WOW is all I can say and definitely proud of what was accomplished to pull off an amazing MACNA in San Diego! While you will never please everyone and their own personal tastes the amount of positive feedback I received throughout the show was a confirmation on a job well done. Now that I had a night to get some rest I wanted to recap some of my thoughts and experiences. This process started over 5 years ago when SDMAS decided to bid for MACNA at the show in Dallas. We were not selected and bid again the following year in Hollywood FL, again unsuccessful in that attempt to win the show. The third year proved to be the charm with a 3rd bid at the Denver show. When you are selected you are about 1.5 years out till the actual show and have to keep the selection under wraps till about the prior year MACNA. I can't tell you how much time, planning, budgeting, conference calls, discussions with prior year club hosts, etc., that really Dave Morris(davemorris) and Jeff Saurwein (specvjeff) have done since this process began, nor would they likely want to know that number but bottom line it has required dedication and a passion to deliver an awesome show like none-other.
I've personally attended the prior 4 MACNA's and while each had some aspects I liked there is no doubt this was the best MACNA I've attended. I may be biased but there are a few aspects that really stood out and those typically evolve around the Friday night reception and Saturday night banquet. Larry Blighton (bbandu) took point on organizing both a VIP exhibitor reception on Thursday evening at Birch Aquarium which I didn't attend but the kudos from the exhibitors that attended along with Julian Sprung who's company Two Little Fishies that sponsored the event was that is was top notch. The Friday night reception was held down at the Port Pavilion right next to the USS Midway. While I knew that we were providing bus transportation I didn't realize we would have a fleet of about 15-18 buses shuttling from the T&C hotel to the event and back. It was impressive and well received. The event itself is typically heavy appetizers and drinks - Larry had organized another battery of food trucks along with additional stations inside the pavilion. I personally had the Paella which was fantastic. A beautiful night on the pier along with a nightcap of fireworks shot off the Midway. Larry, awesome job!
The Saturday banquet. We really need to give Dave Morris all the credit here. He pitched the idea early on to have an MC that was an entertainer versus the typical Keynote speaker that has traditionally been a Marine Scientist of sorts. Since Dave handles AV production for huge tradshows all over the world for a living he recommended a guy named Jason Hewlett that he had seen a few times in Las Vegas. While we are all reef hobbyists, MACNA brings in a ton of speakers to hear talks on your subjects of interest and I can say my own personal view has been the Keynote's in the past have been a snoozefest with many attendees leaving the banquet early once they wrapped up eating assuming they didn't have raffle tickets in the Walt Smith Fiji trip. Well, when I turned my head behind to look at the room after being in tears most of the night due to laughing so hard the banquet hall was still packed. We are talking about 1,200 people or so. The amount of compliments we received and Jason received were astonishing. I heard a guy that pretty much has been to every MACNA say the exact same thing I felt - Finally! Kudos again Dave, glad you stuck to your guns on that idea. Jessica Timko (jessycat or creativesoup) did an amazing job with all the marketing, signage, etc., and of course the bad ass MACNA San Diego logo.
Last, I personally helped take point on the daily raffles. With a team of folks Chad (seareef), Brian Badillo (wholeagan), Mazzie (our dark haired Vanna White), Larry (bbandu), Jon (bbandu's son-in-law right?), Ron Luong (xopresents), Danny Fandango(jada1) & his son Angelo, Marlon (blanking on SN) and a host of others including some volunteers from MASNA. Sunday was insane with the number of last minute raffle items to be added. We had our hands full were still able to get through in a solid 90 minutes. I personally received feedback from one of the gals that helps run those for RAP and she said it was smooth and that we did a great job.
I'm leaving out plenty and still felt like a wrote a novel. For those that attended all three days as your first MACNA I hope it lived up to your expectations. Hope to see in you in 2017 in New Orleans.
Marlin
Left to Right (Danny, his son Angelo, Ron, Brian, Chad, Mazzie, Jason Hewlett, me, Larry, Jon)
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