Saltwater Aquarium Shows

[eagleeyemike]

Just wondering if there's ever a big show to go and see tons of stuff on display. Kinda like going to a car show and swap meet. I know you have the monthly meets but what about one big show.

 

[mapleredta]

Macna. Once a year event.

 

[lifestudent]

http://www.macna2011.com/">MACNA 23 </a>(click link) will be during Sept 9-11 in Des Moines, Iowa, this year.

The MACNA Conference is an annual 3-day conference that normally has 30+ speakers and over 100 exhibitors/manufacturers displaying their latest products.

For the serious hobbyist, this is a not to be missed conference.

BTW, the location of the conference moves around the country and is hosted by a major reef club, but in recent years it has been held mostly east of the Mississippi (Boston, Orlando, Washington DC, even Atlanta). Lastly, it is usually held in either Sept or Oct.

 

[acroholic]

There are shows like that, like Reefapalooza, MACNA, Reef Expo, but they are usually in other cities. A couple big ones in California every year. You will see them promoted on national reef websites, like RC and R2R, more than the ARC. Next year MACNA is out in Iowa or Idaho I think.

 

[mapleredta]

I think ARC should host MACNA again very soon!

 

[cr500_af]

aquaculture;606826 wrote: I've been to a few different shows, SuperZoo, Reef-A-Palooza, and few others. Why doesn't ARC BoD look into putting on an annual event, and name it ReefFest or whatever, take a poll on a name for it, get members to volunteer to help out, have fragging lessons, speakers, raffles, demos of new products from vendors that send out the new products, vendors, local sponsor booths (MRC, Pure Reef, Marine Designs, AquariumSmith all of our local sponsors on the ARC site). This could bring alot of revenue to the club and national recognition. This club is plenty big enough to pull this off, and I think alot of people in this club would go above and beyond to make this a reality. There is a ton of talent in this club, just have to get the right people involved in the logistics and plan it to the T, and it will happen. "If you build it, they WILL come".

There isn't a large show/expo/whatever in the Southeast annually, is there? Not a bad idea.

 

[mapleredta]

aquaculture;606826 wrote: I've been to a few different shows, SuperZoo, Reef-A-Palooza, and few others. Why doesn't ARC BoD look into putting on an annual event, and name it ReefFest or whatever, take a poll on a name for it, get members to volunteer to help out, have fragging lessons, speakers, raffles, demos of new products from vendors that send out the new products, vendors, local sponsor booths (MRC, Pure Reef, Marine Designs, AquariumSmith all of our local sponsors on the ARC site). This could bring alot of revenue to the club and national recognition. This club is plenty big enough to pull this off, and I think alot of people in this club would go above and beyond to make this a reality. There is a ton of talent in this club, just have to get the right people involved in the logistics and plan it to the T, and it will happen. "If you build it, they WILL come".

WOW! Great idea!!!!

 

[bruce 1]

:up::up:

 

[mapleredta]

aquaculture;606859 wrote: You could advertise it in Coral magazine, Reef Hobbyist, and have a few big names in the industry do a radio spot or maybe even do a 30 second commercial ad for it on one of the news channels and just announce some of the vendors, raffles, prizes, etc. We can create some new excitement in the southeast within our own hobby!!! I have tons of ideas for these kind of things, as I'm sure alot of other people have some ideas as well. What is everyone's take on this????

You're on a roll! You should definitely contact the BOD and present this.

 

[stacy22]

I think everyone in the club would love to see something like this happen. The problem lies in the execution of the idea. ARC sponsored MACNA in 2008. It took many, many volunteers countless hours to pull the meeting off. There are so many things that have to be organized behind the scenes and so many details that must be attended to. It is pretty easy to get on board a grand idea if someone else does all the work. Unfortunately many people do not step up when the time comes to actually implement ideas.

 

[acroholic]

stacy22;606863 wrote: I think everyone in the club would love to see something like this happen. The problem lies in the execution of the idea. ARC sponsored MACNA in 2008. It took many, many volunteers countless hours to pull the meeting off. There are so many things that have to be organized behind the scenes and so many details that must be attended to. It is pretty easy to get on board a grand idea if someone else does all the work. Unfortunately many people do not step up when the time comes to actually implement ideas.

What Stacy said is very true. I'm new to the BoD, and I am amazed at how much work we are doing behind the scenes just for the February Frag Meeting, which is much smaller than say, a MACNA. Not that it cannot be done, but there is a lot more than meets the eye to one of these.

 

[thbrewst]

aquaculture;606826 wrote: I've been to a few different shows, SuperZoo, Reef-A-Palooza, and few others. Why doesn't ARC BoD look into putting on an annual event, and name it ReefFest or whatever, take a poll on a name for it, get members to volunteer to help out, have fragging lessons, speakers, raffles, demos of new products from vendors that send out the new products, vendors, local sponsor booths (MRC, Pure Reef, Marine Designs, AquariumSmith all of our local sponsors on the ARC site). This could bring alot of revenue to the club and national recognition. This club is plenty big enough to pull this off, and I think alot of people in this club would go above and beyond to make this a reality. There is a ton of talent in this club, just have to get the right people involved in the logistics and plan it to the T, and it will happen. "If you build it, they WILL come".

If we do try it, I think we should go with 'Reeferfest'. That title would be sure to get a good draw (not necessarily from aquarium enthusiasts, but a good turnout none the less)

 

[cr500_af]

This (and I love the idea) would most likely be a Herculean task to try to do in this calendar year. I'd be in to help in any way if it happened, of course.

How far out are cities for MACNA decided? On their website they have no info other than MACNA 2011.

 

[eagleeyemike]

Why would you not just turn one of your monthly meetings into the show. Your already planning for the meeting just add allot more to it. I'm surprised I have not seen any post from sponsor on this. Seems like an awesome opportunity for them.

 

[lifestudent]

The ARC ran a "SaltwaterU Conference" for 3 consecutive years as a warm-up to running MACNA XX.

MACNA took an incredible amount of time (thousands of hrs) by 2 people that spearheaded organizing the conference as well as hundreds of hours planning its execution. It took 18 months of daily work by Margi and Patti; not to mention months of work by the other ~8 "Lieutenants" each of whom were responsible for a different major activity.

It is not for the faint of heart. :unsure:

Even SaltwaterU initially took many hundreds of hours when it that started out as a one day conference. SWU2 grew into a 2 day and then SWU3 was a 3 day event.

While I agree that it seems like a great idea, it takes <u>real</u> commitment by several key people who have both the freedom from other major commitments as well as the ability to commit to organizing such an event. Plus it takes commitment from many others to pull this off. And none of these primary volunteers should be officers of the club, else it hurts the running of the club by being a drain of their limited time.

As for local sponsors, unfortunately, only a small handful of local sponsors participated at MACNA as sponsors. Seachem and MyReefCreations were sponsors of SWU as well as MACNA XX. :up:

Ok.... I got that off my chest.

 

[gnashty]

Chattanooga has a big frag swap/show each year and sells booths/tables to basically almost anyone who has corals to sell. I havent been so I dont know how big of a turnout it gets.

I like where your guys are going with this but I agree it would take a ton of work.

What would be fun and can happen anytime you wanted was to have or host a frag party. Kinda like a tupperware party I guess, it can be sponsored or just members all bringing frags to swap (but not telling what you are bringing), it would be a smaller more intimate crowd but can be regionalized so everyone can participate.

 

[stacy22]

gnashty;607015 wrote: Chattanooga has a big frag swap/show each year and sells booths/tables to basically almost anyone who has corals to sell. I havent been so I dont know how big of a turnout it gets.

I like where your guys are going with this but I agree it would take a ton of work.

What would be fun and can happen anytime you wanted was to have or host a frag party. Kinda like a tupperware party I guess, it can be sponsored or just members all bringing frags to swap (but not telling what you are bringing), it would be a smaller more intimate crowd but can be regionalized so everyone can participate.

I think Gary might be on to something here. I have been to the Chattanooga Frag swap and it was a pretty decent event. I see no reason why the ARC cannot do something comparable sometime this calendar year.

For a larger undertaking, like a mini-MACNA, I think the best course of action would be to get some folks lined up to start work on this soon and plan to have the actual event next year. Bob is right in saying these folks should not be BOD members because of the time commitment required for both (running the club and hosting a large regional/national event).

So if Gary hosts the first "reeferware" party, I'll host the second one.

 

[gwhiz]

not to mention months of work by the other ~8 "Lieutenants" each of whom were responsible for a different major activity./QUOTE]

Hey Bob--we were "Captains"...it says so on my shirt! :lol2:

 

[basscyn]

gnashty;607015 wrote: Chattanooga has a big frag swap/show each year and sells booths/tables to basically almost anyone who has corals to sell. I havent been so I dont know how big of a turnout it gets.

I like where your guys are going with this but I agree it would take a ton of work.

What would be fun and can happen anytime you wanted was to have or host a frag party. Kinda like a tupperware party I guess, it can be sponsored or just members all bringing frags to swap (but not telling what you are bringing), it would be a smaller more intimate crowd but can be regionalized so everyone can participate.

Yep.
This is probably the best direction to go initially.
We already have a very popular event in the February frag meeting.This year its been moved an convention type scene anyway...so this is already a step in the right direction.
So I say ramp up the 2012 February frag meeting to a more major event, invite some of these big vendors, do a little more advertising etc...
Who knows? It could indeed evolve into a major national, regional event.
Good idea:up:

 

[gnashty]

My idea about the frag parties and meet ups were actually meant to be non-arc club function meaning we can have them whenever we want, wherever we want and not have to burden the club leaders with it.