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
