First off, and most importantly - the MAPG was fantastic! It was great to meet all the other penturners. The demos were awesome too - despite having been turning for years, I learned something new from every single one.
If I had a single suggestion to make, it would be to make the MAPG longer (a full weekend).
Some possible constructive suggestions (and please, take these as ideas, not as criticism) are:
- use a PA system for the demos. It would make the people doing the demos easier to hear. A PA system for announcements would have been good too. Others have complained about noise from hallway discussions and, regrettably, I was one of the noisy people. When I realized I was interfering with the demo, I moved - and I apologize to anybody who had trouble hearing it because of me.
- Schedule a 10min break between demos. That would give people an opportunity to use the restroom and not miss a demo.
- Schedule a break from 12:00 to 01:00, so people could get lunch and not miss a demo. Can you tell that I attended every demo? Well, I tried anyway.
- Schedule a purely social time where people could show each other their pens. I brought some of mine and enjoyed sharing them. I'd have liked to have seen more of the other's attendees pens too. Only a few brought theirs - and often not many.
All in all, I enjoyed the MAPG tremendously and I look forward to the next one. Thanks to everybody who helped organize and run the event, as well as all who attended.
Sincerely,
Eric