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View Full Version : WMC 2006 - afterthoughts



SamatSLS
04-24-2006, 12:07 PM
Fellow Reefers,

I just got home from the Western Marine Conference. It was a crazy weekend filled with silly arguments, good information, free stuff, and lots of people like us. Sunlight Supply sent me down there to sit at a booth, and talk about lights for 3 days straight. That part of it pretty much sucked. I was able to break free and listen to the majority of the speakers. I heard from Sanjay Joshi, Eric Borneman, Anthony Calfo, Walt Smith, Bob Fenner, Michael Paletta, and David Cripe. It was an information overload. I truly learned a lot about the industry from many angles. Eric Borneman's talk was my favorite. He had a lot to say about why Elegance corals die all the time, and had a wealth of information on the composition of corals in general. Sanjay's talk was up there as well. I learned a lot about light! He gave test results for T-5HO's which I found to be especially interesting.

Some of the vendors had crazy booths. A local shop there called mermaid aquarium had a sweet frag tank that was worth 15,000. Can you imagine?? I even came across a few Kreisels (not as cool as envision's work though)

My booth was directly across from Pacific Garden Supply. Great, right?? (LumenArc III) Those guys kinda ruined the vibe for me, as they wouldn't stop talking down about my boss, my company, and our products in general. It was pretty pathetic, really. I think they are a little worried about our new pendants....

Overall, I had a great time, and learned a ton, and met many people... On a side note, I sat next to a man on the shuttle bus at the Sacramento airport heading home. We made non aquarium related small talk, and as we were getting ready to get off the bus, I noticed he was wearing a nametag that said, "MojoReef"... We got a laugh out of how small the world is.

-Sam

Michael7979
04-24-2006, 04:22 PM
Did you tell them about our little group here in the NW? hint hint--hehe

Glad you had a good time and I'll sure they don't hate you I'm sure they are jealous!!!

rude944
04-24-2006, 05:17 PM
So what was the consensus regarding the elegance project? I never heard the end of it form borneman as the RC thread got killed.

SamatSLS
04-25-2006, 01:46 PM
His talk was on how they are being infected, what to look for/avoid, and what exporters need to do to avoid this problem. He showed a bunch of slides on sick ones, red spots found on all of them, and how they look at different stages of decomposition under the scope. It's going to take some time to teach exporters/wholesalers/retailers what to avoid, and how to house/ship. It's going to be years before the return of the die-hard elegance coral.