Here's my take:
Friday Night: it was really great to be in the company of fellow TONMOers after so long - many of them were folks I'd never met in person before, while a good solid group of others had been there at least once before. We met at Harry's pub for appetizers and drinks, and thanks to all the support from WAMAS (Washington Area Marine Aquarist Society) and thanks to so many TONMOer's registering for the event, I was able to pick up the tab. After we left the bar, WK stepped up big time with some beautiful craft/unusual beers for all to sample. We grabbed cups / glasses from our hotel rooms and convened in my room, which was this big sprawling exec suite at the Wardman Marriott. Nice place for an after-party! THANKS to WK for the spirits.
Saturday: We went to the conference room - again WAMAS hooked us up in a major way by supplying all the A/V equipment we'd possibly need. We had a great showing, especially from the TONMO community but also several from WAMAS and folks local to Washington who are new to TONMO. I think (conservatively) we peaked at about 60 people attending the event at one point or another.
Attached is the presentation I gave at the event. It was broken into two parts, the first half was the intro section, and at the end of the event I picked up where the Monty Award begins.
In between there were awesome back-to-back presentations. We were pressed for time - we could have easily allotted more time for just about every speaker, lots of questions and great discussions in the room. Will think about that further for next time.
I can't review each presentation in this email (would be too long!) but we basically covered every ceph in great detail (cuttles, nautilus, squid, octopus) and from various angles: science & physiology, ceph care hobbyists, aquarium care, ethics, culture, literature, morphology, and really much more... I hope other presenters will consider sharing their presentations here or elsewhere on TONMO!
You can see in my attached presentation that our own
Terri was the winner of our first Monty Award. Terri couldn't make it to the event, but she received enthusiastic applause and whistles for this recognition! Thanks once again Terri for your contributions!
After announcing Terri, we had lots of great raffles to give away. Everyone who registered got a raffle ticket. I don't remember who all the winners were, but lucky folks did walk away with:
- The Laminated Neil Diamond article (classic off-topic (non-ceph) TONMO; long story but a quick search could help you) - "D" won that one, quite fittingly! I forgot to bring it (
) but I'll mail it soon. I'm not sure whether it's the original or one of the several copies that were created... we'll find that out.
- Lovely octopus pendant supplied by D!
- Two copies of
Cephalopods: Octopuses and Cuttlefish for the Home Aquarium (King and Dunlop)
- Very cool t-shirt from the National Zoo
- 3 amazing cephalopod photo prints (poster-sized) from Dr. Roy Caldwell
Saturday night: WAMAS wasn't done with us yet - they coordinated with the National Zoo to get us free, exclusive access to the Invertebrate Exhibit, where we were able to see nautilus, cuttles and a GPO, among many other mollusk and non-mollusk invertebrates. We were a big, happy crowd (easily 40 or so, amirite?), and we got to go behind the scenes as well to see other work-in-progress tanks. Really fun stuff - we wandered around, and WAMAS brought in a ton of pizza of all kinds, along with coolers of beer, water and soft drinks, not to mention many bottles of wine. These WAMAS guys understand us quite well.
Then it was time for some Monty toasts, and I do mean plural. Sedna wisely picked up a bottle of Kraken Spiced Rum and we headed back to Harry's Pub. After a couple of drinks we tried to see if they'd let us open the bottle, but no dice, they don't allow outside bottles. Fair enough, we headed back up to the exec suite, which is where the smiley group pic above was snapped. That was a great time - excellent people, wonderful discussions (and at times quite educational...
)... I did enjoy some really good music sampling and discussion with OB, sedna and jetlee... See, we can talk about things other than cephs! (if only just for a little while...)
Sunday: folks were given free passes to the National Aquarium in D.C. (but I did not make that - would love to hear a review!)
- we did get you in some great photos though this weekend, ieatfalalfel! Really great to meet you.
) and I will send a copy of what I post/have in addition to the ones in your camera. The art show was a hit and we were really impressed with Roy's award for the painting! I will edit this post with a picture once I find it.
