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Sanctioned Event !
Our first annual Inland Empire Coral Farmers MarketSM event was a great success. The event occurred right after a very slow 2009 summer business season and after a two week hot weather period. We did get a slight break from the very hot temps during the coral show. We offered free attendance to the public to boost participation for the large amount of vendors that setup up booths. The event was vendor sold out for 6 months. We passed out door prize tickets to everyone that came through the front door to attend the event. The total number of door prize tickets passed out was 402. We believe that the free tickets allowed a greater amount of whole family participation. The total number of vendor tickets, based on booth rental, was 83. Total grand attendance for the event was 485. This was the first Coral Farmers MarketSM event to break 400 and we got close to 500. Max capacity for the event ball room is 589. Next year we will move the raffles and auctions forward 1 hour, since the event ballroom was primarily jammed for about the first hour. That probably was the cause of our raffle and auction sales to be below average for this size of a crowd. Coral sales for the vendors was about average or below average for a Coral Farmers MarketSM event. Some vendors did good, some did average and some had weak sales. We believe that the prevailing economic conditions were the primary cause of these sales figure. Operationally the event was completely flawless. We would like to thank the Inland Empire Marine Aquarium Society for their superb efforts with installing and breaking down our infrastructure. The CFM's new and improved audio system also worked very well within this large ballroom. It appears that the Inland Empire Coral Farmers MarketSM company may just break even for this event once all the income and expenses are calculated. That is good for a first year company during these economic conditions. We will have to work on raising revenue during our second annual event in 2010. We will probably start assessing small fees to vendors that setup more then one display tank within a vendor booth.
IE-CFM and CFM Staff
2009
Inland Empire Coral Farmers MarketSM Images
(Images copyright of Inland Empire Coral Farmers MarketSM unless otherwise noted.)
A jam packed coral display system from the reef shop Vivid Aquarium located in Canoga Park
California. This display contains a very diverse mix of farmed SPS, LPS and soft corals.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
Reef Empire of San Diego made their first appearence at a CFM sponsered event.
They put together a large and impressive collection of SPS and LPS stony corals.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
An SPS dominated display from Reeffarmers. There are also some LPS and a few softies.
Some of their double plug mounts were on display that help keep corals clean of algae n aptasia.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
Richard McKellip of Wishing 2B Outside setup another jam packed display that
contained a diverse collection of LPS, SPS and soft corals.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
Age of Aquariums a Retail Shop from Long Beach attended their first CFM sponsered
event. They brought some very large and impressive cultured coral fragments.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
We not only had families attend the event, but many of our vendors also had their families
work their vendor display booths. Here we have the Corbett family from the SPS Coral Store
located in La Canada California. They plan to have their new store operational in late 2009 or 2010.
ReefKoi made the trip all the way from Peyton Colorado. Their display
contained a mixed collection of LPS, Soft Corals and SPS.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
A second tank display within ReefKoi 's booth was setup by Gonzo's Coral Frags.
This display contains LPS, Soft Corals and some SPS.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
Hugo Zuniga (SniperSPS ) put together a display containing a good selection of
exotic corals dominated by SPS along with some LPS and Soft Corals.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
Dan and Tina of Wet Thumb Frags setup a well stocked display. There is a very
diverse collection of LPS and SPS stony corals within this display.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
This tank was a second display within the SniperSPS vendor booth.
There is a good collection of LPS and soft corals within this display
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
Letting the public attend this 2009 IE-CFM event for free was initialy an idea
promoted by SoCal Tropical Fish. We feel their idea worked well for this particular
coral show event and future IE-CFM events are planned to be free for the public.
The IE-CFM event is a working business model that the CFM will develop and expand
upon. We currently have no plans to make other CFM events free for the public.
The Mystic Reef from Riverside California used their active booth to pass out business
cards, store flyers and they even brought some captive grown corals for sale.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
FPO Corals attended their first CFM sponsered event and they put together this
impressive collection of chalice fragments along with other various LPS corals.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
Dizzo's Reef setup their first display within a CFM event. There is a good
selection of sps coral fragments within this display.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
A second farmed coral display within the vendor booth of Dizzo's Reef.
This display contained some rather large sized LPS and SPS stony corals.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
Pookstreet put together a good selection of SPS stony coral fragments.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
Blue Life USA put together a sharp looking exhibit with their line of products.
Fantastic Frags displayed three small tabletop reefs that contained a diverse collection
of captive grown LPS and SPS stony corals. Upper was left. Lower was right
Ecosystems Aquarium setup their first coral display in a Coral Farmers MarketSM coral show.
Their display contained a diverse mix of cultured soft corals, LPS and SPS stonies.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
Fins and Critters displayed a strong collection of the more popular selling exotic stony corals.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
The corals in the Garretts Acropolis farming system appear to be growing very well.
These are some very large outdoor raised 100 % captive grown corals.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
Steel City Frags from Colorado setup their first CFM coral show vendor display.
This display contains a very strong mix of cultured LPS corals.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
An easy way to dress up a Coral Show vendor display is to wrap the stand
with a color banner similar to this Fins and Critters vendor display.
Fraggle Reef changed ownership and put together a good display of cultured SPS and LPS.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
This vendor display was on the left side of the Ian and Stryker vendor booth.
The display contains a strong mix of cultured soft corals, SPS and LPS.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
This vendor display was on the right side of the Ian and Stryker vendor booth.
The display also contains a strong mix of cultured soft corals, SPS and LPS.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
Bevis Aquaculture setup their first vendor displays at a CFM coral show event.
The tank on the left contains their specialty. 100 % captive propagated Rose Anemones.
Click on image for closeup coral view (use browser back arrow to return).
We would like to thank the following companies or individuals who have donated either products or services to the 2009 Inland Empire Coral Farmers MarketSM event. These companies and individuals help to make this event a success !
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Ian Borchert |
SPS Coral Store |
'Coral Farmers Market' is a Common Law servicemark of the Coral Farmers Market company.
'Inland Empire Coral Farmers Market' is a Common Law servicemark of the Inland Empire Coral Farmers Market company.
'SouthWestern Coral Farmers Market' is a Common Law servicemark of the SouthWestern Coral Farmers Market company.