SEA-MAX 2011 in Seattle, WA!

[Skimmy]

well look at it this way, a price of a good meal gets you into seamax for both days...
so you consume that nice meal in an hour, maybe 2,
when you could have had a whole weekend of reefing convention.
that in conjunction with the crazy frag deals makes it totally worth it.
and I personally LOVE to preview new products and receive free schwag!!!

 

[Kickwrasse]

Seamax was cool good/fair deals and the corals awesome I did wish the ticket was good for both days

 

[returnofsid]

Along with Skimmy's comments, think about the deals that are available. The price of admission, for both days, is something we all happily pay for a coral frag or fish, on a regular basis. At SeaMax, there are corals that would normally be $80.00 or more, selling for $25.00-$40.00 all day long. There's even better deals than that, at almost every vendor's booth. Sunday afternoon, the deals will really be worth the entrance fee, when you'll see prices dropping like a rock! Trust me, you will find plenty of great deals, that'll make up for the $25.00 entrance fee!

SeaMax has been a great learning experience for all of us involved, including Kevin and MAX! The lessons we've learned, being involved, will help make any future events, that much better! The experiences alone, along with getting to meet many new friends and get to see many old friends, have been well worth it, at least for me personally!

 

[justforfun]

hey we could go to macna for 150 for all 3 days whos with me????

 

[mojoreef]

LOL just for fun I am in!! but its 125 for the weekend, then hotel, then flight so a little bit more money. Having an event like Seamax in Seattle is a great thing for the hobbist in this area. One has to remember its not just about getting a good deal, although their are lots to be had, but it give the person a look at some of the new things in the hobby with folks more then willing to talk about them, then their is a series of great speakers, Bobby Fenner is worth the price of admission alone. Then you throw in that you can meet up with some fellow hobbists, put some faces to names and so on. For 25 bucks it was money well spent!!

Mojo

 

[justforfun]

yea yea i know i spoke a little soon...i thinki will bite the bullet and pay again to try and cash in on some of those great deals..

 

[snailcrazy]

I really enjoyed this event. Was definately worth it. Just wanted to say thanks to all that made it possible, found some really nice reasonable frags and gained some great info on new tech. Hope this event will happen again some time.

 

[T1tan360]

who here from the spokane reef society had the plasma? i forgot to get his name i wanted to ship him out a reflector for it. i agree i wish it was for both days i would have gone back for more.

 

[crazyfish253]

Nice to meet you all. Sea Max was amazing so cool to talk with other reef hobbyist. Sea Max I hope wee get the chance to see you again!

 

[spllbnd2]

LOL just for fun I am in!! but its 125 for the weekend, then hotel, then flight so a little bit more money. Having an event like Seamax in Seattle is a great thing for the hobbist in this area. One has to remember its not just about getting a good deal, although their are lots to be had, but it give the person a look at some of the new things in the hobby with folks more then willing to talk about them, then their is a series of great speakers, Bobby Fenner is worth the price of admission alone. Then you throw in that you can meet up with some fellow hobbists, put some faces to names and so on. For 25 bucks it was money well spent!!

Mojo

Could not have said it any better!!!

Cheers,
Alex

 

[TJL]

All in all a good event, reasonable entry fee and lots of interesting vendors on hand. Lot more livestock than I had figured and fairly well attended. My only real complaint would be choice of date for an event in Seattle, probably one of top 5 worst weekends of the year for an indoor event in Pacific Northwest. IMO October-mid November or March-April you would/could easily double the attendance. If not for possibly being the first and only Max event I wouldn't have abandoned the family vacation for the day to Ferry back across the Sound. It was not feasible for me to purchase any livestock which was a big dissapointment as well. Hopefully we will host another event in the future and at an appropriate time of year for the benefit of Vendors and Attendees alike.

On the fence, Todd

 

[Herefishyfishy]

+1
as one who used to follow the large traveling gift shows, I am well aware that the date is 1/3 of the formula for success.

All in all a good event, reasonable entry fee and lots of interesting vendors on hand. Lot more livestock than I had figured and fairly well attended. My only real complaint would be choice of date for an event in Seattle, probably one of top 5 worst weekends of the year for an indoor event in Pacific Northwest. IMO October-mid November or March-April you would/could easily double the attendance. If not for possibly being the first and only Max event I wouldn't have abandoned the family vacation for the day to Ferry back across the Sound. It was not feasible for me to purchase any livestock which was a big dissapointment as well. Hopefully we will host another event in the future and at an appropriate time of year for the benefit of Vendors and Attendees alike.

On the fence, Todd

 

[trido]

Ya, Todd, you make a good point about date. Considering our summers are only two months long with only five sunny weekends, Im sure alot of reefers chose to get what little sun tan they could and skipped the event. I know of one friend for sure who chose not to make it.

 

[Ugla]

I had a good time. Brought a bag o frags. They got cheaper as the day wore on.

 

[jill]

I bought 5 frags and learned alot about LED's and am going to some Acan lighting from Barrier Reef in the next few months. Tim and Brie were great and it was nice to finally meet them in person.

I was disturbed by the "touch tank" though. I don't understand how it was okay to have a bunch of children placing dirty hands in an aquarium and chasing around the fish. I wonder if the yellow tang I saw a child trying to catch is still alive.

I don't think I would go back because of it.

 

[returnofsid]

Wow! Angie and I are beat! We're grabbing dinner before heading back to Spokane. what an amazing time we both had! We met up with old friends, met lots of great friends, visited with amazing vendors and even got to bs, I mean talk with Mojo! then there's all the great deals we got on corals! All in all, even with the hiccups of a new event, I rate Seamax 2011 a grand success and can't wait to do it again, bigger and better! This one was a learning experience for all involved, which will make the next one better, I believe. Thank you, to everyone who made this such an enjoyable event, vendors, clubs, Max, hobbyists and Reef Frontiers!

 

[spllbnd2]

My only real complaint would be choice of date for an event in Seattle, probably one of top 5 worst weekends of the year for an indoor event in Pacific Northwest. IMO October-mid November or March-April you would/could easily double the attendance. Todd

DITTO on the date not being the greatest for attendance. One thing y'all need to remember is this weekend was the first over 70f no rain weekend that Seattle has had in almost 2 months.

I would recommend March (rainy season) or October (mild sun/rain) for another possible future show for the crowds to be in attendance. Also we all should take itto consideration that Mercer Street was closed and this causes a lot of headaches for people coming into and out of the downtown area.

Another good point my wife mentioned to me is there are other venues that may have not cost as much to rent out and with Free parking. I don't know how many of you paid the $10-$12 for parking, but you add that along with ticket price and dinner. Well you get the idea.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[fishoutofwater]

I was there For the show on Saturday but I parked around the corner and only paid $6 to park. I was not about to pay $12 to park. The little side street about a block down was mostly empty. The event was fun and got to see alot of old faces and new ones. Could not have asked for a Better weekend though. The mariners and sounders we out of town. Traffic could have been a lot worse. Believe me. Especially delivering all that water. Plus there were 3 cruise ships in on Friday and 3 more on Saturday. Mercer was a mess if you got into that but the best way around that was actually going down to the waterfront and going around it. I hope the turn out was good enough to have them back again. This was such a great event.

 

[noworries]

Hugely dissapointed. At $25 an adult, I wouldn't even consider it again let alone recommend it to anyone. Ghost towns have more activity than seamax had today (Sunday). Like Todd mentioned earlier, I think the date REALLY killed this show. There was a lot of free parking Sunday (Seattle street parking is free) but for Saturday unless you know Seattle you had to pay I'm sure. Find a cheaper venue, reduce the admission rates by at least half and people will be WAAAY more excited and happy to spend the admission fee. Luckily I had a free pass for my friend, who literally could have fallen into a deep slumber anywhere in the venue amongst all the lacking excitement.

 

[noworries]

I think this is a great community where this event could really prosper. And like all new things will always work better the next time(s) around. I hope they consider coming back with an open mind for all our "complaints" knowing it is only to try and better the experience for ALL.