Now that reefapalooza cali is over…
- Thread starter djrice69
- Start date
one thing i thought was kinda funny was when they rolled out the tarps. i didn't check the time, but it felt kinda early to be doing that? it gave off you don't have to go home but you gotta get the fuck outta here vibes considering i think there was a couple hours of the show left. i got home at 530 and i live an hour+ away, so they started doing that at like 4 i think
i get the vendors are probably tired and the far away ones have some serious travelling to do, but it feels like they could've done that a little later
i get the vendors are probably tired and the far away ones have some serious travelling to do, but it feels like they could've done that a little later
I will start off that I have been to MACNA and Reefapalooza in the past and I will continue to attend but I was not impressed with this one.
The venue was nice but too vendor crowded. Maybe not selling as many vendor locations would have been better that how crowded it got in spots. I felt like it was one row too many which caused a lot of bunching up in the rows and not giving everyone the ability to appreciate the frags/merchandise without getting bumped. Trying to find the location was not good, there was no signs (that I saw) there was a group of 10-15 of us that walked around for a good 15 minutes until we saw a person with the reef nutrion bags and asked them.
I dont think the frags were over priced, some sellers had great deals and there was a lot of rare finds it was just hard to enjoy when you had about 30 people breathing down your neck as they were trying to walk by or see the frags as well.
I think it was a bit over priced for what I got. I paid $60 for me and my kid to shop a market place, there was no raffle tickets that I could see other than at some vendors, there was not enough to keep me there from opening to closing. There was no food other than the full bar on the lobby floor, the small food court, or the food trucks that were half a country away. I essentially paid $60 dollars that I would normally pay for shipping (sometimes free or less) at almost all of these vendors websites. In the end, I cant justify paying the $60 dollars again next year if it remains the same.
The thing I enjoyed the most was meeting those people you hear about but dont normally see. Like I said, I have been to a few of these but I never seen Ryan from BRS at them (got to see and talk to him although I left from his presentation early; not his best), I never see Mark from Mr. Saltwater Fish TV and I got to chat with him, I got to meet Vic from WWC and a few of the BIOTA guys.
Overall, I would say it was a meh.. A little disappointing for the return after COVID.
Not just problems but solutions:
- Sell less booths or find a bigger venue; the one at OC was great! I had fun at that one
- More to keep people there throughout the day (speakers, hourly giveaways, big giveaway at the end, etc)
- Signs, I almost left because I was frustrated I could not find this place and I parked in the Hilton parking garage which should had made it easier to find
- a list of vendors and maybe a menu from those vendors so that we know what we want prior to heading there
- Place none reef vendors on the outside or at teh end caps not in between all of the corals
The venue was nice but too vendor crowded. Maybe not selling as many vendor locations would have been better that how crowded it got in spots. I felt like it was one row too many which caused a lot of bunching up in the rows and not giving everyone the ability to appreciate the frags/merchandise without getting bumped. Trying to find the location was not good, there was no signs (that I saw) there was a group of 10-15 of us that walked around for a good 15 minutes until we saw a person with the reef nutrion bags and asked them.
I dont think the frags were over priced, some sellers had great deals and there was a lot of rare finds it was just hard to enjoy when you had about 30 people breathing down your neck as they were trying to walk by or see the frags as well.
I think it was a bit over priced for what I got. I paid $60 for me and my kid to shop a market place, there was no raffle tickets that I could see other than at some vendors, there was not enough to keep me there from opening to closing. There was no food other than the full bar on the lobby floor, the small food court, or the food trucks that were half a country away. I essentially paid $60 dollars that I would normally pay for shipping (sometimes free or less) at almost all of these vendors websites. In the end, I cant justify paying the $60 dollars again next year if it remains the same.
The thing I enjoyed the most was meeting those people you hear about but dont normally see. Like I said, I have been to a few of these but I never seen Ryan from BRS at them (got to see and talk to him although I left from his presentation early; not his best), I never see Mark from Mr. Saltwater Fish TV and I got to chat with him, I got to meet Vic from WWC and a few of the BIOTA guys.
Overall, I would say it was a meh.. A little disappointing for the return after COVID.
Not just problems but solutions:
- Sell less booths or find a bigger venue; the one at OC was great! I had fun at that one
- More to keep people there throughout the day (speakers, hourly giveaways, big giveaway at the end, etc)
- Signs, I almost left because I was frustrated I could not find this place and I parked in the Hilton parking garage which should had made it easier to find
- a list of vendors and maybe a menu from those vendors so that we know what we want prior to heading there
- Place none reef vendors on the outside or at teh end caps not in between all of the corals
This was the biggest turn off for me. I said the show ended at 6pm, I expect the vendors and organizers to start breaking down at 6pm, not start breaking down at 4pm so they can leave at 6pm. Would have been really pissed if I was like the guy I saw getting his ticket at 3pm to enter. I bet he was expecting to have 3 hours to shop.
