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Random symposium thoughts

T

terry q

Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
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Location
Central Illinois
I had a great time. Met a lot of new friends and put faces to names. Three cheers to the organizers. For as large a crowd as there was things were very well organized and orchestrated. The hotel stepped on their own toes during check in by not staffing enough people to handle the crowd and the elevator operations stunk!

The banquet was awe inspiring by size. I never would have believed you could seat and feed 2400 people as smoothly as they did. A big hats off to the caterers. I know the AAW had no control over the sound system. It was horrible. Please put Mary Lacers speech on the web site so I can hear or read what she said. A suggestion would be to have closed caption since we were unable to understand anything over the sound system.

The rotations were great. I just wish I could have attended all that interested me. The choices were very difficult to make. The volunteer camera persons are to be commended for a job well done. Is it possible to have a split screen instead of switching back and forth between cameras?

The instant gallery was overwhelming with talent and was very inspiring.

The vendors area was well laid out. Every vendor was friendly and very helpful. Most offered discounts of some kind.

This was my first symposium and I enjoyed it to the max.

Terry
 
I agree with Terry!

This was my first symposium and I was overwhelmed with everything there was to see and do. The Instant Gallery display was amazing. I congratulate everyone that had items on display. The rotations were great and I learned a lot.

A BIG thanks to the organizers and AAW biard for an amazing event!
 
I also had a great time and can't believe they pulled it off without any more problems. That was a huge number of people. I left the banquet early because I couldn't understand a thing. I know they did the best they could since they had to move the banquet at the last minute because of the crowd size. My only other complaint was minor. I would like to see the Instant gallery and possibly the vendor area open earlier. Judging by the crowd size I wasn't the only one up early.
The instant gallery was exceptional. The members are to be commended. One thing I found interesting. Most pieces that I remember seeing on theweb were much smaller than I imagined. This makes the details even harder to perfomwell so I really responded to the quality of workmanship.
I enjoyed the vendor area and spend way too much money. I think that's what they wanted me to do. Bill Grumbine was there demonstrating so I finally got to meet him and also go to see Ruth Niles again.
The demo's were fun. Hans Weisflog was very funny. It was subtle humor but still funny. I saw Mike Mahoney demonstrate and he had Stewart Batty and Mark Baker in there to talk about cutting edges. That was really good. Keith Thomkins did a demo on composition and form that was enjoyable. I missed several demos because I kept running into people from the web that I have never met before. It was really nice meeting all of them and putting faces to names. There were so many people that some demo's were difficult or impossible to get in. They used the biggest rooms for the big name demonstrators but even then they had 300 or more people filling the rooms.
All in all a great symposium
 
This was my first symposium that I could stay the entire time, due to some time off this year at the right time. Absolutely loved it. I ended up volunteering to operate the camera for 5 different demos, next time I will volunteer for all 11 sessions since it truely is the best seat in the house. I have been working in the video industry for more years than I have been turning so this seems like the best way for me to give something back to AAW. I heard several compliments about my camera work but also saw some not-so-good work in other demos. I realize that they are not camera operators and were just volunteering, but I hope maybe I can help in future years with some training and operating suggestions.

All the demos were great, only saw one were anyone left early and I attribute that to being the last demo of a long day more than anything else. I also found it interesting that most of the demos I saw were by people years younger than the average age of the audience 🙂

Spent way too much money with the vendors, and all said they had a good time and had better-than-expected business. Guess I wasn't the only spending money?

The instant gallery was my favorite place, spent every spare minute there. I was inspired and challenged by the work. I wish AAW could publish a book with evey piece and short description of the work. I know it would be an almost impossbile task, but so many of the artists deserve more recognition.

I heard very few complaints about the crowd, everyone seemed like old friends even though most of us knew very few people there BEFORE we went. I made a lot of new friends this time. I applaud the AAW board for pulling off a great symposium, with work like that this will only be the biggest symposium for one year! :cool2:
 
I just got home from a very long drive. I had a great time meeting everyone I met, and was pleased to discover than John Lucas and I share another interest. I did not make it into a single rotation. I had the freedom to come and go as I pleased from the Vega booth, but the combination of DVDs going out the door and the crowds in the rotation rooms put me off on that. I think if I go to another, and I probably will in some capacity or another, I might just bag the registration and stick with the gallery and the vendor show. I had more than enough to do there and it would save some money.

Bill
 
I will second John Lucas idea about an earlier opening for the instant gallery, a 1/2 hour would make a lot of difference.
I ended up missing more rotations than I had intended trying to absorb the IG.
In addition, the EOG Auction pieces disappeared very early on Friday.
I made a point of trying to get back to them on Friday morning, but they were gone. The last chance to see some of those pieces.
If someone got a good shot of the inside of the Kline/Vesery top, please post a link.
Removing the Auction pieces left a big hole on that side of the room and some other tables were crowded and/or were poorly lit and could have used the unocupied space to their advantage.

The Banquet was great, given the circumstances.
The folks who planned and pulled off the evening deserve an award of some kind.
They might have gotten one during the banquet, but I could not hear the proceedings well enough at that point to tell 😉 .
The Galt House facility seemed adequate to the task
As a whole I enjoyed the experience ( except for the 2!! late night fire alarms at Galt House ).
Can't wait till Portland.
Mark.
 
Towels

Geez, I had towels and a floormat, all fresh each day, a working A/C unit and a sleepable bed. Not much more I could ask for, and paid the same advance price as everyone else who booked early. I did call the week before with my res confirmation number from previous e-mail to reconfirm the stay and type of room. Checked in and out very quick and easy although I did get there about noon on Wed. Shortly thereafter the lobby was zoo-time with interconnecting lines for the previous conventioneers checking out, and AAW and the "Vibrations Institute" checking in, but all computer stations at the registration desk were "manned" and working so I'm not sure that Galt could have done any more.

No, I didn't see any of the Beach Boys nor Passion Parties reps either.

However, the $2/cup used dishwater they called coffee and those sausage bisquits with Titebond III spread near the IG were a rip-off.
 
Hello All,
I too had a great time at the 2006 AAW Symposium. Thanks to all that stopped by my table and said hello. It was great putting faces to names. I wish I could have gotten out to peek in a demo once or twice. It was a great time! Vince
 
Great Weekend

I too found my first Symposium to be a great experience. My wife had a relaxing time and spent about half of each day in the instant gallery. My hope is she will learn to be a better critic and be able to give me reasons why she likes or does not like my individual pieces.

Here are a few thoughts on area of teh symposium:

IG: excellant, and what I especially found interesting was that work was organized first come first serve. In other words a new turners piece might be right next to a Del Mano gallery piece. Segmented work was right next to Christmas ornements. I really like the variety the un-catorgorized system offered.

Hotel: They did the best they could.

Rotations: A good variety of the art aspect versus the craft aspect of turning. For Art there where the decoration and form discusions and craft there were many skills/tools discusions.

Schedule: With the crowd it was sometimes hard to get from one rotation to the next with time for a restroom break or a quick call to the office etc etc. Maybe they could have two tracks that over lapped say track 1 starts at 8 am runs 1 1/2 hours with 1/2 breaks the track 2 starts at 9:00 with the same length of demo and break. Now you can switch tracks you have an hour to spend in the IG or trade show. Offers more set-up time to the demostrators, with enough rooms there could be more total demos, and reduces the everybody move at the same time challenge. Just a thought!

Trade show: I think my credit card reached a semi-solid state due to heat induced by friction on Friday afternoon. It was great to touch and feel a few things I had been thinking I needed and to ask questions of a few suppliers before I ordered.

I had to leave early Saturday to get back to an event at the littel gallery where my work is sold. Sold a big inlaid platter Saturday night, while that won't cover the VISA bill it made it worthwhile to run home early.

It was very fun to recognize names from here an introduce myself. See you all in Portland next year.

Frank
 
Kudos to all the volunteer AAW members and board that kept, what could have been a circus, running quite smoothly considering the number of attendees.

Have to agree with Mark about the lunch kiosk in the hall.

Bill Grumbine "is out standing in his field" but he also stands out in a crowded room full of people and machines. 😀

All in all an enjoyable 3 days.
 
Hi y'all. Sounds like a lot of good kudos in general and they are much appreciated. The board and the conference coordinators will be reviewing the feedback from the attendees and changing things as appropriate for the next conference.

The board had a brief review of some of these items already and they are in consideration. Stuff like opening the IG and trade show earlier, and the sound system.

I was impressed with some of the improvements made since last year. The IG had good organization. Also the IG Critique was changed from last year and the new format in a dedicated room was a good improvement over last year.

The best thing for me was that I got to meet a lot of y'all and discuss the craft and art that we are doing with woodturning and the AAW. This organization's best assets are the members, and having an annual symposium provides a bunch of great experiences.

Concerning the lathe winners and symposium results - the 5 lathe winners have been notified. We'll post conference results on the website over the next few weeks.
 
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