[TheForge] "Official" news from ABANA

[Dave Mudge]

Pete, I like your idea of smaller, more frequent conferences,
We just don't have the people (volunteer time) to pull that off.
It wouldn't equate to half as much work, it would be twice the work.
dave m

On 2/20/07, Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer <artgawk at thegrid.net> wrote:
> Bruce:
> I think it's a question of scale. If you have 1500 folks and 3
> demonstrators, most folks won't get to see much or hear much of
> anything.
> If you have a large number of folks and a proportionate number of
> differing demonstrators, then, ideally , everybody has a chance
> to learn something new that addresses their specific interest and
> skill level.
> To my eye, that's the lure and virtue of the big Abana conferences.
> Paying skilled demonstrators is a reasonable practice...and , to
> an extent, you get what you pay for.
> I don't go to a conference for the party, though i enjoy my time
> there.
> I go to conferences to learn new things, to change the way i look
> at metal.
> If i'm not furiously building new tools in my head, conjuring up
> new projects, applying what i learned to old metalworking
> problems ...all through the long drive home.....The conference
> was a failure, so far as i'm concerned.
> If i don't anticipate that that'll happen...i figure i can't
> afford to go.
> I'm a full timer, don't make much money and enjoy a lot of
> creative freedom as the trade off. The $1000 conf is way out of
> reach.
> The first ABANA conference i went to ( San Luis Obispo,
> CA)changed my metalworking life profoundly.
> While it's been diminishing returns since then, the conferences
> are still usually worthwhile...
> Except when i get stuck demonstrating. Then i lose time , money
> and the odd tool, dont get to see the other demonstrators and
> generally embarass myself.
> The pay i'm offered covers costs generally and allows me the
> opportunity to be a fool...
> It keeps me a bit humbler, which is valuable, to be sure.
> Then there's Bruce's "channel hopping"...which i call "demo
> surfing". When one demo is covering something you already know,
> having other demos to look in on is literally worthwhile.
> I'd propose that there's a conference size range that benefits
> from economys of scale and choice without requiring massive
> committments , huge chunks of people's lives, and rigidifying
> institutional strictures.
> Perhaps there needs to be more frequent , smaller ABANA
> conferences scattered across the country. Bifurcate ABANA?
> Dunno...just seems to have become too large and institutionalized
> for my taste....pete f
>
> Bruce Freeman wrote:
> > Bill,
> > I may be missing something pretty basic here, but what
> > advantage is it to have more than two demos going on
> > at once?  With two,  you have a choice, and even that
> > can be frustrating.  I'm remembering a PABA meeting a
> > few years back that had two magnificent demonstrators
> > -- and I could only "channel hop"!
> >>From my own experience, and from reports here from
> > others, a major problem at ABANA conferences is even
> > figuring out who is doing what, when.  I missed  some
> > demos I'd have like to have seen at the 1998
> > conference because the schedules were so hard to
> > interpret.  (It is not easy to draw up an
> > easy-to-interpret schedule, so I'm not faulting the
> > folks who drew these up.)
> > So, what I'm wondering is what is the advantage of
> > having, say, six demos at a time?
> > Bruce
> > NJ
> >
> > --- Hochewa at aol.com wrote:
> > <snip>
> >> No other confrence I have been to comes within an
> >> order of magnitude  of an
> >> ABANA conference.  There are many reasons why this
> >> is so.   Just the scale of
> >> an ABANA conference sets them apart.  Most regional,
> >>  state or local events are
> >> day trips (with exceptions), most have maybe two
> >> demos  going on at the same
> >> time, most have four demonstors over two days,
> > <snip>
> >
> >
> >
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