WOW! What a great time! I'm back with more inspiration than I have time for.
Prior to the actual symposium, CSUSA held their Super Wednesday event -- even in the rain, there was a good crowd gathered at the doors well before 8am opening time for the clearance sale. When the doors opened, space was limited to elbow room only, and stuff all over the place. They purposely did not organize the areas, to give everyone a better chance at finding a bargain. Wood squares, bowl blanks, burls, laminated squares, tools, measuring tools, pen kits, pen blanks, faceplates, cabachons, inlay material, etc., etc. were spread on every table. I even picked up a couple of PSI kits that were there for some reason?! The clearance sale room was open all day, and prices were reduced to an additional 20% off by mid afternoon, and 50% off later in the afternoon for anything remaining.
The CSUSA retail store was also open for business and offered a 10% discount on catalog pricing. There were free demonstrations going on all day in various areas, showing bowls, boxes, hollow forms, pepper mills, finish jars, etc., all from well known and professional turners. At the end of the day, they held a door prize drawing where you had to be present to win – tools, gift certificates, and many other supplies. Staff were busy all day, but kept a friendly attitude with everyone I saw despite the crowds and rain. All in all, I'd equate this to "Black Friday" for woodturners, and a fantastic day sponsored by CSUSA.
Wednesday night was the Penturners Rendezvous. They kept the doors closed and public out until actual starting time. This was a separate registration from the Utah Symposium, but was held in the same venue. Registration for this event was an additional $10. The event was supposed to have several vendors related to pen turning, a couple of demos, then a door prize raffle. Vendor selection was limited, and included Anthony Turchetta with The Golden Nib, Kallenshaan Woods with their laser engraver set up at their table, and Ron Brown with Coolhammers.com, who also had several of the Lazerlinez blanks for sale. Time for the demonstrations, the room setup had not been completed yet, so Anthony Turchetta jumped in for an impromptu demonstration and turned a half of a pen blank out of trustone, and talked about some of his designs. Following that, we learned that a grinder was not available for the pen turning demonstrations, so they opted to skip the demonstrations and jump to the door prizes. Everyone in attendance received a door prize, ranging from gift certificates to DVDs to pen blanks – everyone received something. No demonstrations were completed after the door prize drawings, which I found to be a disappointment, as did others that I spoke with. The door prizes were nice, but the demonstrations were part of what I was interested in.
The actual symposium started Thursday morning, with opening ceremonies then demonstrations through Saturday. The demonstration rotation schedule was issued prior to the symposium, so I had a general idea on my own schedule for demonstrations I wanted to see and the time slots. A few last minute changes altered the schedule, but I learned that my schedule changed daily anyways, after hearing other turners talk about the demonstrators and demonstrations they saw. The schedule was full, and included demonstrations with boxes, bowls, hollow vessels, segmenting, decorating, texturing, pen turning, shaving accessories, spin tops, threading, educational discussions, and more. Local and world renowned turners were present. Every demo I attended was well prepared by the demonstrators who were all very familiar with timing their discussion and ready to teach and entertain the crowd. In addition to the demonstrations, the instant gallery was incredible. If you didn't come out of a demonstration with new inspirations, you had to come out of the instant gallery with some. Absolutely incredible work on display!
The symposium coordinators and demonstrators highly promoted woodturning education, and proceeds from raffle tickets and silent/live auctions went to the Dale Nish student/educational fund. They said 22 students and their sponsors attended the symposium as a result of previous years' fund raising efforts. Raffle tickets were sold for the chance to win one of two Jet minis. David Nittmann won one of the minis, and donated the mini back to be re-drawn for the attending students only. What a fantastic way to end the symposium, and give back to the education for young turners.
I've now been to several regional symposiums, one AAW Symposium, and now the Utah Symposium. Each type of symposium has been fun to attend, but each slightly different. Given the opportunity, I'd go back to any of the symposium venues I've been to, especially this one.