IWA 2009 Law Enforcement
Jim Wagner
Like 2008, this year I represented Boker at the IWA 2009 located in Nürnberg, Germany from March 13 to 16. This was the first year that they dedicated a building to law enforcement and military, Hall 6. Tobias Leckebusch, the Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection Director for all German speaking countries, and I were responsible for the display of the Boker booth and running it. Of course, one case displayed all of my Jim Wagner Reality-Based Blades including my two new additions: the Reality-Based Blade Fixed and the Reality-Based Blade Urban.
|
I love the IWA convention because I get a chance to see the latest equipment and weapons for the tactical community and I get to make a lot of contacts in one place. I made several business deals and talk to people who have read my books and who have watched my Reality-Based DVDs. I had no idea that my work teaching methods were known in Slovenia, Russia, and Poland.
My most important mission of the conference was giving a lecture each day on the center stage. I was one of just a few people selected to speak at the conference.
|
On the first day, Friday, I spoke after Lynn Thompson of Cold Steel. I know Lynn personally and he puts on a very good demonstration. Originally I was going to do a knife demonstration myself and talk about my new products, but I decided not to take away his thunder and follow his knife demonstration with another one. Plus, he was going to be after me two days later. Instead I chose to talk about Terrorism and the Public Transportation System. All three lectures turned out to be well attended with standing room left only.
|
I decided to speak about where a person should sit in a bus, a train, an airplane, and a ferry boat in the event of a violent criminal attack or terrorist attack. I talked about knife attacks, shootings and bombings. I was allowed 20 minutes, and it was just enough time to go over the basics. Everybody in the crowd benefited from my lecture, for just about everybody travels.
After my lecture I had members of the German BKA (Bundeskriminalamtes – the equivalent of America’s FBI) ask me questions about the type of chemical protection they should carry while in plain clothes, I had security companies asking me if I could teach some of their personnel, and I even had the local police who were assigned to patrol the building sitting in the audience listening.
For me to warn that many people about how to survive a terrorist attack, not to mention just being more aware of their environment, was personally satisfying. I didn’t dare mention the latest German school shooting that took place of March 11th before the conference, but it was definitely on everyone’s minds. Even the convention center, the Nürnberg Messe had all of the national flags outside of the buildings at half staff.
On my second evening of the IWA 2009 Law Enforcement I went out to dinner with Jurphass van Rietschoten. He is the European Sales Representative based in The Netherlands for Spyderco, and a really great guy to hang around with. Several of the Boker boys also joined in at a quaint old restaurant within the old city walls of Nürnberg.
|
While I was in the Boker booth talking about my new knives and taking photos with Reality-Based enthusiasts several good friends dropped by. I had the opportunity to catch up with Bram Frank who showed me his latest knife designs.
|
Guy Rafaeli surprised me and gave me one of his school shirts (Israel Combat Systems) and showed me the latest design he did for Spyderco. I was introduced to Guy by Major Avi Nardia in 2003 in Israel when I was teaching the Israeli military and teaching a class for Chaim Peer, the head of the KAPAP system, at the Tel Aviv University. While there Avi drove me to Guy’s school where he and his partner gave me a demonstration of the system they were teaching at the time.
|
Benoit Bihel of GK Professional invited me to his company’s booth for some French campaign, which I graciously accepted. Since French is my second language I fit right in with my new companions. Benoit is a famous police defensive tactics instructor in France (Centre National de Tir and the Federal International Systems Forces de l’Ordre), and as a token of friendship he gave me his unit patch (Police Nationale GIPN) and his latest DVD on impact weapons. I, in return, gave him the new Jim Wagner Reality-Based Urban. We had a chance to visit a second day and then wished each other à bientôt.
|
Dietmar Pohl had contacted me before the IWA 2009 conference and invited me to his booth to see his latest knife design. Dietmar was my first Reality-Based Personal Protection of Germany before working with Eickorn knife maker. Had it not been for Dietmar coming to my Knife Survival course in London in 2005 and then asking me to design a tactical folder for Boker, I would not be enjoying the tremendous success that I have today in the knife community. Dietmar still has connections with Eickhorn, but in the last year has branched off by starting his own company called Pohl Force.
Dietmar showed me his new knife in building 5, and I immediately liked it. The handle design was original, and the entire knife felt good in the hand. Dietmar definitely has a lot of talent and I am proud to have been his knife instructor and friend.
|
|
|
