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The convention was held August 23rd & 24th, 1997 at the DuPage County Fairgrounds about 40 minutes west of O'Hare Airport. It was held in conjunction with the Midwest Pond and Koi Club (MWPKC) annual show. I flew out Saturday morning and left Sunday morning, so I didn't see everything. But I had a good time. One of the main reasons I went out was to give a slide seminar on my 1997 trip to Asia.
The seminar went reasonably well; the room was too light for the slides to be clearly visible, which was frustrating, but it was well attended and people seemed interested in the material.
I got a chance to meet a number of MWPKC people and they seemed very nice. There was some confusion about the overall arrangements for the event, and since I needed to get a plane ticket, I corresponded by email directly with the MWPKC person organizing the schedule. She was very helpful and was able to accommodate my needs, which always leaves me with a positive impression ;).
There was a reasonable turnout of goldfish, with some very nice specimens I thought. The grand champion was a calico Ryukin of impressive dimensions (yet, in the next tank over, was one 50% bigger!). Reserve grand champion was taken by a calico Oranda (if you read my Portland show story, you may have noticed that 1997 was a good year for calicos). And of course, I have to include a photo of the champion Ranchu; a nice medium sized red and white.
The big story for me was the people at this show. Jackie Chan was there and brought a Dutch goldfish wholesaler with him. Man Shek-hay attended (and probably autographed 30 copies of his book, Goldfish in Hong Kong, including 2 for me!). Jo Ann Burke of Dandy Orandas was there, doing demonstrations of skin scrapes for parasite inspections. Terence Ow, Jim Ketchum, Scott & Jane Taylor, George Spencer, Al Thomma, Carlos Perez, Jim Reese … there was quite a GFSA crew in attendance. I was disappointed that a few of the "standard bearers" didn't make it, but I'll look for all of them next year.
There was even a goldfish hotel room party in Jo Ann's room for the Internet goldfish list people that made it to Chicago. I went up with Jackie and Mr. Man and stayed for several hours. Got a chance to finally meet and talk to people like Sue and Ingrid, as well as getting to sing "Happy Birthday" to Terence. Quite a night.
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