[TheForge] Abana conference

[ries]

On Mar 1, 2007, at 8:52 AM, Chuck Robinson wrote:

I would like to make any alternate proposal to having a 2008 ABANA  
conference.

Since the last few ABANA conferences have been extremely expensive,  
and under attended by the it's members,  I would suggest ABANA use  
some of the funds it intended to use for the next conference, to  
instead purchase high-quality video making equipment.
It would be used to make DVDs of the regional conferences put on by  
affiliate groups throughout the country. It might also be possible to  
send several people to international blacksmith and conferences to  
record them .
I have been extremely impressed with the  wonderful job that Roger  
Degner of the Upper Midwest Blacksmith's Association has done in  
recording the conferences that he has attended and produced DVDs of,  
that have  valuable instructional material in them.  They are  
available to individuals for a very nominal cost.
Granted the videos aren't the same as being there, but they are  
orders of magnitude better than missing the Demos, when you can't  
attend in person.
I would strongly suggest that ABANA contact Rodger for advice on how  
he does it.
Chuck


Chuck- the whole problem is they dont have the seed money- the  
general idea of how it usually works is that the conference makes a  
slight profit- say 50 grand or so- then that gets used for deposits,  
startup costs, and so on for the next one.
The conference itself is supposed to be self supporting- the fees  
coming in pay for the expenses going out.
But this time, Seattle didnt make any money- in fact, it probably  
lost money.
So there is no pot of money to buy video equipment.
Roger does indeed work closely with Abana, and he does great things.  
Long term, it would be great if Abana helped Roger more, and Roger  
made more Abana videos available- in addition to the ones from abana  
conferences he already has.


Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/