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Re: [AGA-mcm] 2k5
On Wed, 15 Dec 2004, Phil Edwards wrote:
Erik,
What's the crew like there in Seattle? I was under the impression that it is
a fairly large group. Would they be willing/able to take something like this
on?
Kathy and I were talking about whether we could pull of a 2006 conference
in either Seattle or 2005/6 in Portland. 2005 Seattle is clearly out of
the question for us with boy #2 coming. There is a pretty good aquarium
society here, and while a lot of the old-timers have left, there's a
fairly good crew running it now. The president is a mellow guy who isn't
part of the "in" fish crowd & thus not bound to the usual way of thinking
in terms of getting speakers. As a result, this year they've brought in
some people I've never seen before. Pretty cool. On the other hand, the
Seattle club is VERY "local" in nature. Few in Seattle have ever been to
a big show, let alone hosted one. Kathy has experience hosting big
speakers (in 2001-2 we had something like 6 different speakers flown in
and hosted that year). I don't know if I could trust anyone to negotiate
a hotel contract here (except Kathy, but that's based on our minivan
purchase...and I'd never want her to have to go through THAT again).
Now Portland, that's a different beast altogether. 180 degrees opposite
seattle. Three different local clubs, GPAS, Northwest Killies, and a
betta group. They DO run a big show every year with three flown-in
speakers, though it's been declining in attendance. It's basically been
the same people running things for over 10 years. THey are well-versed in
running a big club and a show. They're a model club for someone like Ray
Lucas, because they know how to treat their vendors and such. But they're
really burned out. The old timers are only staying on because they don't
want to leave it in the hands of..essentially nobody.
Based on their ability to make money off their poorly-attended local
shows, I have no doubt that they could make an AGA happen and be
financially succesful, though it would probably be lower key, on the order
of the 2002 or 2003 conventions, and might be held at a place like the
Airport Ramada Inn rather than a nice Mariott. And they'd get the support
of at least a handfull of Seattle folks, plus some of the AGA national
energy.
- Erik
--
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com
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