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Pond Pulse |
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Volume 1, Issue 11, November, 2007 |
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Calendar of Events
Proline Seminar by Danner Mfg. November 7, 2007 Overland Park, Ks Association Show & Auction November 27, 2007, Kary, Tx November 28, 2007, Addison, Tx |
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In This Issue Message From The President Birthday & Anniversaries Meaning Full Message INFO TANZA™ ‘07 Highlights & Happenings Saturday Banquet & Awards Ceremony TOP GUNS Invade InfoTanza™ Members of The Month
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Message From The President It's November, not just in central America but every where around the world, and it's another day in paradise! Although we are the only country to celebrate Thanksgiving, there are many to whom we should give our thanks. One, The military men and women around the world that are serving some where other than here, that means from where ever they hail. Two, fellow pond builders. Three, manufacturers big and small that supply us with parts and pieces to help us do what we love to do. Not only by giving thanks, but by showing gratitude for those that do for us and mentor us, we receive more than we give. Kind of interesting how that works, so be grateful for friends, fellow pond builders, Koi people. Be nice to people on the chat boards and even relatives you can't stand, even if their best is as a good bad example. Me? I am grateful for the 2007 Info-Tanza™ because I got to see many "pond friends" I have not seen in too long of a time, including the "infamous" Gil. I am grateful for the pond/waterfall competition, although I didn't make the cut this year. I know and get to see the talented people in this business at INFO TANZA™. I am grateful to say I can call amongst my friends Pete Stopen, contractor of the year 2006 for IPPCA. It was good to have new product and vendors at Info-Tanza™ 2007. See all that stuff in the rest of the newsletter. I am thankful that those that warm my heart are in good health, even some have wealth, but mostly there are no health challenges. I am thankful that I've made it another year, with some aches and pains and new creaks and snaps and pops when I stand up or get down...but even as noisy as I have managed to become it's still good to wake up and go vertical. Any of the other challenges of this busy world can only make life interesting. Some times for entertainment we even invent stuff to give us something to do or fret about. As we go into the holiday time for us, consider how nice it would be to be a Koi in zone 5 during the holidays, once the (water) temperature goes to 50 degrees you don't have the need to eat, what a way to spend the holidays, and you don't have to go on a diet in January. YES! Rocke Huntington |
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Special Days In December
Birthday’s Troy Winters (18th) Kevin Weitzel (22nd) Andre Winters (22nd) Do we have your birthday and/or anniversary?
Send in your dates to info@ippca.com and we will add you to the calendar. |
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“Meaningful Messages”
When times are tough The tough get going. |
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IPPCA New Sponsor
Horizon Distributors, Inc.
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Brian Buchholtz Pottstown, PA shows off his new Waterfall foam he won in the Attendee Dividend Program donated by The Dow Chemical Company |
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INFO TANZA™ 07 Highlights and Happenings |
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Wednesday, October 24th marked the third annual “Meet and Greet” and the official start of INFOTANZA ‘07. This year’s event was held again at the wonderful Garden Hilton Business Center in Kennesaw, Georgia on October 25-27th. The Meet and Greet was held again this year at the home of Executive Director and Chairman of the Board Dave Jones and his lovely wife Gloria who is the Secretary Treasurer of the IPPCA. A great time was had by all who attended there were samples of newly developed products available for these folks to get a “sneak peek” at prior to their debut at the First day of INFO TANZA™ on Thursday. Even with the severe draught that has been plaguing this area of the country this year, three days of rain and drizzle, ending late afternoon on Wednesday, allowed attendees to have their traditional campfire and toast to the event. |
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Thursday, October 25th INFOTANZA™ ‘07 got off on the right educational foot with the Firestone Liner Installation Course instructed by Bill Johnson of Firestone Specialty Products. This extensive, highly educational and instructive course was attended by a full house of IPPCA members. After the networking lunch break Bill was back with an informative follow on seminar about large storm water and detention/retention ponds. Dave Jones of The Pond Professional gave a short seminar on some ideas and aspects of business diversification that got many of the attendees thinking. The first day’s seminars were concluded with the debuting of our Attendee Dividend Program which included such things as show discounts, special coupons and door prizes. There were 50 door prizes handed out at INFO TANZA™ this year over the course of all three days. This program literally assured that 100% of attendees received a prize or coupon of one sort or another. Products contributed came from many of our sponsors and supporters such as; Danner Manufacturing, Atlantic Water Gardens, Alpha BioSystems, Easy Pro, Horizon Distributors, Inc., Koi Nations, Aqua-One Surepro, Irrigation and Green Industry magazine, The Dow Chemical Company, Brite Ideas, Big Bahama and GC Tek. |
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Friday, October 26th, Friday morning was kicked off by a brief re-appearance of Bill Johnson of Firestone Specialty Products to make an announcement. He was please to announce that all attendees of the prior day’s installation course passed their exams. He also noted that the caliber of attendees at INFO TANZA™ gave them a GPA considerably higher than the average of other events he had instructed. He was met with a warm round of applause by a standing room only crowd. Bill was immediately followed by the day’s first speaker, Demi Fortuna representing Danner Manufacturing. Mr. Fortuna spoke on overcoming the Challenges of Utilizing Mag-Drive Pumps in Professional Installations. The energy efficiency and growing reliability of these pumps were noted by many of the attendees, and many commented that prior to this seminar they hadn’t even considered mag-drive pumps as an option to be included in their installation arsenal. Many thanks for opening the eyes and minds of our attendees, Demi Fortuna and Danner Manufacturing. The second seminar of the day featured renowned lighting expert Warren Thoma of Warren Thoma and Associates. Those that know Warren realize that he is a well know authority on many subjects pertinent to the Pond, Waterscape, Green and Irrigation Industry. Warren gave a quick recap and explanation of basic low voltage lighting and then moved on to covering advanced and specialty lighting techniques and methods. This seminar hit home with several attendees that were just thinking about or have been venturing into this field. It was greatly appreciated by all. A big Thank you Warren. Gary Sackett of Springwater Water Features finished up the morning with a touching and powerful talk on bring Passion into your Business plan. Gary touched a lot of hearts with his powerful message. Thank you Gary for sharing that with us. After the noon networking lunch, the afternoon’s first speaker was John Campbell, owner of Equipment Associates, Inc. John spoke on a broad range of water oriented diverse strategies that he has personally been using since 1976. He touched on the Federal Rainwater Retention Act, spraying polyureas and polyurethanes as well as gunite, shotcrete, expanding foams of varying densities and why you’d want the different weights and densities, and making artificial rocks. Some of the attendees were literally salivating over the different highly profitable strategies that John brought to the table and shared with us. Thank you John for sharing your years of knowledge and tricks of the trade with us. Bill Brannon representing Alpha-BioSystems followed this tough act with a great seminar on utilizing Quality bacterial products from ponds to landscapes and beyond. Those that saw it had their eyes opened to much broader horizons of use and marketing of these products than they have seen before. Thanks for the support and great information Bill. The final speaker of the day was Rocke’ Huntington of The Pond Dragon and PC Bio, and IPPCA’s President. Rocke’ spoke in some detail of the potential profits and pitfalls of installing Holiday Lighting. As Rocke’ has been doing this for three years in Nebraska, he brought some very valuable insights and tricks of the trade to share with us about this highly specialized and profitable diversification strategy. Rocke’ then went on to share with the attendees the results of this year’s water study test done in Lincoln, Nebraska. An invitation to other IPCPA members to get active and participate in this ongoing study was met with much interest. We then had the member attendees vote to determine the winners of the 3rd Annual International Waterfall and Stream Building Competition entries. There were more than double the entries as compared to last year, and we would like to thank all the entrants for submitting some examples of your awesome work. They were all truly impressive. We then broke off for another wonderful 4 Star networking meal. Let me mention here that the ser vice and food at the Garden Hilton Kennesaw was exemplary for the entire event. A special thanks goes to Banquet Manager Jamie Kirk, Chef Blake, Stephanie Domanik, Emily McNeal, Bill and Gretchen and all the rest of the Garden Hilton Staff. You helped make this another memorable and fantastic event. Hats off for your great efforts on our behalf.
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Saturday, October 27th Saturday morning started off with, by appearances, another day of great information and instructional seminars. What actually happened was another first in the Pond and Waterscape Industry. A great day of seminars did occur, but the doors were opened to any Koi or Water Garden oriented club members to attend. This day of professional level seminars available for the serious or advanced hobbyists to take advantage of was not ignored, either. There were many members from the Atlanta Koi Club, The Atlanta Aquarium Society, and IWGS members as well as many IPPCA contractors. There were only four empty seats in the house when Vicki Vaughan started the day with her fish health and parasite identification seminar that took the whole morning and then some. Thanks Vicki for another great seminar and all your support. After a belated but wonderful networking lunch served to our attendees in the private banquet room, we re-assembled to take advantage of a very thorough and educational seminar on overall water quality and testing by Michael Anderson, in-coming Vice President of the Atlanta Koi Club and hobby wide acknowledged Guru on many topics associated with Koi and their keeping. Thank you Michael for your truly informative seminar. |
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Due to time and scheduling constraints, Bill Brannon of Alpha-BioSystems closed out the educational seminar portion of INFOTANZA™ ‘07 with a very short segment on the advantages of utilizing an active and viable probiotic supplement on your fish food and why this product truly works. We then all pitched in for the next thirty minutes to clear the room of the literally hundreds of products and samples that were on display this year. After a short break, those officers and advisors of the IPPCA attending INFO TANZA™ were invited to sit in on the annual advisory council meeting in the executive board room. Not a seat was empty when IPPCA Executive Director Dave Jones called the meeting to order. A very broad range of topics and strategies were gone over and some truly great ideas and programs were put under scrutiny. This was a truly productive meeting with some great results from it coming down the pipe line to greatly benefit the Pond and Waterscape Industry as well as the IPPCA. Thank you to all who attended. We then adjourned for happy hour with all eagerly awaiting the annual banquet and awards ceremony schedule t6o start in one hour. |
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Some of the product for the Attendee Dividend Program loaded and ready for the Garden Hilton and INFO TANZA™ ‘07 |
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IPPCA Members working hard on Firestone Liner Installation Test. |
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Julianna Bryant draws for the first lucky winner in the Attendee Dividend Program. Demi Fortuna holds the hat while Darron Bryant and Bill Johnson look on. |
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Demi Fortuna, representative from Danner Manufacturer opens the eyes of attendees with a seminar on mag-drive pumps. |
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Gary Sackett puts passion into his seminar “Putting Passion Into Your Business”. |
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Some of the attendees enjoy a networking luncheon served by The Garden Hilton of Kennesaw. |
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Demi Fortuna, Danner Mfg., Spencer Boyd, Black Mountain Timberworks and Bill Emerick, Pondworks, talk about the entries of the Int’l Waterfall & Stream Competition. |
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Mike White, White Water Filters wins sequential pump donated by Horizon Distributors, Inc. |
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Rocke’ Huntington, The Pond Dragon wins the “Big Bahama” Pond Vault donated by Atlantic Water Gardens. |
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Tony Niekamp, H2O Art & Stone won a ShinMaywa pump donated by Horizon Distributors, Inc. |
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Members of the Atlanta Koi Club, The Atlanta Aquarium Society and IWGS that attended the IPPCA INFO TANZA™ Vicki Vaughan wet lab. |