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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V5 #362



On Thu, 26 Sep 2002 RMGTBTS at aol_com wrote:

> houston conference
> 
> dave gomberg mentions a houston conference when discussing the upcoming 
> release of the "Kasselman book". since i recently moved back to houston could 
> someone or mr gomberg share some details of the this conference if on topic 
> and if open to the public.

Hi Rich,

The Houston Conference is the Aquatic Gardeners Association 3rd (annual)  
Aquatic Plant Convention.  I promised the organizer I'd do another "plug"
this week, so I'll kill two birds with one stone.  It'll be November 8-10,
and you can still get the "discounted" rate for registering until the
first week of October.

www.aquatic-gardeners.org/brochure2002.pdf

The big guest speaker will be Claus Christensen, who is not just manager
of Tropica (www.tropica.dk), the coolest nursery of aquatic plants in the
world, but also a researcher and a longtime hobbyist!  I have heard Claus 
speak twice before (see, for instance, _The Aquatic Gardener_ vol. 13, 
No.2).  Certainly NOT to be missed!

Another speaker *I* certainly am looking forward to seeing is Houston
local Jeff Senske (of Aquarium Design Group), who took several awards in
our aquascaping contest last year.  Jeff will speak on aquascaping
aquariums commerically.  If you haven't seen any of Jeff's work, check out
their website http://www.aquarium-design.com for some inspiring works.

Two other speakers are Chuck Gadd and me.  I'm still not exactly sure what
Chuck's going to talk on, but I'll be presenting a kind of tale of how I
prepared my aquarium for the Aqua Design Amano layout contest earlier this
year (heavy emphasis on photography techniques for the layperson to the
complete nerd, and diversions galore).  

Finally, there's a guy from Kent Marine.  Haven't heard from them, so no 
idea what he's talking on either.

But wait... there's also the traditional (can you say "traditional when 
there's been only two so far?) aquatic plant silent auction, panel 
discussion, and banquet.  Maybe even a banquet speaker!  Somewhere along 
the line, we'll also introduce the winners of the aquascaping contest.

There are also a couple of tours on Friday (including the aforementioned 
Aquarium Design Group, plus what the store I considered "The best Fish 
Store I've ever seen" in 1996... Village Tropical).

The best reason to come to a convention like this, though, is it's the one 
chance in the year to meet more aquatic plant enthusiasts than you'll see 
the entire rest of the year.  Last year, many of us were up until all 
hours of the morning comparing ID's and trading specimens.  It's very 
cool.  Hope to see you there.

  - Erik
    (yes, I am still president of the AGA, and the AGA would like
     this event to succeed again)


-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com