MACNA has quickly come to a close. The annual event draws aquarists from all over the world and is a conference that I believe any serious aquarists should attend at least once. You do not necessarily go for the education, or the hobbyist driven tradeshow, or the receptions. Rather you go to meet aquarists from different backgrounds [...]
MACNA has quickly come to a close. The annual event draws aquarists from all over the world and is a conference that I believe any serious aquarists should attend at least once.
You do not necessarily go for the education, or the hobbyist driven tradeshow, or the receptions. Rather you go to meet aquarists from different backgrounds that share the same passion. I would argue MACNA has the highest reef-geek-density of any place in the world. As silly as that sounds, this is truly the only event where you can bounce around a room for hours and hear intelligent conversations on Acropora, Acanthurus and Alveopora all at once. And those conversations are not with just any hobbyist—but with past and future industry pioneers such as “the book” writers Julian Sprung and Charles Delbeek, to the 2010 MASNA Member of the Year winner Matt Wittenrich.
Granted the conversations quickly lose their intelligence as the night goes on, but surely those conversations are just as valuable! Some of this year’s dialogues, and monologues, were epic. I tend to shy away from that word due to its “fail” meme relation, but it probably best describes MACNA 2010–It was epic.
Hat tip to ORCA for putting on a great show and to Manhattan Reefs for their after party on Saturday night. See you all in Des Moines in 2011.
