Been off sick for the last week and did not have the chance to comment on this, its very well to start bashing people, but those that are bashing people/companies/publications and were not at AL then you are just as much to blame also for not making the effort to attend and support the event.
I have to agree the first event was better than last year overall and I did mention a couple of times that I would be surprised if it happened again has attendance was much lower in the second show, I do not know if it was about money or politics as I am not involved in organizing the event, I just enjoyed contributing towards it has an hobbyist that shares a passion for planted tanks and wanted to spread the word, I would have been there again this year if it was going ahead.
The ONE thing that let it down was the fact that no one in London or anywhere else in the country was aware that the event was taking place, other than the people that frequent UKAPS and (read) PFK, even on the day before the event and during the event you would hardly notice the event was even there unless you went past the back road where the entrance was. This was the major downfall of AL, it was just not well publicized and most people did not know about it.
Then there were not enough clubs attending the event, again not sure if it was due to organizers but this would be the best way to get people to attend, not being able to sell fish was a major down also as people expect to be able to do that as most local club meets/events, they could even have included an auction of some sort in there.
Then there was the issue of lack of entertainment for the kids, kids got in there was there wasn't much for them to do again they would get bored pretty quickly and their parents probably rushed a little. UKAPS did try and have a play area for kids and did encourage kids to try stuff with some tanks hardscaping and some plastic plants but its hard to do it all since most of our work was with the competition and promoting the actual planted tank scene.
Food was also expensive but this is London and food is expensive at all the events no matter where you attend them in London.
There was good things about it, the stands were great, companies made a real effort, there were great tanks in display, there were lots of dry good/equipment to buy, last year we had FWS with a great selection of shrimp and mosses, you could buy plenty of plants at the show too.
The talks were great, very informative and even I learned a thing or two from them, although more variety from year to year would be nice but it was a nice selection from very interesting speakers.
The public that attended were great also, asking lots of questions, really curious about the planted tanks, engaging with the competition scapers and asking them questions as they scaped away, really good fun.
Its a shame that it will not happen this year but hopefully it will happen again in the near future and some of these issues can be addressed to make it an even better and bigger event, maybe then it will draw in crowds from Europe too, but its just to small at the moment to do that, even the mighty Vivarium fell, for me the best show I have ever attended.
Not to go OT here, but I have been a subscriber to PFK since 2006, even before I knew about UKAPS, some of you think its "lame" sure for people in this forum it will be lame, the magazine tries to cover the needs of the fish keeping world which is a large area to cover, its not a planted tank magazine, in covering so much it will always be lame for most people since it doesn't cater 100% for any particular fish keeper, but if you like fish keeping in general and want to make sure there is a UK magazine on the shelves that supports the hobby then the only way to ensure it stays there is to subscribe to it, the recent planted tank articles are great and I love reading about other areas of fish keeping that I am not involved in also, I will not visit a reef forum, or a cichlids forum, a discus forum, so when articles come up in the magazine about it, its when I read something about those areas that I would not look into otherwise.
Look forward to more positive news in the future and maybe people will look at this thread and think, yes that is where we went wrong and now we need to correct all those issues and make it a great event, I can only hope 🙂
Peace and now to bed as my back is killing me!
