Hi again everyone,
It's Ron here safely back up north in Toronto, Canada.
I just wanted to send out a post about my wonderful experience this past March 2007 weekend at NERAC III in the wonderful part of the United States of Long Island, NY (more specifically Riverhead, NY).
First and foremost like in the other threads, an amazing thank you to everyone who was part of this conference which would include the LIRA club, the giving volunteers, Joe and his crew at Atlantis, all the informative and entertaining speakers, the super-duper vendors with great deals, the many awesome raffle sponsors, Todd and his hip band, the catering team, all the visiting hobbyists at the event, all the new friends that I made during the trip (didn't get to meet everyone, but will continue to make more friends over there in the future), and anyone else who took part in the event that I forgot to mention.
Being one of the few foreigners at the conference like David Saxby, I had to cross a border just to get there and pass your national security.
Luckily I chose to drive this first time around (i'll explain when i talk about prizes) and I'm glad I did. It took me about 12 hours of casual driving with many pitstops along the way. I got to the hotel a little later than planned just after midnight Friday. In the morning I was a tad sleepy going to the conference, but as soon as I got into Atlantis Marine World and realized that this is where the whole weekend would be, I quickly woke up.
...:fish1:... :fun5:... :inlove:... :bounce2: Whoohoo!!!
The first item on the agenda, but one that went through the whole weekend, were the speakers... everyone providing educational and beneficial presentations that would more than satisfy every level of hobbyist out there. I'm sure everyone left each workshop with a new idea, learnings, and thoughts that they can bring to their tanks and the hobby...
... possibly to continue researching what the Pappone recipe is!??!
... having a drink of vodka with your tank can be a good thing
... "to flash or not to flash" :worried: - that is my question - I was not a flasher before (i'm talking about tank photographs people!!!)
... just because mother nature one day can be mean and almost take out a whole coral facility, it's not about crying over your losses, but more importantly, it's how you get back up and keep moving forward in the hobby (or in this case business)
... how many college wrestlers does it take to "lift" up Dr. Sanjay's tank??? ummm, well, if we include the air mattress machine, I added 0
... everytime I hear someone with a British accent give a presentation, they always sound real good and knowledgeable no matter what it is they are talking about - fortunately, David does know what he's talking about and has his own tank experiences to prove it
At the end of Anthony Calfo's presentation, I hung around to chat about the various camera lenses and fortunately met up with a new local reefer from the Bronx by the name of Marc. Unbeknownst to me until later in the conference, I didn't realize how amazing of a professional creative photographer Marc is, not specifically reef shots, but that's one of the areas I know he wants to push forward with... so this is my personal plug for Marc and to keep an eye out for him at your future LIRA meetings. I'm sure he can contribute his photography skills to the club and surrounding area.
I also made many wonderful friends from the LIRA club, some of them I had lunch with and also eventually met some of their family (good looking kids Octavio). All of you New York and surrounding area crowd that are in this hobby are very down to earth people and are a very welcoming group which was immensely appreciated.
As for the evening Banquet inside the whole facility after hours... Bam!!! You guys know how to feed and entertain people!!! Being a Foodie myself, I just love it when there is so much variety, especially all the delectable appetizers served. I personally could have all my meals just as appetizers (anyone remember Cher in Mermaids?) -Side note for future Canadians: remember when in the US, don’t ask for “pop†â€"œ ask for “sodaâ€Â, otherwise I’ll be standing there with the server starring at me for a minute â€"œ I always forgot the cultural differences. One of my highlights was walking around behind the scenes and seeing the beauty of pipes, skimmers, and lighting systems at a definitely larger scale than most of us have at home. I also had a blast watching feeding time in the reef tank!
As for vendors, always great to see them out at events like this which in time can only keep growing? There were a lot of excellent deals and products available for everyone. I personally purchased some magazines and posters at great discounts. I also picked up a leftover box of free FAMA and Aquarium Fish to bring back to my local club â€"œ boy were they all gitty with joy to get a free quality magazine this past Wednesday at our meeting.
Now for the raffle, I easily could have gone home back to Canada with no prizes and have been a very happy camper, but you had to add Icing to my trip and make it that more sweet. Thanks for Vince and bobbbm’s kids for picking my tickets a few times for prizes. Out of the prizes I received, even though I won the big all-in one skimmer/sump aka Protean Filtration System, I was actually loving more the Refractometer I won â€"œ this one actually has a light switch that I can turn on which I never knew of this style, therefore no more tilting my neck back and aiming it at a light source. Good thing I drove and had space in the car for the Sump… imagine taking that on a plane as a carry-on!!! I’d be like Andy Roddick in the American Express Commercial. Great job with those donations to those that worked at getting them!!!
As for my trip back home Monday, with Sump in back seat and a sack of carbon in the trunk (thanks eric), I made my way back this time through Bridgeport Ferry â€"œ very relaxing water ride. Crossing back into the Canadian border was not difficult, but luckily I had a somewhat official LIRA list of the prizes I won (thanks Christine for the letter) to prove that they were prizes.
Just want to throw one more shout out to guys from Manhattanreefs Josh and Jonathan Hale (another fine photographer) who sat at my dinner table. Beautiful pics on the site at http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/photography/23363-atlantis-marine-world.html
Anyways, for my simple summary, I definitely will make many more trips back as long as I can fit it in my schedule. NERAC packs a wonderful punch to anyone in this hobby and no one will be disappointed. I will make efforts to inform many other Canadians to travel over there and experience the North East conference for themselves, but for now, I will just post some pics and my experiences in our Canadian forums to start planting a seed. For anyone who has not been to NERAC and lives within driving distance (for me that's around 12 hours or less), you'll want to experience the conference at least once.
To those organizers planning for next year's NERAC and other future ones, keep doing what you're doing. I can see it continue to grow, with the only limitations in place is capacity.
BTW Joe: Bob and Debbie sends their greetings back to you.
Once again, thanks to everyone for making my trip more than worthwhile. I hope you all know that you have a good friend up in Canada that will be more than happy to help you out if you are ever nearby.
Hopefully I'll see some of you at IMAC or MACNA this year... for now the next smaller event I'll be visiting is in Rochester, NY with a few other Canadians (less than 3hours away) at the end of March through the Upper State Reef Society of New York. Anthony, Sanjay, and Eric B. will be speaking here.
Cheers all and hopefully see you again soon.
:beer:
Ron
It's Ron here safely back up north in Toronto, Canada.
I just wanted to send out a post about my wonderful experience this past March 2007 weekend at NERAC III in the wonderful part of the United States of Long Island, NY (more specifically Riverhead, NY).
First and foremost like in the other threads, an amazing thank you to everyone who was part of this conference which would include the LIRA club, the giving volunteers, Joe and his crew at Atlantis, all the informative and entertaining speakers, the super-duper vendors with great deals, the many awesome raffle sponsors, Todd and his hip band, the catering team, all the visiting hobbyists at the event, all the new friends that I made during the trip (didn't get to meet everyone, but will continue to make more friends over there in the future), and anyone else who took part in the event that I forgot to mention.
Being one of the few foreigners at the conference like David Saxby, I had to cross a border just to get there and pass your national security.
Luckily I chose to drive this first time around (i'll explain when i talk about prizes) and I'm glad I did. It took me about 12 hours of casual driving with many pitstops along the way. I got to the hotel a little later than planned just after midnight Friday. In the morning I was a tad sleepy going to the conference, but as soon as I got into Atlantis Marine World and realized that this is where the whole weekend would be, I quickly woke up.
...:fish1:... :fun5:... :inlove:... :bounce2: Whoohoo!!!The first item on the agenda, but one that went through the whole weekend, were the speakers... everyone providing educational and beneficial presentations that would more than satisfy every level of hobbyist out there. I'm sure everyone left each workshop with a new idea, learnings, and thoughts that they can bring to their tanks and the hobby...
... possibly to continue researching what the Pappone recipe is!??!
... having a drink of vodka with your tank can be a good thing
... "to flash or not to flash" :worried: - that is my question - I was not a flasher before (i'm talking about tank photographs people!!!)
... just because mother nature one day can be mean and almost take out a whole coral facility, it's not about crying over your losses, but more importantly, it's how you get back up and keep moving forward in the hobby (or in this case business)
... how many college wrestlers does it take to "lift" up Dr. Sanjay's tank??? ummm, well, if we include the air mattress machine, I added 0
... everytime I hear someone with a British accent give a presentation, they always sound real good and knowledgeable no matter what it is they are talking about - fortunately, David does know what he's talking about and has his own tank experiences to prove it
At the end of Anthony Calfo's presentation, I hung around to chat about the various camera lenses and fortunately met up with a new local reefer from the Bronx by the name of Marc. Unbeknownst to me until later in the conference, I didn't realize how amazing of a professional creative photographer Marc is, not specifically reef shots, but that's one of the areas I know he wants to push forward with... so this is my personal plug for Marc and to keep an eye out for him at your future LIRA meetings. I'm sure he can contribute his photography skills to the club and surrounding area.
I also made many wonderful friends from the LIRA club, some of them I had lunch with and also eventually met some of their family (good looking kids Octavio). All of you New York and surrounding area crowd that are in this hobby are very down to earth people and are a very welcoming group which was immensely appreciated.
As for the evening Banquet inside the whole facility after hours... Bam!!! You guys know how to feed and entertain people!!! Being a Foodie myself, I just love it when there is so much variety, especially all the delectable appetizers served. I personally could have all my meals just as appetizers (anyone remember Cher in Mermaids?) -Side note for future Canadians: remember when in the US, don’t ask for “pop†â€"œ ask for “sodaâ€Â, otherwise I’ll be standing there with the server starring at me for a minute â€"œ I always forgot the cultural differences. One of my highlights was walking around behind the scenes and seeing the beauty of pipes, skimmers, and lighting systems at a definitely larger scale than most of us have at home. I also had a blast watching feeding time in the reef tank!
As for vendors, always great to see them out at events like this which in time can only keep growing? There were a lot of excellent deals and products available for everyone. I personally purchased some magazines and posters at great discounts. I also picked up a leftover box of free FAMA and Aquarium Fish to bring back to my local club â€"œ boy were they all gitty with joy to get a free quality magazine this past Wednesday at our meeting.
Now for the raffle, I easily could have gone home back to Canada with no prizes and have been a very happy camper, but you had to add Icing to my trip and make it that more sweet. Thanks for Vince and bobbbm’s kids for picking my tickets a few times for prizes. Out of the prizes I received, even though I won the big all-in one skimmer/sump aka Protean Filtration System, I was actually loving more the Refractometer I won â€"œ this one actually has a light switch that I can turn on which I never knew of this style, therefore no more tilting my neck back and aiming it at a light source. Good thing I drove and had space in the car for the Sump… imagine taking that on a plane as a carry-on!!! I’d be like Andy Roddick in the American Express Commercial. Great job with those donations to those that worked at getting them!!!
As for my trip back home Monday, with Sump in back seat and a sack of carbon in the trunk (thanks eric), I made my way back this time through Bridgeport Ferry â€"œ very relaxing water ride. Crossing back into the Canadian border was not difficult, but luckily I had a somewhat official LIRA list of the prizes I won (thanks Christine for the letter) to prove that they were prizes.
Just want to throw one more shout out to guys from Manhattanreefs Josh and Jonathan Hale (another fine photographer) who sat at my dinner table. Beautiful pics on the site at http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/photography/23363-atlantis-marine-world.html
Anyways, for my simple summary, I definitely will make many more trips back as long as I can fit it in my schedule. NERAC packs a wonderful punch to anyone in this hobby and no one will be disappointed. I will make efforts to inform many other Canadians to travel over there and experience the North East conference for themselves, but for now, I will just post some pics and my experiences in our Canadian forums to start planting a seed. For anyone who has not been to NERAC and lives within driving distance (for me that's around 12 hours or less), you'll want to experience the conference at least once.
To those organizers planning for next year's NERAC and other future ones, keep doing what you're doing. I can see it continue to grow, with the only limitations in place is capacity.
BTW Joe: Bob and Debbie sends their greetings back to you.
Once again, thanks to everyone for making my trip more than worthwhile. I hope you all know that you have a good friend up in Canada that will be more than happy to help you out if you are ever nearby.
Hopefully I'll see some of you at IMAC or MACNA this year... for now the next smaller event I'll be visiting is in Rochester, NY with a few other Canadians (less than 3hours away) at the end of March through the Upper State Reef Society of New York. Anthony, Sanjay, and Eric B. will be speaking here.
Cheers all and hopefully see you again soon.
:beer:
Ron
