[AGA-mcm] AGA2K4 Feedback Summary

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

Here is an auto-tabulation of the 32 or so feedback forms.   Note that the 
"essay questions" only captured the first "line" of text.  Forwarding two 
folks' detailed responses in separate e-mails.

registration
 excellent: 6
 very-good: 9
 good: 11
 poor: 5
 missed: 0

agatable
 excellent: 8
 very-good: 13
 good: 10
 poor: 1
 missed: 0

vendor
 excellent: 5
 very-good: 5
 good: 15
 poor: 5
 missed: 1

hospitality
 excellent: 1
 very-good: 8
 good: 6
 poor: 10
 missed: 7

field
 excellent: 3
 very-good: 5
 good: 7
 poor: 1
 missed: 14

diana
 excellent: 5
 very-good: 7
 good: 9
 poor: 5
 missed: 5

mike
 excellent: 12
 very-good: 11
 good: 2
 poor: 0
 missed: 6

paul
 excellent: 1
 very-good: 4
 good: 4
 poor: 0
 missed: 20

oliver
 excellent: 6
 very-good: 5
 good: 7
 poor: 3
 missed: 9

janf
 excellent: 9
 very-good: 3
 good: 5
 poor: 1
 missed: 12

jan
 excellent: 13
 very-good: 6
 good: 1
 poor: 2
 missed: 8

amanot
 excellent: 24
 very-good: 6
 good: 0
 poor: 1
 missed: 0

amanod
 excellent: 20
 very-good: 6
 good: 1
 poor: 2
 missed: 2

wall
 excellent: 5
 very-good: 15
 good: 6
 poor: 6
 missed: 0

awards
 excellent: 9
 very-good: 6
 good: 11
 poor: 3
 missed: 3

banquet
 excellent: 7
 very-good: 12
 good: 3
 poor: 3
 missed: 7

auction
 excellent: 7
 very-good: 10
 good: 9
 poor: 1
 missed: 4

hotel
 excellent: 17
 very-good: 9
 good: 6
 poor: 0
 missed: 0

cost
 excellent: 11
 very-good: 9
 good: 9
 poor: 1
 missed: 0


**** heard ****

heard: How could I not?<g>
heard: It called to me...  AGA Website
heard: I'm in the AGA + I saw the info on the AGA website and earlier in the 
year, Neil Frank told me. :)
heard: Previous attendee
heard: Web page
heard: AGA Website
heard: From past conferences.  This was my fourth conference.
heard: Been in the hobby long enough to know to keep an eye on the AGA website
heard: AGA site
heard: From an AGA member who runs a tropical fish store that I frequent.
heard: AGA member
heard: GWAPA
heard: APD
heard: AGA website
heard: Via the AGA website.
heard: My wife is a member.
heard: Mail list, web site
heard: am AGA member
heard: From gwapa
heard: AGA MEMBER
heard: Through the internet. I was web surfing for plant and aquarium 
information and I found the AGA website. I was looking for AGA tanks and this 
site came up. Glad I found it.
heard: Have attended prior, actually promote it in FAMA column
heard: AGA
heard: Aquatic Plants Digest
heard: TAG
heard: AGA Postings
heard: AGA Membership, AGA listserv

**** favorite ****

favorite: The talks, and getting to meet a LOT of new folks from different 
areas of the world.
favorite: Amano! Jan Bastmijer was almost a tie with him though. :)
favorite: Both Amano's talk and demo.  It's definitely more convenient than 
flying out the Japan to see him! :)
favorite: Amano
favorite: Auction
favorite: The guest speakers
favorite: Presentations.
favorite: Meeting new people and Jan's and Takashi's demos/talks
favorite: Amano live demo
favorite: The talks, as they provided great information--both tank design and 
maintenance.
favorite: Time to talk to people, the downtime. I enjoyed the pre-party and was 
happy to help assemble stuff, wish we could have been more prompt delivering 
the registration packets, people were waiting for them.
favorite: Amano
favorite: Jan's afternoon presentation and Paul Kromholz workshop.
favorite: Takashi Amano and Jan Bastmeijer's presentations.
favorite: The speakers and workshops.  All were very entertaining, worthwhile, 
and full of good information.
favorite: Talking informally with participants.
favorite: I really enjoyed both Walstad's and Amano's talks.
favorite: Amano after the banquet
favorite: Just getting to interact with folks that don't think I'm weird...ok, 
that don't think I'm weird for wanting to grow little plants in aquaria anyhow! 
 Thoroughly enjoyed getting to put names and faces of folks together.  Bought 
some nice plants and got lots of nice samples from vendors and goodie bags.....
favorite: AMANO
favorite: Amano's lecture and demonstration
favorite: I arrived to the convention on Saturday morning and it was a little disorganized. It took a little while to find Oliver's aquascaping. It seem like he was not prepared and later I found out that he was a fill in. I really liked the auction. The hotel room was great and they had a nice gym and decent pool. 
favorite: Seeing Amano in person, networking with other attendees, the auction
favorite: Aquascaping demonstration and meeting, making new friends, and plant 
talk between meetings
favorite: The Cryptocoryne talks.
favorite: Takashi Amano, and meeting some of the people who's articles I've 
been reading for many years.
favorite: The Amano demonstration
favorite: Amamo

**** least ****

least: The LONG bus ride back, and then the rush to start speakers.  The 
traffic jam was unforeseen and unavoidable, but then I think we should have 
been a bit more flexible starting the talks so people had time to eat without 
such a frenzy.
least: Well, the one thing that really irked me was the hospitality suite not being open after the awards. Last year it was a great place to socialize and ask some of the winners questions, and get to know people you have only talked to Online. I also had some issues with the auction, and have talked to Scott about it, ask him for my treatise. LOL Another downside was the constant changes during the convention. Such as moving the talks, and moving the raffle to a different time without letting everyone know, especially those that had bought tickets, and were unable to win because they didnt know that it was going to raffled sat night instead of sunday like advertised. I would also schedule some more time between speakers, as I was unable to attend Olivers talk due to Jan's running long. 
least: Probably that we could only choose 2 out of the 3 Focus talks.
least: Walstad
least: None noted
least: Time schedule and announcements of awards
least: Diana's talk sorta bored me, but I am sure it was of interest to low 
maintenance people.  The hospitality suite wasn't anything special, but I do 
appreciate that it was there
least: The hospitality suite - it would have been more aptly named "open room with 
warm beer" - VERY disappointing - especially that there was nothing to do Saturday 
after Amano.
least: The schedule being so different from the initial plan, particularly in the Saturday sessions running so late (midnight!). 
least: Diana Walstad's talk was not a good start-off. She would have been much better in a small focus group, and yet, her work is much discussed and serves to bring in the beginner frequently. 
least: Amano ...
least: There were two items I'd like to bring up:
least: Obtaining registration packets was a struggle prior to Saturday.  Once the 
"Registration Desk" was set up, things were fine, however, 2 trips to retrive my packet 
at the "Hospitality Suite" (during posted hours) prior to Saturday were unsuccessful--no 
packets were available. Since my first impression of the conference was the Hospitality Suite 
(Thursday eve. @ approx. 9:30), I was somewhat anxious about the conference as a whole.  Luckily 
the rest of the weekend (content-wise) was fantastic!
least: The weather on Friday... Really though, I would've prefered that things 
in general would have run on a tighter schedule. I was not staying at the hotel 
and had an hour ride to where I was staying. Thus the late night finish on the 
Amano demo made for a really late arrival home.
least: Field trip.  I question traveling 1 hour by bus to visit aaquarium in 
Baltimore when there is a National Aquarium in DC.  Then I further question 
traveling another 40 minutes to a local store when that put us trying to get 
back to the hotel for evening events in rush hour traffic (even without the 
accidents).  For me visiting the scenes that are peculiar to the area (in this 
case the government buildings, National Gallery, museums) would have been more 
meaningful than the store visit and much closer to the convention site.  It 
might also have been beneficial to query the AGA board as to what previous 
attendees have noted as good/bad/indifferent.  Another source is the Chamber of 
Commerce. Remember that most attendees either have never been to your locale or 
have not frequently been there.
least: Not being able to stay on site and get to do *everything*.
least: REGISTRATION BOOTH: LACK OF INFORMATION, HOTEL PARKING & FOOD DISCOUNTS, 
BANQUET - LOUSEY COLD FOOD, SERVED TOO FAST!
least: I didn't like how the contestant was placed on the wall or how the presentation was not well organized. 
least: Very disappointed in the banquet. All it was this year was a dinner.  No awards, no speaker, nothing that would make it worth attending.  What's the point of having a "banquet" if it is JUST eating?
least: The failure to follow the schedule for all events and the poor 
registration procedures. The rude and unnecessary remarks to attendees by Ghori 
during registration and the auction check out. He may have worked hard but his 
efforts were generally failures and his attitude and actions were extremely 
un-welcoming. Excess focus on crypts talks by non english speaking presentors 
reduced the value of the study sessions.
least: Changing schedule, disorganization at times

--
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com
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