2009 DA-CFM History
Images of the 2009 Event below !
The second annual Dallas Fort Worth Coral Farmers MarketSM event was a tremendous success. We would like to thank the new vendors that participated in this Coral Farmers MarketSM sanctioned event along with all the new attendees. Our total attendance is estimated at 234. That is a 46 % growth rate from the first annual event in 2008. The number of coral selling vendors also doubled for this second annual event. As the images below demonstrate, there was an incredible selection of corals available to the public attendees. This was the fastest year to year growth rate that any Coral Farmers MarketSM sanctioned event has ever experienced. Due to this fast growth rate, we did experience some operational problems. One of our employees from California became ill during the event and this meant our door crew was seriously under staffed. Art Petit (co-owner) did a phenomenal job, but some attendees were able to enter the event without purchasing tickets. Art was busy with the strong raffle participation and he was also busy conducting the raffle and auctions. We believe that the total number let into the event due to the operational problem was between 5 and 15. We assumed 10 for the total attendance estimate figure. Next year we will have one extra employee for the door and another just to handle raffles. That should solve that problem. We are also looking into accepting a sponsership offer from the local DFWMAS to assist with our operational problems. If this event grows by 40 % or more next year, we will definitely need the help. We also experienced some additional operational problems when the hotel changed our meeting room just a few days prior to the event. Even with these problems, the general opinion was that this event was very successful. Average vendor sales were strong considering the prevailing economic conditions, but were less then last year. This was primarly caused by increasing coral selling vendors by 100 %, while attendance increased by 46 %. We look forward with great anticipation for the DA-CFM 2010 event which will occur in November. We should have the event scheduled and this web site updated by no later then March.
DA-CFM and CFM Staff
2009
Dallas Fort Worth Coral Farmers MarketSM Images
(Images copyright of Dallas Fort Worth Coral Farmers MarketSM unless otherwise noted.)
We would like to thank the following companies or individuals who have donated either products or services to the 2009 Dallas Fort Worth Coral Farmers Market event. These companies and individuals help to make this event a success !