Reefstock March 8th at the Curtis Hotel
- Thread starter zombiedust
- Start date
Zooid
New member
Well, I personally think that Jake and everyone involved did a damn fine job. There were areas that were lacking to SOME but I for one think that $10 is extremely cheap for the calibre of speakers and everything else that was included.
I want to thank SCMAS and DARC for doing so much to bring this to us. I would especially like to thank Jake because without him, NONE of this would have been accomplished.
I spent $5 for a frag and I donated $5 to SCMAS. I didn't see a DARC booth or I would have donated there also.
To everyone that was involved in this production, please don't lump those who appreciate the effort that you went through with the negativity that has been posted here.
To each his own.
Thanks guys
Gale
I want to thank SCMAS and DARC for doing so much to bring this to us. I would especially like to thank Jake because without him, NONE of this would have been accomplished.
I spent $5 for a frag and I donated $5 to SCMAS. I didn't see a DARC booth or I would have donated there also.
To everyone that was involved in this production, please don't lump those who appreciate the effort that you went through with the negativity that has been posted here.
To each his own.
Thanks guys
Gale
reefkoi
Premium Member
We had a very successful weekend.
Starting with Friday, lots of people drove up to help, you know who you are and I thank you very much for coming!
We left a few things at home, guys pitched in and made trips to Home Depot, we got the tanks full of water (thanks to Will @ Premier!) we hung all the metal halides (thanks to Scott @ Xtreme Aquatics) and we setup an awesome little 24" raffle coral display tank (Scott @ Xtreme Aquatics let us use a brand new 400 watt MH, and thanks so much to Eric Drew for building it for us!!!!!!)
We all had an awesome time, I didn't hear anything but positive praise from everyone, It was a big success and I can't wait for the next event to happen!!
Thanks again to: Aquamart, Xtreme Aquatics, Key's Island, Reef 'n' Pond, Premier, Brightwell, Sera, Reeflo, Reef Nutrition, Copepodgeek.com, All the staff of DARC & SCMAS that provided all the labor and the speakers; Mitch Carl, Adam Blundell and Frank Burr.
Thanks to Steve Hurlock for having an awesome afterparty for the staff & speakers today, you and your wife had some great food, drinks, tank, house and cigars
I can't wait till next year
Chris
ps: to a couple guys that commented on not being able to buy products from the vendors, this is pretty standard. If you have been to any large trade shows its always livestock for sale, dry goods for show.. Its just the way these things happen.
I have gone out of state to attend lots of these things and ours was pretty much standard issue.
Reef-a-palooza in SoCal was crazy packed, 3 people deep to look at frags! And of course anyone knows if you show up an hour after the doors open the "best corals" will be gone, thats common knowledge.
Starting with Friday, lots of people drove up to help, you know who you are and I thank you very much for coming!
We left a few things at home, guys pitched in and made trips to Home Depot, we got the tanks full of water (thanks to Will @ Premier!) we hung all the metal halides (thanks to Scott @ Xtreme Aquatics) and we setup an awesome little 24" raffle coral display tank (Scott @ Xtreme Aquatics let us use a brand new 400 watt MH, and thanks so much to Eric Drew for building it for us!!!!!!)
We all had an awesome time, I didn't hear anything but positive praise from everyone, It was a big success and I can't wait for the next event to happen!!
Thanks again to: Aquamart, Xtreme Aquatics, Key's Island, Reef 'n' Pond, Premier, Brightwell, Sera, Reeflo, Reef Nutrition, Copepodgeek.com, All the staff of DARC & SCMAS that provided all the labor and the speakers; Mitch Carl, Adam Blundell and Frank Burr.
Thanks to Steve Hurlock for having an awesome afterparty for the staff & speakers today, you and your wife had some great food, drinks, tank, house and cigars
I can't wait till next year
Chris
ps: to a couple guys that commented on not being able to buy products from the vendors, this is pretty standard. If you have been to any large trade shows its always livestock for sale, dry goods for show.. Its just the way these things happen.
I have gone out of state to attend lots of these things and ours was pretty much standard issue.
Reef-a-palooza in SoCal was crazy packed, 3 people deep to look at frags! And of course anyone knows if you show up an hour after the doors open the "best corals" will be gone, thats common knowledge.
dakota1972
New member
woweee talk about hostility and not being able to take constructive criticism. Truthfully if you cant take it maybe your in the wrong business. Yes i do know how hard it is to arrange these things. I do it for several charity events a year and it can get frustrating to find people to donate and volunteer. Im not saying anyone did a poor job just saying there is need for improvement. I noticed you lost half your crowed by 12:30. not good if you are trying to accomplish your goal, Most of your crowed was done checking the vendor exhibits and the frag tables within 30 to 40 minutes. need to keep everyone busy. you should have speakers and demos every 20 to 30 minutes not every other hour. I know for those who have kids its tough to keep them entertained. let alone the adults as well. It would have been nice to be able to check out store product as well. maybe offer a 10% discount on those products, I no you cant bring th store to us but more product would have been really nice. I no i myself was in the market to purchase a light set up and a refuge i figured i could have got one at a discount. If you are saying that the purpose for this gathering was for knowledge not buying and swapping maybe this should be made more clear for us illiterate folk as you claim. And if this is the point can you keep us kinds of folk more entertained. I can only look at the same 4 table a couple times before i start chasing my tail. LOL Once again constructive criticism to be taken as a learning lesson to LEARN from not bark out at those of us whom PAID for the event. You say what are we in this for well lets see i have more invested in this than you wife probably does in panties. So use we are what makes your world go around and puts a paycheck in your pocket. So next time before you decide to get so hostile mister fussy pants remember Without us there would'nt be shows and store so there for there would be no need for these types of events. Im not trying to **** in your wheaties just clarify what was observed from the outside. Good day to you and may you have a blessed day under the sea. Most of this is directed at thejtc post sorry if this offends anyone just an opinion and you know how those are everyone has one.
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
Anyone who has met the Grim knows I don't get around well enough to attend events but I did have a guy pick me up some zoos at the very end and they are nice. Nothing ultra exotic but colorful frags at a nice price. Sounds like a minor amount of tweaking will resolve the issues.
thx to everyone that attended and all those that put in the work to make this happen. I know Jake put his heart and soul into this and for a first attempt I thought it was amazing. I see Jake a lot and I already have ideas for next year. I will admit my lfs showed up under staffed and we did the best we could. since I was the only person working in livestock and tried to answer all the questions I could and sell the livestock we brought. I was spread out between the flat and the solana that was raffled off(hint hint...that should tell you where I work). Most of the other lfs had 3 people just for livestock and I will take that into account at the next event we attend. I was very pleased with the event and will be trying to get my lfs involved with any events I can. Hopefully we will be able to please everyone, but thats not going to happen.
Hey 12gallon was that a sunpod you got for your tank? If so let me know how it does. I love to see pics of peoples tanks if you are ever in the store.
Hey 12gallon was that a sunpod you got for your tank? If so let me know how it does. I love to see pics of peoples tanks if you are ever in the store.
reefkoi
Premium Member
Dakota, I think you are wrong on every account here, I appreciate your enthusiasm and no, you aren't offending anyone. You are taking our responses the wrong way I think. We have asked for constructive critisism several times in this thread, we haven't had any hostility whatsoever.
Thanks,
Chris
Thanks,
Chris
dakota1972
New member
Chris maybe you should reread the post by thejtc there was a lot of hostility. constructive criticism is what i have been giving read read
Zooid
New member
I loved the event guys.....here's my constructive criticism 
Try to find a place with parking that doesn't want my first born child in exchange for a parking spot hehe.
But in all seriousness, even though the frags were mainly aimed at SPS guys (I can't keep SPS alive!), it was great just to mingle around and see what I was missing.
I was kind of disappointed that Gresham (Reef Nutrition) wasn't selling his stuff, but he was kind enough to GIVE me some Tiggerpods. What a nice guy.
Can't wait for the next one, and I found out about this event WAY too late to offer assistance. Next time I'll try to be there to help out.
Try to find a place with parking that doesn't want my first born child in exchange for a parking spot hehe.
But in all seriousness, even though the frags were mainly aimed at SPS guys (I can't keep SPS alive!), it was great just to mingle around and see what I was missing.
I was kind of disappointed that Gresham (Reef Nutrition) wasn't selling his stuff, but he was kind enough to GIVE me some Tiggerpods. What a nice guy.
Can't wait for the next one, and I found out about this event WAY too late to offer assistance. Next time I'll try to be there to help out.
I definetly disagree that there is no hostility. From what I've read, it seems like the people that planned it are more ****y than the people "complaining". They are just speaking their minds and you have to expect that. Some of the planners seem outright offended that anyone would have anything bad to say. If you plan something like this, you can't expect everyone to be happy.
On a side note, I didn't go but I can understand both sides of this story. Perhaps next year have people buy tix early so you could get a better idea as to what the turnout might be. Perhaps cheaper tix in advance and more expensive at the door. Buy extra food(perahaps at a 20% additional turnout) and you can recoup costs based on the extra ticket price at the door. Just an idea.
thejrc
New member
Then you understand the frustration when people point out only the bad and not the good, yes I may have gotten a little frustrated but I've got a lot into this. I'd like to point out that the majority of the complaints were of stock and sale items, this was not a frag swap but a conference with speakers, I think it should be examined as such.
Contructive criticism usually involves suggestions in how to improve, for a good example look at Zooid's post
Thanks for the better explanation this time around with some ideas, I'm not saying we did everything right but yes, we did mess up on a few things. It's hard to come out with so much though given limited resources the first time. Most people who left came back for speakers at scheduled times and unfortunately some of that got a little jostled. (which was the main thing I wish we had really focused on doing better)
I PAID for this event, more than the $10 charge for sure. I was one of the primary cash sponsors and not owning a local fish store I had nothing to gain. Much like all the other sponsors and a lot of vendors (as well as many club members of both SCMAS and DARC) almost all of the equipment and random mish mosh of items you saw working the gears was personally owned and loaned. Someone had to bring in power strips, water, salt, lights, even the bailing wire holding the banners up was from someones truck. (thanks to all btw)
I understand your points here I really do, but typically in constructive criticism one is told a few things that they did well rather than a pure focus on what went wrong. I saw a huge lack of that "construction" in your words. With that, I'm glad we got all that out in the open. Yep I was hostile, but can you blame me?
If you truly do arrange several charity events a year you will understand that there are a few dedicated souls who after the event have realized that they have not only spent more than planned, slept less than planned, but spent a lot of time trying to do what they thought was a good thing. Poking that hole with a stick at that time is not always going to get a good reaction. I apologize if I offended but I'm tired and I have a lot to catch up on. and I like to think that for a first time event EVERYONE did a pretty good job!
now for the rest of the answers he he!
On zooid and all who wanted to purchase reef nutrition:
Gresham informed me that typically they will not sell at trade shows because they prefer to let the local shops with the booths do so, this is amazingly awesome business practice in my book and they deserve a hand for it. Next time we'll know this and be able to have the vendors bring more goodies for sure.
On those who wanted to see more frag tanks:
I know the board has been working things out for our frag swap this year to add more tanks. These tanks were custom built by one of our members for last years frag swap and happen to be continually handy! I know plans are in the works to add but there are also needs for lights, ballasts, more heaters, powerheads, and the like. The board for SCMAS has been great at making timely decisions and our treasurer Russ does an awesome job at working the $$! I have faith that we'll have more tanks next time for sure!
On those with raffle complaints:
Those frag tanks were built with raffle $$, while I agree it can be annoying to have the perception that a clubs members win all the goodies I can honestly say I dont think we did so this time. We even had one member turn down winnings a few times so that others could take home something. I think it's the ratio of tickets purchased though, I myself bought a good chunk and I know most of the members typically shell out a good $20-$60 on tickets every raffle we have.
It's raffle $$ that paid for our tanks, the clubs ability to sponsor and work this event, and all the great things that this club does. Since SCMAS does not charge dues this is pretty much the only source of cash. Thanks to all who bought raffle tickets, and I do agree that we need to keep the raffle calls on time and maybe adjust the way we split them up, but I highly disagree in omitting club members from these raffles. I've yet to go to an open event where this was the case (examples would be Reef Ed, and the RMRC frag swap, both open to public, both allowng club members to buy raffle tickets).
All that said, if you've got good ideas in how we could have divied up the raffle buckets better... I'm sure the board would love to hear it. It's one of the trickier parts of the raffle process for sure!
I do agree that we needed more booths, it would have been great in my opinion to see a booth from each of the clubs there (other than just ours) as for most people we're a little far south for this days gas $$. We had an amazingly short short time to put this thing together and the big coordinators (the SCMAS board and Jake Adams) did what I thought to be an amazing job. Yes there were a ton of last minute "oh gods" but it came out well.
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Clown-N-Around
New member
Glad I was able to make it. Props to all of the hard work you guys did - it is NOT easy and I think your hard work paid off. I was disappointed that we didn't hear about it in time to help out. I think it would be awesome if we all did a big blow out event in the future
I am sure more helpers can only make for a better event.green wrasse
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12051382#post12051382 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Zooid
I loved the event guys.....here's my constructive criticism
Try to find a place with parking that doesn't want my first born child in exchange for a parking spot hehe.
But in all seriousness, even though the frags were mainly aimed at SPS guys (I can't keep SPS alive!), it was great just to mingle around and see what I was missing.
I was kind of disappointed that Gresham (Reef Nutrition) wasn't selling his stuff, but he was kind enough to GIVE me some Tiggerpods. What a nice guy.
Can't wait for the next one, and I found out about this event WAY too late to offer assistance. Next time I'll try to be there to help out.
Zoo I think they're (SPS) a lot easier to frag LOL but seriously I was looking for LPS. I think the sellers have a hard time judging what to bring I know at our Oct. swap 1 seller brought 4 clams sold them very fast. Then everyone wanted a clam and other sellers said well I have a bunch at the store. It's probably hard to tell what people are after.
dakota1972
New member
thejrc, I appreciate what you had to say in the last posts. like i said i do know how hard it is. I agree with several others that maybe another location might be more preferable next year. sometihing with multiple rooms with seperate areas. I know that some of the local stores rent for retail store fronts. most owner would be willing to rent a space out for a day or two. just an idea. depending on the time and what we would have available I could see what we would have avail. we do property mgmt in Denver and would be willing to donate some space for the show if we have it avail. I spent a few minutes online ans there are several local pet stores and aquarium builders that cold be talked to as well. And seriously you should really already be planning for your next event right now. I know for some of the golf charities we do I start planning the next day for the up coming year. There are several local stores that should be contacting there vendors asking for donated items for raffle not used items. and ect. I could go on forever with some of the mistakes i have learned from .
Also by no means did i mean to offend you personally. People had asked how it was i just gave my two cents. All in all is was a terrific turn out for a first event. and will only get better with years to come. I do have to say the frags were magnificent. to scale the hole event 8 out of a ten. maybe next year if planned in advance like zooid said charge early admission put the message out early for local fraggers, and maybe see about setting up a nice aqua scaped display tank maybe a frag school, more hands on demos.
Once again just my two cents. would love to be of any assistance for any other up n coming events.
have a blessed day under the sea.
Chris
Also by no means did i mean to offend you personally. People had asked how it was i just gave my two cents. All in all is was a terrific turn out for a first event. and will only get better with years to come. I do have to say the frags were magnificent. to scale the hole event 8 out of a ten. maybe next year if planned in advance like zooid said charge early admission put the message out early for local fraggers, and maybe see about setting up a nice aqua scaped display tank maybe a frag school, more hands on demos.
Once again just my two cents. would love to be of any assistance for any other up n coming events.
have a blessed day under the sea.
Chris
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