PlanetCatfish.com

For the first time in North America, a convention dedicated entirely to aquarium catfish! October 15-17, 2004 in Washington, DC hosted by the Potomac Valley Aqaurium Society.

Registration for the convention is now open. Come one, come all, it's going to be a great weekend for fans of the whiskered fishes.

Speakers:
Lee Finley
Ian Fuller
Shane Linder
Heok Hee Ng
Ron Nielson
Ingo Seidel
J.R. Shute
Stan Weitzman

For more information and to register for this event, see the web page at:

http://www.catfish2004.com

cool!!! shame i live all the way over here in jolly old england.

jenkys baby wrote:cool!!! shame i live all the way over here in jolly old england.

And why should that stop you? Anyway, come along to the UK catfish convention Sunday 21st March, can't promise you madtom collecting, but there is a good line-up.

While I'm posting here, I'll just say that Clare and I will be making the hop over the pond for the event - wouldn't miss it for the world!

Jools

You should be so lucky to live in the UK, with a dedicated catfish club! Go to the CSG convention by all means. You'll have so much fun that you're sure to want to make the flight over the Atlantic to visit with us yankees too.

OK, here's a question...
Is this convention going to be ACA style or NEC style?

For those of you outside the US, during the American Cichlid Association (ACA) Convention and the Ohio Cichlid Association Extravaganza it is standard practice for attendees to set up racks of tanks of "for sale" fish with a bullitin board in the lobby (for a nominal fee to the club) to advertise the items you have for sale. The Northeast Council of Aquarium Societies (NEC) doesn't allow this per the terms of their hotel contract.

...What is the hotel polocy on in-room fish sales for this convention? Will you have a advertising board up?

I'm glad you asked that because, to be frank, we hadn't considered it. We really would hope that folks would bring a lot of fish for the auction, but obviously some will want to sell from their rooms. What would you think about a bulletin board with a $5 fee for an index card posted on it?

I think an index card won't be able to say much. I believe, and Paul can correct me, that the OCA asked for $10 to post, and the person had to be registered. Most had regular paper size pages (11x8) and a couple had 2 pages. That size allowed people to list the fish they had available. First you need to find out about what the hotel will allow.

Andrew,

One way to ensure good positive politics with the hotel is to have all advertising revenues to be a donation to a charity. The ACA ad revenues go to the Guy Jordan Endowment fund, the OCA, all revenues go to the Jim Smith Endowment fund. This helps smooth the waters so to speak.

Perhaps the board could pick a charity or scientific research project (IE: All Catfishes...) to donate the funds to prior to approaching the hotel with the idea. Should keep them positive about the idea. I am certain that the thought of hundreds of gallons of water in the rooms has made more than one hotel manager very nervous in the past. Then again, they already signed up for the auction, so they have to at least have some concept of what they are in for...

At that point, the price per advert. is also much less of an issue. $10-$20 per ad (8.5"x 11") would not be out of line.

i would so love to jump on a plaine and come over but all my cash is needed to support the fish i have im in the middle of buying a house to make room for bigger tanks were is the uk convention being held i will try my hardest to go ide realy hate to miss out

jenkys baby,

The CSG Convention is being held at Lowton High School, Lowton Nr Wigan, all the details can be found on our web site http://www.Catfishstudygroup.org

Hope you can make.

Ian

cheers ian i will so try to make it i dident realise it was so close if ide come across it a bit earlier ide so be there (so my falt for not looking earlier). Hope it gose as well as i think it will and every one has a great time.