jp11biod wrote:I think Barbie and TTA have a good idea. The speaker lineup is incredible and I hope it stays that way, but I think the Convention could be improved by adding a series of other talks, and/or round-table discussions. I went to the National Aquarium on Thursday and spent most of the day Friday looking for something to do.
Andrew -- consider a bunch of one hour sessions with local breeders or hobbyists that can answer detailed questions on the hobby. Titles to consider, "Everything You Wanted to Know about Breeding Loricaridae" or Cories, or Live Food, or Filtration, Shipping Fish, AquaScaping, etc. Most of these talks would not even need a PowerPoint. Just get a facilitator, an expert, and a group of interested hobbyists in a room together and it would work.
I enjoyed the Convention immensely but something like this, would make it even better.
JS
We did something like this with our first event, we called it mini presentations.
We invited experienced hobbyists, especially those with a do it yourself bent to give mini presentations in a second smaller meeting room We had 10 mini presentations throughout the day on Saturday.