Random MACNA observations

That's awesome! Did you guys take pics?

 

"why would I want to go to Iowa?" LOL

From a business standpoint that is pretty stupid for vendors to say being that MACNA never comes to these parts so Iowans and people from surrounding states will probably be flocking to buy up all the goodies that will be offered.

Can;t wait for pics. Video? /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/wink.gif

 

Hey Craig, just be glad that I don't have any more swimming in my near future...lol.

It wasn't so much the vendors saying that...it was more the attendees. One thing to think about is that since many of the MACNAS have been east cost and south, the conference has attracted a large following from those regions. We're taking people out of what they are used to when we try to bring them to the midwest for a MACNA. Once they get here, I think they would really enjoy it, but it's getting them here that might take a little convincing. The other thing to consider is that many of the attendees were locals. They probably also said "why go to..." when they were held in other locations that required a travel commitment.

I was also surprised how many people from Canada were there....and even a few folks from Europe.

Alternative Reef did have some great product, along with modreef.com. What I liked about Alternative Reef is that they are able to customize things just for you and make it just how you want it. What I liked about Modreef was that they had some really nice ceramic rocks with holes for frag plugs and some innovative new frag plugs that had a crushable (hollow), hollow stem for easy stem removal.

To me, what was cool about the show was seeing so much innovation all in one place. Stuff that might not make it back to our area for a while (until one of our locals "discovers" and tells the rest of us about it) was on display for us to see and check out (like an alpha release of the Apex firmware which has features like multi-probe graphing on a single chart and other cool stuff). I was even able to pick up one of the new Eshopps magnetic probe holders from the rep that had a few of their samples on display...they're not even shipping for another month or so. Another thing that was cool was to hear from the vendors about what other people are saying about their products (like "some people have been asking us to do ...") and asking what our opinions on it were. It was great to hear the vendors being so open to the ideas of the hobbyist. And in many cases, you weren't just talking to a marketing person, you were talking to the President or other high ranking person in the company.

Another thing was to hear tips from these companies about their products. For example, the Boston Aqua Farms glue lasts longer if you keep it in the refrigerator and you can use CoralRX to get rid of bryopsis algae (dip the frag or live rock and in about three days, it will turn white and die).

It was also nice to see people from the companies that have supported our club so much and be able to personally thank them for their support, both past, present and hopefully future.

And I was also very impressed by the social aspect of the community. You could go up and talk to these very respected experts in the field and they were all very friendly, approachable and willing to spend time with you. It was really cool.

The raffle was very impressive with the amount of items raffled as well as their diversity and product value.

I didn't get to attend any of the speakers because I was either on the show floor looking at stuff or working the booth, so I look forward to next year where at least I'll be able to see video from the presentations. I was disappointed that video of the presentations was not available.

--AJ

 

Posted By Bela on 09/06/2010 08:29 PM
"why would I want to go to Iowa?" LOL
From a business standpoint that is pretty stupid for vendors to say being that MACNA never comes to these parts so Iowans and people from surrounding states will probably be flocking to buy up all the goodies that will be offered.
Can;t wait for pics. Video? /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/wink.gif
Just for the record, it wasn't "vendors" saying that.   It was just a small minority of attendees.   The vendors are obviously excited about it otherwise we wouldn't have been so successful selling booths... /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif
-JB

 

I really appreciate that GIRS has taken the initiative to host MACNA. I know I'd have never gotten to one if it had not been coming to DSM. Now I have the dates on the calendar. Very cool.

 

Thanks Jim, I think everyone here is really going to enjoy it. Before this weekend, I looked at MACNA as a super sized version of Fall Fest, but that really doesn't do it justice at all. All of us hobbiests in Iowa (and the midwest in general) are really in for a treat!

 

Well I just now got back home from Orlando and will be putting some input up later after I get some rest. One thing I will say i everyone better be ready for next year! I talked to lots of vendors and various other people and I would say 90-95% of them were ready a midwest show in Des Moines. There was also lots of people willing and ready to help us promote the show.

 

Check out reefbuilders. He has a post about photobombing at macna. Lets just say JB was a victim of it.

 

LOL, that's great. I don't even remember seeing that guy at the party!

 

Ha! Funny!

--AJ