JB`s Obligatory MACNA Thoughts

Well, it's over...   It all started in a conversation at dinner after Fall Fest 2009.   After almost 2 years and many, many hours of planning, we pulled off the biggest salt water event in the U.S.A. right here in our own state.

There are so many people to thank:
Craig - Without him, there would not have been a MACNA.   He was an amazing leader...  It's just that simple.   He's dedicated so many hours on MACNA and so many hours on our fest events before that.   He is an amazing asset to this club and we are lucky to have him as such a dedicated member.
Joel - So much hard work overseeing so many aspects of the event (and having to listen to me complain about stuff all the time).
Joe - Amazing job on the software.   The registration system was great and he worked throughout the event to tweak the raffle system so that we could raffle off 400+ items with relative ease.
Jeanette - Great work on the signage.  I know you had to work hard to get answers from us when we were so focused on other tasks.
Steph - Our "office manager" who was key in keeping things running smoothly during the entire event (with a 1 month old in tow no less!)
All of the "Green Shirts" who worked tirelessly throughout the event!   I'd like to mention all of you by name, but I'd leave someone out and that wouldn't be fair.   I'd especially like to think those of you who dedicated most if not all of the event to helping out...   I know there were several of you who (like those I mentioned above) didn't get to enjoy much of the event yourselves despite being there the whole time.
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Random Thoughts:
I could not believe how many positive comments I heard from exhibitors regarding how easy setup was and how much help they received.   Again, hats off to all of the "Green Shirts" for making such a positive impact on the show.
We had some amazing exhibitors there that were so awesome to work with.   Live Aquaria, Kent, Marineland, Marine Geek, etc.   Another situation where there were too many to list.   I don't think I had a single bad experience with a vendor all weekend. 
Really liked the crew from MarineGeek.com...  Genuinely nice people.   I hope everyone takes some time to create an account over there.   Maybe we can get a GIRS forum over there as well.   Getting Brett from "Tanked" to attend in their booth was a brilliant idea, it brought a lot of traffic to their booth.   He also took the Central Campus tour and it sounds like he's interested in helping out as part of Season 2 of the show.   Hopefully that's something he'll be able to follow through on.   It would be huge for Central Campus for both recognition and resources.
I thought the venue was perfect for the trade show.   Easy loading & unloading and being able to overlook the trade show floor from above was cool.   The parking situation could have been better, but it was not terrible.   The food on the trade show floor was decent, but a bit expensive.
The food at the banquet was good,  the food at the sponsor party was great and the food at the reception was epic. 
I wasn't a huge fan of using the other side of the room for the banquet/reception.   The concrete floors made it feel a little too industrial and the acoustics were terrible.   The sponsor party venue on the other hand was perfect.
In hind sight, David probably wasn't a great choice for a reception speaker.  Not because anything was wrong with his topic, he just had a thick accent and not a very dynamic delivery.    I think he would have done much better as a normal speaker.   People would have paid better attention and he would have received the respectful treatment he deserved.
On the same subject, I was appalled by some of the disrespectful behavior at the banquet.   Both during David's speech and during the Smouth School Presentation.  The table next to us kept getting louder and louder as the night went on.   I tolerated it through David's presentation,  but by the time the school tank presentation was happening our table couldn't even hear what was being said.   I finally had enough and asked them to quiet down a bit so we could hear.
Dallas had a really well put together presentation for MACNA 2012, they had obviously been working on it for a while.  In hind sight, our presentation in Orlando probably could have been better, but not having been to MACNA before, we weren't really sure what we needed to do.   The one thing that I didn't think was super about their presentation was the focus on "alcohol and dancing girls".  Yes, a lot of that stuff goes on at MACNA, but I'm not sure it's the right way to promote it.   In any case, it sounds like they'll have a great event and I plan to go and enjoy it while someone else works their butt off this time.
The raffle ended up at over $75K with over 400 items.   Joe tweaked his software through the show and by Sunday it was working great.   We distributed a bunch of items in a relatively small amount of time with very few problems.   Several club members won stuff and a few got nice items cheaply from people who didn't want to bother shipping stuff.
As for the turnout, it was respectable and by most of the accounts that I heard, the vendors were very pleased.   It may not have been their best show ever from a sales perspective, but it was inexpensive and our club members in green shirts went all out to make it a great experience for them.  I would have like to have had about 100 more people there, but overall I'm happy.   When you consider that Des Moines is not a destination location like Orlando, you have to expect a considerably lower turnout.
I do think the turnout would have been better had we got more help promoting the event both from Exhibitors and our own members.   We probably should have hired someone to write up some basic marketing material.   I also wish we would have had someone with the time and drive to hit the club forums and sites in the same way the last couple MACNAs did, but we only have so much volunteer power to work with.   It is what it is.
Again, I want to thank all of the people who donned the green shirt this weekend to help.   I know that I was supposed to be keeping track of the schedule, but as soon as soon as the vendors rolled in and we got swamped, it all went out the window.   Nobody complained, everyone helped wherever they could and many worked well beyond the hours that they had committed to.   It all paid off, and there is a huge portion of our club that I'm extremely proud of right now.
The Quality Inn was not a great hotel.  The shower sucked and the high speed internet access was non existent.   At least the bed was comfortable (or I was just really tired).
Personally, I feel a bit vindicated because I've spent a lot of the last year preaching to people that MACNA is not something that anyone in the hobby wants to miss.   At times I know that I was sounding like a broken record, but I really wanted to get the point across.   I know from peoples comments and expressions this past weekend that a lot of you came to the same conclusions that I did after attending my first MACNA in Orlando:  MACNA really is a big deal.
And last but not least, to the few doubters and haters that predicted we'd fail, here's something for you: