem show towns that already had guides before Xpo Press arrived — because we passionately care about the quality of the book (and our website) and their helpfulness to the show cultures, we visit (in person) with our largest as well as our smallest advertisers, and we strive to remain relevant as well as cutting-edge progressive. Although we have few competitors, we pursue excellence, accuracy, and advertisers like we have twenty!"

—Brad Hicks, Xpo Press, in an e-conversation with Lowell Carhart, Eons Expos, August 25, 2014

Publishers and Owners - Brad and Nancy Hicks, Xpo Press, Inc.

OUR ROCKY ROAD TO GEM SHOW EZ-GUIDES

 Marty Zinn and Regina Aumente should share much of the credit for our company's weird foray into gem show publishing. After a lunch we shared at El Rancho in Evergreen, Colo., I agreed to produce full-color guides for all of their gem, mineral and fossil shows. Looking back, as a result of that fateful meeting, a very ROCK-y direction was forged for our young company.

In February 2002, Xpo Press was incorporated in Colorado, and we were soon on our way to helping gem, mineral and jewelry shows and dealers everywhere advertise and sell their sparkly wares. Currently, Xpo Press publishes 14 Gem Show Guides — including the popular "EZ-Guides" — with a combined annual circulation of over 276,000 and distributed at the top Gem and Mineral Shows in the U.S.A., Asia and Europe.  AND our website is the most visited in the world by viewers searching for updated and accurate information about these kinds of shows — particularly the Grandaddy of them all, the Tucson Gem and Mineral Showcase in February.

Since that fateful meeting with Marty and Regina in 2002, we have been immeasurably fortunate that God has brought to the Xpo Press Team an unusually dedicated "staff of freelancers." We all work from our own home-offices — in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, and even England and Chile! Most of us own and operate our own businesses, we are a group of friends that supports one another, and each of us is gifted with a special skill set in our area of expertise. Most importantly, this team truly strives to live out a concept that we firmly believe in — Treating People Well. The success we've experienced at Xpo Press is a direct reflection of working diligently to fulfill that ideal every day. 

Our Team hopes that what our company publishes — both online and in print — is helpful to you and genuinely makes your gem show experience just a little "EZ-er."

FROM THE XPO PRESS WEBSITE:  http://xpopress.com/