Comments

1. gmgawebmaster says:
   June 8, 2011 at 8:32 pm

   John, Please excuse me, I moved your comment to the Spring 2011 Conference page so we could keep the main conference page focused on the Fall, 2011 Conference in Macon. Thanks for your understanding!
   Terri

   John Aitkens
   aitkensj@gmail.com
   72.152.253.73
   2011/05/01 at 8:48 am

   I attended the Rome conference and here is my evaluation and recommendations.

   CONFERENCE PLANNING/FRIDAY ACTIVITIES – overall EXCELLENT. I do not want to seem insensitive to the reason, but had I known by email as early as Friday midmorning that the tour and boat ride had been cancelled, I could have worked in my garden another 4 hours. The evening reception, food/drink and speakers were all very good.

   CONFERENCE IMPLEMENTATION – overall EXCELLENT, EXCEPT for the room temperature. Coordination of the speakers schedule, breaks and lunch was flawless. Audiovisual was also excellent.

   VENDERS – VERY GOOD diverse mix of companies and services. Disappointed that Scotts was a no-show and would like to have seen more service companies such as lawn and pest control companies.

   SPEAKERS – Tara Dillard was entertaining, but William Welch jumped around too much. Joe Cook’s lunch presentation was more of a family photo show and all three were more like vacation travelogs. Martin Cipillinis’ chestnut presentation was very interesting and informative. I also found Jim Rodgers and his presentation very interesting and entertaining. I had to leave before Terry Kay’s presentation.

   Overall, I would rate speakers as GOOD at best. I judge a conference by how many pages of takeaways and to-do’s I write down. I only came away with a few notes but maybe that’s just me and my expectations.

   I would recommend several of the topics and speakers/instructors in my Master Gardener class I just completed at the Botanical Garden, specifically “nuisance wildlife” (Mike Mengak UGA), “insects of woody ornamentals and turf”(Paul Guillebeau UGA), “Composting” (Suki Jannsen, Athens/Clarke Co.) are just a few of the standouts. Please contact Amanda Tedrow, County Ext. Agent and MG class coordinator, for details and contact information.

   I hope my candid feedback is helpful.

   Sincerely,
   John Aitkens