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If you are in the Mid West, The Madison Area Aquatic Hobbyists club is going to do a Catfish Themed event Oct 16th to the 18th. More details to come soon.

That is good news but CatCon has set a pretty high bar!

True, but we have to start somewhere. For the first year we are hoping to draw in a large enough crowd that we can start building towards what the Potomac Aquarium Society has done. We did an event in the same hotel we are using this year about 4 or 5 years ago. Had a decent draw for our first event, since then we have worked on making the club a robust and active club. Over the next month we will be putting together the details and then we will get the info out.

Yes, this is good news. And it gets us half way across the country... LOL

#SadWestCoastFishKeepers

I look forward to it!

So what about CatCon makes it so good?

Marine590622 wrote:So what about CatCon makes it so good?

Oh, my friend... You want to know about "CatCon," do you? Read on.... http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =2&t=41111

Cheers, Eric (like I've ever been there, LOL)

Marine590622 wrote:So what about CatCon makes it so good?

Some of the Pro's of catcon IMO

The strong speaker lineup
Nonstop activities, from talks to tours and collection trips
International draw of some of the worlds top Catfish hobbyists beyond the scheduled speakers
Dedicated in-room sales floor with dedicated time slot on the schedule for sales
PVAS works hard and with the hotel to provide for in room sellers from out of town, offering tables, and in the past even tanks.

Free beer in the hospitality suites is nothing to complain about either.

The biggest con IMO is the cost of hotels in the DC area, even discounted rates still make for an expensive week

bekateen wrote:

Marine590622 wrote:So what about CatCon makes it so good?

Oh, my friend... You want to know about "CatCon," do you? Read on.... http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =2&t=41111

Cheers, Eric (like I've ever been there, LOL)

Thanks for the pointer.

Nabobmob1 wrote:

Marine590622 wrote:So what about CatCon makes it so good?

Some of the Pro's of catcon IMO

The strong speaker lineup
Nonstop activities, from talks to tours and collection trips
International draw of some of the worlds top Catfish hobbyists beyond the scheduled speakers
Dedicated in-room sales floor with dedicated time slot on the schedule for sales
PVAS works hard and with the hotel to provide for in room sellers from out of town, offering tables, and in the past even tanks.

Free beer in the hospitality suites is nothing to complain about either.

The biggest con IMO is the cost of hotels in the DC area, even discounted rates still make for an expensive week

We will have three or more speakers, we could look at collection trips. We are shooting for dedicated in-room sales on Saturday and a larger swap on Sunday.

Not sure we will be able to swing free beer but we are looking at having appetizers provided for each speaker presentation.

Vendors will be allowed to set up tanks as we will purchase a liability policy to ccover any damage.

The room rate for the first 20 attendees for Friday night and the first thirty or thirty five on Saturday will be $89.00 Not sure if that is expensive or not, but we got bit by the college football schedule. This year that is the first Wisconsin Badgers home game so they were looking at $139.00 per night and being able to fill the hotel at that rate. Because we are working towards building something that will come back to the hotel every other year, and the fact that we did our first event there a few years back they are willing to work with us to try to make this a success for us.

I will keep posting more details as we firm up the schedule.

Thanks Randy for starting this conversation...

A few clarifications:

• The room rate is $89/night and includes a hot breakfast. There is also a free shuttle between the airport and hotel (very short ride), for anyone flying in for the event. Demand determines room block, so when we launch the registration get your room early so we can pull more rooms into the block.
• Speaker docket is still in the works, but right now we have Barbie Fiorentino & Mike Hellweg, with a few more who we will keep under wraps for the moment.
• Registration price will include food and beverages on Saturday, including beer, wine, soft drinks, etc...
• If you want to go fish collecting in Wisconsin the third week of October, bring thick neoprene waders and long johns....

More to come... The PR machine is just getting warmed up.

I'm in. Sounds like fun. Missed CatCon last year .

"Groups of catfish nerds, all in one place, how can you possibly go wrong?"

My son would say the answer to that is in the question.

tjudy wrote: [*]If you want to go fish collecting in Wisconsin the third week of October, bring thick neoprene waders and long johns....

How will this work with our needing collectors permits? Just wondering...

I thought for most "Baitfish" species one only needs a local fishing permit? Perhaps this has changed since I moved south

I am sure that a member of the local NANFA chapter could tell you what the regulations are.
Brian Torreano is the WI rep.
Headdarter@btdarters.com

-Shane

Shane, Nice shirt. and Brian is a friend of our club.

So we have a name for the event now Cataclysm.....

Dates: October 16, 17, 18, 2015
Location: Howard Johnson (3841 E. Washington Avenue, Madison, WI 53704 US)
Description:
Cataclysm is a biannual aquarium catfish event, hosted by the MAAH, featuring noted aquarium speakers, aquarium product and livestock vendors, a rare fish auction, silent auctions, raffles, a hobbyist swap meet, food, beverages and lots of fun.

Look for news and updates in this forum and on the Cataclysm web site (to be launched soon).

Yes that will be the site, although it is not published officially yet, we have work to do on it yet. Your google skills are impressive grasshopper.

I saw it posted somewhere and bookmarked it! ;)

Wow, what a cute little worm on a hook! That's awesome. I must have spent 2 minutes on the page, scrolling up and down, really slowly, to try and control the worm. LOL

Hmmm, not sure we want that.

I wish this was coming to Indianapolis

It's only a five hour trip. Get a couple of catfish friends from your local club, carpool up, and split a room.

oy, sounds awesome, unfortunately not possible right now...workandwhatnot...besides I'm the only person I know of in my area that cares as much about any kind of fish as I do. Everyone else I know is either a dog or a cat person.

Are you familiar with the club in Indianapolis?

http://www.circlecityaqclub.org/

https://www.facebook.com/CircleCityAquariumClub

NO! I had no idea!! That's awesome:) Thank you so much!!

Cataclysm (http://catfish-cataclysm.com) is now open for registration. You may register online or a printable registration form is available for download at (http://catfish-cataclysm.com/wp-content ... /Flier.pdf) .

There are pre-conference events on Friday – a tour of Ted Judy's fish room (a must see) and a Friday night fish fry (a WI tradition).

Speakers will include Mike Hellweg (Exotic Aquatics), Oliver Lucanus (Below Water), Barbie Fiorentino (Aquarium Solutions). Additional speakers may be added at a later date.

Registered participants will receive a goody bag and complimentary food on Saturday.


Don't forget to book your hotel room if needed – Howard Johnson Madison 608-244-2481. Mention the Cataclysm room block for a special rate of $89 per night.

The Facebook group is now active, sign up for up to the minute news - (https://www.facebook.com/groups/catfish.cataclysm/) .
Too many tanks. I plead the fifth on the exact number.