<!--[if gte mso 10]> <!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <!--{12541835494617}--I just returned from and I really enjoyed the conference. The way it was organized was better than in the past, I would truly be nitpicking to find any major problems. The exhibits are an important part of the conference and I noticed there were some vendors who were not there who have attended in the past, this is something I want to address. Vendors attend conferences in order to create excitement and demand for their products and services. They decide were they will be doing this by what will give them the most advertising bang for the buck. Our competition is not just other conferences it is magazines, sponsorships and other advertising venues. How do we get them to want to be at our conferences? The answer is to make it our goal to increase the number of attendees that go to the show. I am not totally familiar with our current process of picking a club that then hosts and organizes the conference in their home state. I think we should do what other industries do is to pick cities to host the conference and then pick the best people from are our membership to run the show. This will allow over time for our members to get better at their job and we would always know that next year will be better as that will be one of its goal. No longer will talented members from states that don’t have an acceptable venue to have MACNA be out of the process. I think we have two types of members one that will attend a show no matter were it is being held and others that need to feel the cost of it will be a worthwhile expense for them and their family, we need to satisfy both. Then were do we have it? Will it be at a geographical center of our membership or will we have it at a venue that will attract the most attendees and therefore the most vendors?<!--[if gte mso 10]> <!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> I just returned from Atlantic City and I really enjoyed the conference. The way it was organized was better than in the past, I would truly be nitpicking to find any major problems.

The exhibits are an important part of the conference and I noticed there were some vendors who were not there who have attended in the past, this is something I want to address.

Vendors attend conferences in order to create excitement and demand for their products and services. They decide were they will be doing this by what will give them the most advertising bang for the buck. Our competition is not just other conferences it is magazines, sponsorships and other advertising venues. How do we get them to want to be at our conferences? The answer is to make it our goal to increase the number of attendees that go to the show.

I am not totally familiar with our current process of picking a club that then hosts and organizes the conference in their home state. I think we should do what other industries do is to pick cities to host the conference and then pick the best people from are our membership to run the show. This will allow over time for our members to get better at their job and we would always know that next year will be better as that will be one of its goal. No longer will talented members from states that don’t have an acceptable venue to have MACNA be out of the process.

I think we have two types of members one that will attend a show no matter were it is being held and others that need to feel the cost of it will be a worthwhile expense for them and their family, we need to satisfy both.

Then were do we have it? Will it be at a geographical center of our membership or will we have it at a venue that will attract the most attendees and therefore the most vendors?

 

If you ask people in the convention organizing business they will tell you two of the most popular cities for conferences are Las Vegas and Orlando. Big cities like NY, Chicago and Los Angles are too costly for both the membership and the facilities needed.
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To increase membership attendance I think we need to do what the Orlando club is doing, make it easy to plan a family vacation around the show. I am willing to bet that next year if properly managed will be the best one yet. Not only will higher attendance attract more vendors it will also be a place that speakers will fight to be at, rather than begged to attend.

 

To sum it up; if we want to be best national organization and to further the hobby we can’t do things forever the same way or we will wind up as the dinosaurs. Change the way we think and do things will show vendors that we can have a fresh approach and have annual events that will be where every member and non member hobbyist want to go.

Thank you for your comments Brian!

I do agree that changes need to be made as well as bridges mended. Believe me when I say we are working in that direction.

Brian very good comments

I would like to make some comments here... first off MASNA is NOT a national organization. It is North American; please do not forget your neighbour to the north. Secondly that neighbour to the north is one of the founding members of MASNA and hosted the very first MACNA in Toronto, ON. To call MASNA a national organization is to discredit the work done by Canadian member organizations in the past.

Now as to the annual event. I was the treasurer of an International non-profit until January of this year and it was a 501(c) 3 corporation, incorporated in the State of Texas, similar to MASNA (Ohio), which means it is a charity for individuals located within the United States with the standard rights for deduction of donations and the like on your tax forms. Part of the requirements of such a corporation is to have an annual general meeting (AGM) which is held at MACNA (I have not yet been to one but will be attending Orlando this year). Selection of a host city is obviously based upon a bid process. Member organizations bid to host the event. The international organization I used to volunteer for has a very similar system. Orgs vie to host the event... not cities. This process is identical in all org based non-profits I have belonged to in the past. Where the primary reason is working with organizations for the betterment of a hobby or a social/political group then the organizational members are the main driving force, unlike for example tourism based events (i.e. Olympics) that have cities bid to host. The bidding process is sometimes competitive and sometimes only one city bids. It is the nature of the beast. Organizations dedicate many hundreds of volunteer hours putting together a bid. From researching hotels and other venues, to approaching their elected officials to garner letters of support endorsing the bid. There is also the many hours of putting together a budget based upon all the factors of a convention and then at three scenarios, worst, good and best also called loss, break even and profit. After that there is the process of negotiating sponsorships and promoting the event to vendors. Putting together a syllabus is another factor, so is making sure that the event meets all criteria that MASNA states must be a part of MACNA.

To hold this in a convention city, all the time, would preclude more cities than you are trying to include. There are a few convention cities, but there are 5 times that many organizations that are members that would be able to bid for the right to hold a convention. Your suggestion Brian is interesting, however has been looked at by other similar organizations, and those that have gone the route you are proposing have had to hire staff, have become corporate and have lost the feel for their industry/niche.

We must always remember that MACNA is a convention, but it is also the AGM of MASNA. Forgetting that will be a disservice to the organization as a whole.


Ross Chapman
Toronto, ON, Canada

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> First of all I meant no disrespect to our neighbor to the north I welcome any meaningful input or advice from anywhere. What I said in my original comment is what I feel is needed to make the annual conference bigger and better.  I belong to a small reef club as many of you might also be and we can pretty much count never being picked to hold MACNA as in the are I live in doesn’t really have a facility that would be an attraction. That being said I and I know many other people would never be able to host a MACNA but would love to be involved in running one. Whether it be in Vegas, Orlando or Vancouver. I just don't want it in small market city that doesn’t have the attractions need to make it a nice family vacation that will draw more people to sign up which will attract more vendors. I and most of the people I know would consider going just about anywhere to MACNA but if you have a family that you would like to take you need a location that they would like. We will never please everybody but hopefully enough people would agree.
I disagree that we will need to have a huge paid staff to organize this, we may have some additional costs do to initially visiting a proposed site and if we have members in the picked cities that can be perhaps minimized and most of the organizational activities can be done with on line meetings.

 I am willing to bet if a survey is done with the vendors you would see a consensus that they would have liked to see better participation and what is the conference with poor attendance, less vendors and therefore probably not enough money to invite good speakers or even run a decent event.

 I belong to other organizations in the public sector as I am a vendor in my private life to public school systems the vendor participation is always better and the attendance is always greater when you have the “Show “in a city that is a tourist draw.

 Well enough of this rambling on I just want to go to a show where I can see the best speakers, see the most vendors not just for the great show specials but also to see the latest things on the market.

Remember this; if a vendor can’t foresee potential improvements to their business by attending they just won’t attend.

If we work as a total team in organizing show they can only get better

Many of the MACNAs past have been held in NoWhereVille with no interesting attractions in close proximity. And they have been among the best. Pittsburgh is a great example of that. It wasn't even IN Pitt. It was an hour into nowhere from the airport that services Pitt. I've heard great things of many MACNAs that were not in a lime light city. I'm not sure that is a requirement. The conference, as long as it is held with the heart of the hobby in mind, giving back to the community at every chance while staying just ahead of break even will grow the conference better than any big city, huge attraction can. Every time a club tries to "out do" and be "the best MACNA ever" they go above and beyond what it takes to make a great MACNA and delve into what it takes to Peacock. Turns out those conferences that do the most to give back to the community (vendors and attendees) are the ones inevitably touted as the Best MACNA Ever by those in attendance. I'm pretty sure if you surveyed the audience they would say that the likelihood of bringing non-hobby family to the event is slim unless the event is in driving distance (and even then not really critical to their attendance).

Brian, you could just as easily host MACNA in a 25-30k SqFt hall with 5-7 VERY dedicated individuals. It doesn't take a big club, "cool" venue or lots of area attractions to make it great. Although it does help if you have a good driving radius to allow more folks to drive in to the conference.

There's a lot that can be done to help the host city remotely and we need to improve that process of guiding and participating in building MACNA (vendor relations, advertising, software, website, and other structural necessities) without MASNA "running the show". We need to build the infrastructure to make it easier on the host clubs. As MASNA members, posting in our "local" forums to get the word out about the event (and more importantly what it is) is the biggest help we can be to the show. I'm always surprised at how many people in the hobby don't know what MACNA is. Even folks from our local club "didn't know there were speakers". I'm not sure how. We posted about the speakers specifically several times and gave hand outs at registration with the day's schedule (educational 501c3 and all, lol), but they were surprised on Sunday to find out they missed speakers on Saturday!

The trend-line for MACNA growth is on the right path. It has shown steady and ever increasing participation by attendees and vendors.

Just my 2c of course, and not necessarily the opinons of the organization as a whole. 

I live in a big city... (well at least for Canada it is a big city LOL) but am not actually a member of the Toronto club. My membership is with a small club outside of T.O. that has about 10-15 members. On our own we probably could not run a MACNA. However with a partnership of other small clubs in Southern Ontario such a bid could easily be put forward. Nothing precludes clubs from pooling resources together and bidding as a group to host the event. Having not been to MACNA before, I have no idea as to how many families attend the event. I have a feeling that this year the number will be higher that in years previous due to location. However this event is not designed to be a family vacation. It is designed to be a learning experience for the saltwater hobbiest, as well as an opportunity to learn about new products and emerging issues. Yes I am sure that people might use it as such, but I will be honest, if I am taking my spouse (if I had one that is LOL) I would not want to spend time in workshops and the like. I would rather be out and about viewing the scenery and experience what the city has to offer. Using MACNA as a family vacation is IMHO slightly counterproductive to the event as a whole.

There are certain things that are or should be a requirement for a conference... but I will not get into that right now as this is probably not the place to debate that. I will state publicly that I have already offered whatever assistance I may with MASNA in whatever area I may use my knowledge and experience with to help this organization. I would, however, like to expand upon something Phyliss mentioned. If you attend this conference as an educational event, I believe there is a way that you can write off costs on your taxes (at least for the Americans) as charitable. I would have to double check with a friend of mine in NYC that has a better knowledge base on this. I do know that the members that attended the AGM for the org I used to be treasurer of were able to write off their airfare, hotel and I believe meals as chartiable expenses. I know it had something to do with the 501 (c) 3 status of the corporation and an IRS determination letter that they applied for and received.

Brian, we may not be on the same page, but I respect your views and understand where you are comming from with your comments.

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> Well, I can surly see that there are different directions that we are going with the idea’s I had when I made my original post on this matter. As an avid aquarist I would attend the MACNA annual just about anywhere as I'm sure most of the diehard membership would. 

I am quite confident after speaking to some of the group that is planning the upcoming Orlando show that it will be the best ever and if I am correct you will see a better attended show (both attendees and vendors) than in past years. By having it in a city like Orlando we can probably attract people that are marginally in the hobby who would not normally attend a MACNA.

Time will tell if I'm right or wrong. I will see you in Orlando were I will be arriving and staying a few extra days as I’m making a vacation out of it.

No matter who speaks, there will be differences of opinion as well as differences as to the operational activities of the convention. Such differences are what can make this a viable organization as well as a conference worthy of attendance. Debate here and via whatever other means are available are what will make an organization into something strong and respected. Differences of view are always needed.

I agree, Orlando will attract the margins of the hobby that otherwise would not attend a MACNA event. That being said, those are not the hobbyists that the vendors probably want to see. They want the die hards, those of us that are foolish enough to spend thousands on lighting, skimmers and other equipment even before we spend on all the live stuff in the tank (yes I include myself in that group :p ). We are the profit margin for them; the marginal hobbyist is the bread and butter. But the margins do fill the room and add to the appearance of a good convention. So we need to balance the feel, the attendance and the material. Get the die hards out and still allow for the margins. Too much of what one needs will in some way, shape, or form preclude the participation of the other. What is probably needed to be looked at is the middle road to both of our views.