MACNA 2018 Las Vegas, NV

[DKoKoMan]

Was it worth going all said and done?

[Frogger]

This was my first MACNA, just to experience it was worth it. Doubt I will go next year.

[DKoKoMan]

Originally Posted by Frogger

This was my first MACNA, just to experience it was worth it. Doubt I will go next year.

That’s where I am at... I just want to say I have been and experienced it.

[Frogger]

Definitely worth going to if you have never been to one. The scale of the show is amazing.

I would wait until the show travels back out to the west coast, unless you never been to Florida and want to take the kids to Disney.

[ALBERTA REEF]

My first MACNA. What to say. Vegas good. Speaker Good. Show floor okay. Lacking. I expected a little bit more. At lease one more think to scratch off my bucket list. Might go another year. If anyone thinking of going. I suggest go and experience it for yourself.

[Dearth]

Just found out a friend of mine went She and her daughter had fun but would of rather seen it at another city rather than Vegas. This is her 5th Macna and she said the speakers were awesome, the Q&A informative but the floor displays were lacking.

[WarDog]

Its been a couple days since we got back and I'm ready to share my experiences of Macna 2018.

This is my third Macna in a row and the first thing I noticed was the absence of some big names. Aquaforest, Vertex and Royal Exclusive just to name a few. There was also very little hardware on display, compared to New Orleans and San Diego. The only cool new hardware I saw was the AI Nero wavemaker and a controllable AC pump, of which I forget the name, but is highlighted in Mr. Saltwater Tanks video on Macna 2018. Overall the convention floor was a HUGE dissapointment.

The Friday night social event was ok, just a pool party at the hotel with great snack food and a really average cover band who were also local reefers. Not at all comparable to New Orleans or San Diego, again.

The Saturday night banquet was very interesting. The venue and food were fantastic, but that's where it ended. Speeches went on forever, including one by Dr. John 'Charlie' Vernon. He is called the Grandfather Of Reefing because of his 40 years of research on the Great Barrier Reef, and you may know him from the documentary 'Chasing Coral'. The poor guy rambled on for about an hour and a half, repeating things multiple times and overall painting a picture of ultimate gloom. Walt Smith also received a lifetime achievement award and gave a farewell speech, as the government of Fiji has pretty much shut him down from exporting. There was also a debacle during the Fiji trip giveaway, but more on that later.

This was the first year that a Macna was not organized by a local club, for reasons which I am not aware. MASNA was responsible for organizing and they received some serious backlash, mainly for the problems involving volunteers and raffle tickets. I'm not going to go into anymore details here, as there is a great thread on R2R started by DaveJep that sheds light on the whole situation, and is well worth the read. It also includes the deatails of the Fiji trip giveaway, that was won by the same people who won last year. Oh my.

This will be my last Macna for the foreseeable future, unless it happens to be in Seattle. Hopefully MASNA can work out the bugs if they continue to organize it. I also think they will need to lower their prices for vendor space, if they want to attract the big names back.

This trip was saved by the fact that we were in Vegas with lots to do, and that we were with several amazing local reefers who have become very close friends over the last few years. We made some lasting memories for sure that can't be shared.... because.... LAS VEGAS!

[acepumping]

Originally Posted by DKoKoMan

Was it worth going all said and done?

Was it worth it?? ABSOLUTELY not, macna san diego blew this one out of the park... I am debating on going next year. The only reason i would and may go, is due to the fact that me and the fam love disney.. so we may just go for that cause..

First time experience people may look different at it.. But i know the group I went with were not impressed.

[DKoKoMan]

Originally Posted by acepumping

Was it worth it?? ABSOLUTELY not, macna san diego blew this one out of the park... I am debating on going next year. The only reason i would and may go, is due to the fact that me and the fam love disney.. so we may just go for that cause..

First time experience people may look different at it.. But i know the group I went with were not impressed.

Good to know! Thanks for the honest feedback.

[Scythanith]

What were WD's & HW's selling for down there just out of curiosity?