MACNA XX September 5-7, 2008 in Atlanta
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We are excited about this year's MACNA conference. We already have Pre-registered and paid as many as most of the total attendance of the first 15 or so MACNAs, so it should be huge. Combine that with a great hotel, great speakers, cheap flights, and the Georgia Aquarium and we have everything to try to get you guys to have a good time while in Atlanta.
The hotel is great, and the room night of $119 can't be beat, it usually is in the $250-300 range. We were able to negotiate pretty well, but rooms are going fast.
There is a lot to do in Atlanta if people come early or bring significant others - CNN, Olympic Park, the Georgia Aquarium, the Children's museum, the world of Coke, and Hooters (hey, I know my audience) is within a 5 minute walk, and MARTA goes from inside the airport to the hotel for $1.75 - so no cab charges. The same MARTA can take you to the Braves, shopping centers, etc. We are also getting together a kids program (popcorn and movies in the hotel) to allow parents to go to the banquet and speakers. We will offer that at cost.
Oh, and the banquet is food by Wolfgang Puck. No open bar like Pittsburgh, but good food inside a great banquet hall inside the largest aquarium in the world with two windows - one toward the largest indoor aquatic exhibit in the world (over 6 million gallons - the size of a football field) that includes four whale sharks and the other one toward the four beluga whales.
A MACNA teaser - our main banquet speaker....
Joanne Ruxton
Behind the Scenes as a Underwater Wildlife Producer for the BBC
Joanne studied Zoology at University and moved to Hong Kong in the 80's. She joined the World Wildlife Fund Hong Kong in 1990 to establish their Marine Conservation Programme; a significant task in a place that had no legislation to protect the coastal waters and where massive development was taking place before the handover to China. After four Marine Protected Areas had been set up, she joined the BBC’s Blue Planet team in 1997. Since that time she has been involved in numerous underwater film projects.
Prior projects include:
Blue Planet
Deep Blue
Death on the Reef
Deep Trouble
Live from the Abyss
Under the Skin - Antarctica
Under the Skin - Penguins
Smart Sharks
Shark Roulette
Shark Coast
Dive to Shark Volcano
Wild Caribbean
Pacific Abyss
Please use this thread to ask questions and I will try to check in to answer them. You can also check out our website. If your administrator could make this a sticky and put up a banner from our website www.macnaxx.com that would help alot.
So who is going and how can I help?
Steve
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We are excited about this year's MACNA conference. We already have Pre-registered and paid as many as most of the total attendance of the first 15 or so MACNAs, so it should be huge. Combine that with a great hotel, great speakers, cheap flights, and the Georgia Aquarium and we have everything to try to get you guys to have a good time while in Atlanta.
The hotel is great, and the room night of $119 can't be beat, it usually is in the $250-300 range. We were able to negotiate pretty well, but rooms are going fast.
There is a lot to do in Atlanta if people come early or bring significant others - CNN, Olympic Park, the Georgia Aquarium, the Children's museum, the world of Coke, and Hooters (hey, I know my audience) is within a 5 minute walk, and MARTA goes from inside the airport to the hotel for $1.75 - so no cab charges. The same MARTA can take you to the Braves, shopping centers, etc. We are also getting together a kids program (popcorn and movies in the hotel) to allow parents to go to the banquet and speakers. We will offer that at cost.
Oh, and the banquet is food by Wolfgang Puck. No open bar like Pittsburgh, but good food inside a great banquet hall inside the largest aquarium in the world with two windows - one toward the largest indoor aquatic exhibit in the world (over 6 million gallons - the size of a football field) that includes four whale sharks and the other one toward the four beluga whales.
A MACNA teaser - our main banquet speaker....
Joanne Ruxton
Behind the Scenes as a Underwater Wildlife Producer for the BBC
Joanne studied Zoology at University and moved to Hong Kong in the 80's. She joined the World Wildlife Fund Hong Kong in 1990 to establish their Marine Conservation Programme; a significant task in a place that had no legislation to protect the coastal waters and where massive development was taking place before the handover to China. After four Marine Protected Areas had been set up, she joined the BBC’s Blue Planet team in 1997. Since that time she has been involved in numerous underwater film projects.
Prior projects include:
Blue Planet
Deep Blue
Death on the Reef
Deep Trouble
Live from the Abyss
Under the Skin - Antarctica
Under the Skin - Penguins
Smart Sharks
Shark Roulette
Shark Coast
Dive to Shark Volcano
Wild Caribbean
Pacific Abyss
Please use this thread to ask questions and I will try to check in to answer them. You can also check out our website. If your administrator could make this a sticky and put up a banner from our website www.macnaxx.com that would help alot.
So who is going and how can I help?
Steve
