Aquashella attendance vs MACNA

Opus · Apr 2, 2019

I just saw that Aquashella's saturday attendance was over 3000. Haven't seen a total for the weekend. I wonder how that compares to MACNA? Last figure I found for MACNA was 3500 in 2015. Personally I liked Aquashella better than the MACNA that I attended.

jolt · Apr 2, 2019

I've been to both now. I think the aquashella was definitely packed. That was good and bad. I waited in line for nearly 45 minutes to get in the door at aquashella, nowhere near that at macna. I don't feel that is because of the large attendance numbers though, I think it's because macna allows you to check in the night before and also before the floor opens. Macna just had a better strategy for dealing with getting the folks inside as quickly as possible. In that sense macna was nicer for me, they seem to take a lot of learning from other conferences, which is what macna is, with the speakers, the reception, the banquet. Everything just felt way more relaxed and spread out to me at macna and I visited the floor multiple times over the three days at macna. With aquashella I waited 45 mintues to get in, traversed the floor for 3 hours and it was PACKED, and then left. The floor at aquashella felt like I was working really hard to get in to be able to see a frag tank and there were people lined up behind me once I did get up to the tank. The vendors seemed rushed and I did not get to spend a lot of quality time talking to them, which I do enjoy. Having said all that I would go to aquashella again for sure.

Opus · Apr 2, 2019

True but macna has had 28 or so years to perfect it. Plus they are pushing more and more to become a manufacturer show and not for corals/fish. I'm also guessing you don't have too many walk ups for MACNA. There seemed to be a lot for Aquashella.

Maybe someone that was at Aquashella Chicago can comment on how lines were at that location. I don't remember any complaints. I was really shocked at the turn out. We had to quit having our big yearly frag swap/speaker presentation from lack of attendance. Last figure I had heard for it was 400 to 500 people.

Hopefully next year they can get a better system in for the lines, and maybe even get a bigger venue. I'm thinking it might be best for me to just buy a VIP and just do the 2 hours on Friday evening.

jolt · Apr 2, 2019

Opus said:
Hopefully next year they can get a better system in for the lines, and maybe even get a bigger venue. I'm thinking it might be best for me to just buy a VIP and just do the 2 hours on Friday evening.

Yes hopefully. Everyone I know who bought an aquashella VIP ticket said it was the way to go. I would probably get one next year too, based on the parking and line experience I had this year. We had to park really far away even though we got there 30 minutes before doors opened to regular ticket holders. Sadly there were VIP ticket holders in line right in front of us and they did not realize they could have walked right in. Finally someone came and grabbed them about 11:20 as representatives were finally walking down the line to give info.

cmcoker · Apr 2, 2019

Opus said:
True but macna has had 28 or so years to perfect it. Plus they are pushing more and more to become a manufacturer show and not for corals/fish. I'm also guessing you don't have too many walk ups for MACNA. There seemed to be a lot for Aquashella.

Maybe someone that was at Aquashella Chicago can comment on how lines were at that location. I don't remember any complaints. I was really shocked at the turn out. We had to quit having our big yearly frag swap/speaker presentation from lack of attendance. Last figure I had heard for it was 400 to 500 people.

Hopefully next year they can get a better system in for the lines, and maybe even get a bigger venue. I'm thinking it might be best for me to just buy a VIP and just do the 2 hours on Friday evening.

I'm sure theres no way to quantify how many people were primarily freshwater vs saltware vs herp but I imagine the crossover helped to increase the attendance. I know my wife made sure I didnt stop at anything non saltwater related for too long, she was worried I'd pick up a new interest requiring another tank

Opus · Apr 5, 2019

Well, they are saying official attendance for the weekend was around 6,700. They are now looking at maybe moving the location of the Chicago show due to expected crowds.

With those numbers it will be interesting to see what they have planned for Dallas next year. I would think a lot of vendors would want to be included in a show this size.

jolt · Apr 5, 2019

Opus said:
Well, they are saying official attendance for the weekend was around 6,700. They are now looking at maybe moving the location of the Chicago show due to expected crowds.

With those numbers it will be interesting to see what they have planned for Dallas next year. I would think a lot of vendors would want to be included in a show this size.

Yes, I would call that stunning success, and they could do a bigger venue in Dallas for sure

Opus · Apr 6, 2019

Hopefully, they also fix the cell/wifi issues. A lot of the vendors couldn't get any cell service in the building and were losing sales. One vendor told me he had lost at least $1500 in sales and that was only a few hours into the show. I assume it had to do with something in the building since I could get cell service outside but not inside.

AlgaeBarn · May 30, 2019

Opus said:
Hopefully, they also fix the cell/wifi issues. A lot of the vendors couldn't get any cell service in the building and were losing sales. One vendor told me he had lost at least $1500 in sales and that was only a few hours into the show. I assume it had to do with something in the building since I could get cell service outside but not inside.

I think part of the cell reception was that so many people were live streaming the art/dark room. We didn't seem to have too much of an issue (Tmobile & Verizon)

Opus · May 31, 2019

AlgaeBarn said:
I think part of the cell reception was that so many people were live streaming the art/dark room. We didn't seem to have too much of an issue (Tmobile & Verizon)

Not sure. It seemed everyone having issues, me included, was on AT&T. I was getting no reception inside, were talking the phone showed no signal at all. Once out of the building it was fine. I've already been told they are looking at a bigger venue so hopefully it is better next year. I had a great time and I really don't mind the lines. Gave me a chance to visit with the people around me. I just hate going down to the Fairpark area.