Macna 2023 cancelled?!

[USMA36]

Just saw in Reef Builders that they have cancelled Macna 2023. Very disappointing seeing as it was the first one I was going to be able to attend. Very sad to hear this.

https://reefbuilders.com/2023/02/28/masna-announces-the-cancellation-of-macna-2023/

 

[Tired]

Huh. I wonder what happened?

 

[JaimeAdams]

Pittsburgh 2024 would work

 

[vetteguy53081]

Just saw in Reef Builders that they have cancelled Macna 2023. Very disappointing seeing as it was the first one I was going to be able to attend. Very sad to hear this.

https://reefbuilders.com/2023/02/28/masna-announces-the-cancellation-of-macna-2023/

Just my two cents but if it was anything like the one this past September - It was a flip-flop and I worked the entrance a couple of days and most people stayed 2-3 hours and left.
They had a pre-sale of tickets and anticipated a certain number and not sure if they did not reach that quota and cancelled but it was a huge disappointment to say the least- " Ive been to frag swaps larger than the last Macna" and there were Few good deals, fewer vendors and only 3 new products featured.

 

[chopper320]

I keep hearing that last year was a flop. I’ve never actually made it to a MACNA so I don’t know. What do you think caused it to flop? I would have thought just the MACNA name alone would be enough to draw crowds. Were the previous years leading up to it flops as well?

 

[USMA36]

Just my two cents but if it was anything like the one this past September - It was a flip-flop and I worked the entrance a couple of days and most people stayed 2-3 hours and left.
They had a pre-sale of tickets and anticipated a certain number and not sure if they did not reach that quota and cancelled but it was a huge disappointment to say the least- " Ive been to frag swaps larger than the last Macna" and there were Few good deals, fewer vendors and only 3 new products featured.

Wow that’s too bad. I was very excited to go this year in Pittsburgh being it was only a few hours away. I wonder if it has to do with location. I would imagine an east coast or west coast city would draw far more people than Wisconsin.

 

[Malcontent]

Huh. I wonder what happened?

Bird flu?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Wow that’s too bad. I was very excited to go this year in Pittsburgh being it was only a few hours away. I wonder if it has to do with location. I would imagine an east coast or west coast city would draw far more people than Wisconsin.

Location is part of it as is pre-sale and sale of booths. Without booth sales- there is barely a show. I believe there is a NY event coming which would not be Far. Orlando event is in April

 

[FishSkedee]

Shame.. hope Jake Adams gets Aquarist of the year!

 

[Opus]

Wow that’s too bad. I was very excited to go this year in Pittsburgh being it was only a few hours away. I wonder if it has to do with location. I would imagine an east coast or west coast city would draw far more people than Wisconsin.

I'm sure there are many reasons. Personally from what I've heard, the booths were getting very expensive and it was getting harder to actually make any money there. For many you are looking at travel cost to get there and then the cost of the booth. Then take into account these vendors are going to several of the large events they have to start thinking is going to MACNA worth it if there is a good chance I won't make any money. Since I've never seen attendance numbers for MACNA I can't compare to the other big shows like Aquashella and Reefapalooza. I have been to all the Aquashella's in Dallas and they are well attended. At the last Aquashella I got there about an hour after they opened the doors and there were probably 700 people in line in front of me and the place was packed. The first one I went to I was stuck outside for almost 2 hours because they had reached the legal limit for the number of people allowed inside the building.
There is also the fact that MACNA doesn't seem to push itself as a frag swap. They want to push the speakers and the equipment vendors. I know they have speakers at Aquashella but there are few people attending them. The other shows also seem to do better marketing, especially with social media. If it wasn't for the posts here on R2R, I wouldn't even know MACNA was still around.
The biggest reason I never attend MACNA is because of the timing. They always liked to do it right after school started which makes it hard on families to attend. There were several that I would have gone to by making it a vacation. Me and the family could have gone the weekend before and had 5 or 6 days to do site seeing or whatever and then I would have had the weekend for MACNA. I brought this up a couple of times over the years and I was told they were doing it for the attendees because it was more expensive to travel in the summer months.

 

[gallid19086]

I went to MACNA in DC in 2015 (I live near Philly so it was easy) and I thought it was very good and a great experience. It was quite busy and Julian Sprung spoke to a packed room. Twice. I think they are running into finding speakers that will draw a crowd (Julian certainly did) along with some still COVID-related travel fears. I was going to go to Pittsburgh this year (I didn't go to Milwaukee last year) because it was a reasonable distance and Pittsburgh is a fun city. Oh well. I'm hoping it will still be Pittsburgh in 2024. I will typically go if the distance is reasonable, which is probably another issue they are having with attendance. Also, hotel, air, rental car and gas prices are a bit insane right now, so on top of the vendor booth fees, you have to pay even more for travel than previous years, as Opus mentioned.

 

[USMA36]

It’s a shame. I was really looking forward to the speakers. You don’t really get an opportunity to hear so many reefing legends in one place. Closest I’ll get now is rewatching the speakers that brs streamed on YouTube.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I keep hearing that last year was a flop. I’ve never actually made it to a MACNA so I don’t know. What do you think caused it to flop? I would have thought just the MACNA name alone would be enough to draw crowds. Were the previous years leading up to it flops as well?

Economy- location and lack of vendors

 

[Opus]

Economy- location and lack of vendors

It will be interesting to see how Aquashella - Dallas does in May. I heard last years show was close to 9000 attendees. I know it isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison since Aquashella is also freshwater but it may be the way of the future. I was shocked when I was waiting in line to find out how many people there were freshwater only and had traveled many mile to attend the show. Of course I was also shocked at the number of people that had traveled a long distance and had not pre-bought their tickets online.

 

[vetteguy53081]

It will be interesting to see how Aquashella - Dallas does in May. I heard last years show was close to 9000 attendees. I know it isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison since Aquashella is also freshwater but it may be the way of the future. I was shocked when I was waiting in line to find out how many people there were freshwater only and had traveled many mile to attend the show. Of course I was also shocked at the number of people that had traveled a long distance and had not pre-bought their tickets online.

Aquashella was huge and this past weekend Reefstock was also a great show

 

[Opus]

Aquashella was huge and this past weekend Reefstock was also a great show

Any guesses on attendance numbers? I went to Aquashella and Reefapalooza in Dallas last year. RAP was a big disappointment. I went on Sunday afternoon around 3pm and a lot of the vendors were already packing up. There were more vendors than attendees at that point. I honestly was shocked when they said they were coming back this year.