Re: [AGA-mcm] AGA2K4 Feedback Summary

[Ghazanfar Ghori <ghorig@gmail.com>]

"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. "

? This person must have me confused with someone else.


On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 22:55:19 -0800 (PST), Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com> wrote:
> 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
> _______________________________________________
> AGA-mcm mailing list
> AGA-mcm@thekrib.com
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