Re: [AGA-mcm] Re: AGA convention 2K5

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005, Thomas Barr wrote:

> I will try and if not, there's always Plant Fest and Salt fest 2K5.

Yet another year I wouldn't be able to make... I swear this kid thing...

> I asked Dave Wilson from Darwin AU if he'd be interested in presenting some
> of the local biotopes in AU and he said he'd be honored.
> He's got a ton of stuff.

Quite cool.  Good for the hardcore people like us who know his name 
on sight, though would need to be a bit of a sell to the casual attendee.
His airfare would be less than an East Coast conference too.

> Windelov was another.....We could bug Kasper also, Dennerle is too
> frail,and they are not interested in this market here.

Also good possibilities... more of the "name" draw.  We've found that 
there always needs to be one "big name" person to hook folks in ... then 
they find out that the other presentors can often be the real gems.


> It's not a hard place to sell or promote.

Some words of caution:

The problem is that a convention like this can't really be held in a 
vaccuum, without support of vendors (who are often booking out their time 
a year or more in advance), speakers, and even the non-local attendees 
(some also planning their vacation 6 months or more in advance).

Even though the Bay Area is a great draw, there is already one strike 
against anywhere on the west coast, which is that most aquarists are 
concentrated on the opposite coast.  The American Cichlid Association last 
had its annual convention in San Jose back in 1995, and it was one of the 
worst attendances ever.  Good show, but not the highest attendance (and I 
think it lost money).  Yeah, plant folks different from cichlid folks, and 
there isn't the same heavily reliance on boxes of fish driven in for the 
auctions, but just worth thinking about.  Personally, I think that lower 
national support can be overcome with heavy PR locally, making the locals 
WANT to come.

I would recommend you guys have a talk with Scott or me or any of the 
others who worked DC at some point about lessons from that convention... 
it too should have been a "shoo-in", between being "The Capitol", the huge 
amount of interested regional membership, and having Amano *and* Jan as 
speakers. It was not a hard place to sell or promote either (once the 
hotel deal was worked out).  But it definitely could not promote itself. 
It needed a plan of attack for promotion, a good coordinator, and 
follow-through during the entire year, and sadly none of this occurred. 
Vendors were asked for support too close to the actual convention.  Local 
clubs (other than the plant club) weren't brought in, and felt slighted. 
It was a good convention for those who were there, but an incredible 
strain on all involved, and took a lot of damage control with the 
vendors... it could have been so much better.

  - Erik

--
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com
_______________________________________________
AGA-mcm mailing list
AGA-mcm@thekrib.com
http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/aga-mcm