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AAW Symposium St. Paul - Who's Going?

Jim Knoerr said:
I'll be there. Looking forward to my first symposium.
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Have a great time, Jim! You'll often hear the phrase that your first big symposium is like "drinking water from a firehose". It can be overwhelming. Some unsolicited advice from my own experiences:
  • Be sure to eat and drink throughout the day (surprising how easy it is to forget when there are a bunch of things going on).
  • If you plan out your rotations ahead of time, don't feel bad about changing the plan afterwards. Often, I have an idea of what/who I want to see, and then veer because I start going with the flow.
  • Choose one or two rotations that cover topics that you don't have much of an interest in--these can often spur new creative ideas, and you might leave with a valuable nugget of information that you never thought you needed to know.
  • If you see someone that looks lost and/or alone, go over and talk to them. I will never forget the couple of folks that did this for me when I attended my first symposium (Chattanooga, "symposium light"--gallery and tradeshow).
  • Spend a decent amount of time walking around the instant gallery. Read the name tags, too. If you see an artist standing by their pieces, ask a few questions.
  • Bring some pieces to display at the instant gallery. If you don't have experience showing your work publicly, it is a good soft transition. It can be intimidating, but I promise you that nearly everyone there thinks "more is better" with respect to the number of gallery pieces, And, similar to the previous bulletin, if you happen to be near your pieces and someone else is walking by and looking, talk to them.
  • Meet as many folks as you are comfortable meeting--once you attend your second, third, fourth, etc... you'll find that some of the best parts of these symposia are the reunions.
  • Attend a panel for a rotation. You won't regret hearing notable folks speak about a topic--and you absolutely won't regret missing the lathe at a rotation.
  • Go to the featured artist's talk (this year is Michael Hosaluk). Always a pleasure.
That's probably a long enough list. In any case, have fun!
 
Any 1st day impressions from attendees? How are the gallery and trade show?
 
The gallery is vast. Lots of cool stuff, many by folks we know from here. The trade show feels light. I think the TAW symposium had more vendors.
 
I spent a few hours here this morning. I agree that the trade show seemed a bit lean, but then I haven't been to one of these in a long time. Powermatic, Robust, and Oneway are present. Stuart Batty has a big presence. Several other turning tool and carving equipment companies are there. I brought home another Robust tool rest for my Oneway 1224 ("J" bend rest), an unhandled 5/8" bowl gouge from Carter, a few CBN pocket hones from Woodturners Wonders (Ken helped me out), and a golden mean caliper from Trent Bosch, he told me all about it himself. And thanks to Oneway, as I told him (Kevin, I think) how much I enjoy my 1-year old 1224, he said thank you and handed me a tee shirt!

I also made a trip through the gallery. Wow! The caliber and quality, the creativity, of the work on display was incredible. 90% of it made me think both how did they imagine the concept, and how did they pull it off? But with so much of it, it seems the lathe work is only a singular component or aspect of the piece. The skills and talent of these artists is just incredible, very humbling for this woodturner.

For those out-of-towners in attendance who will tune in to local news throughout the day, I'm sorry you'll be learning about an on-going, politically motivated gun violence tragedy this morning against two state politicians in the northern suburbs of town. Sigh...
 
I bought a golden mean caliper, too. I was going to buy a Peke power cap, but it was only $50 off regular price. It wasn't a big enough discount to make me bite.
 
Steve Tiedman said:
Any 1st day impressions from attendees? How are the gallery and trade show?
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Got home from the symposium yesterday.
It was nice to be able to meet with the vendors that up until Friday I had only communicated with by email of phone.
And get the chance to see and handle the tools instead of looking at pictures.
Like Steve, I felt the trade show was lean. There was plenty of room for more vendors.
I would like to have seen more international vendors (Hope, Vermec)( to name a couple.
I know it would be a stretch for this to happen, but I would like to have been able to peruse some seldom seen lathes. VB36, Stubby, Stratos and Magma Blackline Titan, to name a few.
I should say I spent more than enough with the vendors that were there!
 
Symposium was a great time!,
And, I got to meet Kent in person!, even if it was just a too-quick hello in passing as we all were optimizing our time getting to great demos and seeing the vendors and the most diverse, best gallery presentations I've seen yet at a symposium! I definitely plan to get Paul's TranspirationTurning setup to augment my own Fein Incising System.
And lots of interaction with several great people: some highlights: J Paul Fennel, Steve Sinner, Alan Goodsell of Woodturning Magazine (I've subscribed for several years, and recommend you get it if you don't already, it is great) and Lorin Brückin from France, and as he generously invited, we plan to visit him when we are in the Netherlands and France next year. At the banquet I sat with Mike O and Lyle Jamieson and his wife, along with Pete (Darryl Fective) and others for a Michigander-heavy table to get back to my roots.

I made a collaborative piece with Brad Davis to display as a memorial piece to honor Nick Agar.
 

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Oops, I should have checked here *before* the symposium. I had a great time, lots of inspiration from the demos, but I mostly kept to myself. The galleries were fantastic, and I spent a fair bit of time admiring the bleached oak bowl by Bill Luce that went for auction on Friday night.

Kent Reisdorph said:
I bought a golden mean caliper, too. I was going to buy a Peke power cap, but it was only $50 off regular price. It wasn't a big enough discount to make me bite.
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I bought a bunch of small wood blocks from Rockler, including a bunch of mesquite, which I've enjoy turning but isn't readily available in New England. I also bought one of Trent Bosch's carving stands. Then I realized it would have been a dollar or so cheaper to have it shipped, due to the tax discrepancy between MN and NH, and I wouldn't have had to schlep it home in my suitcase!
 
I really enjoyed it. I saw some great demos, met quite a few people in person for the first time, and caught up with a lot of others that I had met before. Somehow it felt like maybe it was a bit smaller (instant gallery and vendor area) than Lousville a couple years ago, or Pittsburgh in 2015. I was glad I finally got to see the AAW Galley of Wood Art this time. (I was there in 2011 and heard about it after) Some amazing pieces and I was pleased to see they had a stack of the Aug 2024 issue of American Woodturner. (I grabbed a couple extra copies since I had an article in it and and was too cheap to order extras)

A number of people there mentioned SWAT, so I'm thinking I need to look into going... 🤔
 
I just sent this to Ted Pelfrey. I figured I would post it here as well.

Overall it was good. We (my brother and I) had a bunch of family stuff we couldn't get out of. Plus, I had to leave early Sunday morning. All of that to say that I only attended about 4 sessions. Ashley Harwood was good, but I'm not a fan. I stopped by her booth to ask a question. She answered, but seemed standoffish. If I'm going to take a week-long class, she wouldn't be my first choice just based on my experience. I attended two Richard Findlay sessions that were good.

Sessions: 10/10
Gallery: 10/10
Tradeshow Floor: 7/10 - The TAW floor was as big or bigger.
Friday Auction - I missed this but I'm sure it was good.
Saturday Banquet: 2/10 - It was downright boring. I'll not do the banquet in the future for an extra $65. They did a tribute to Richard Raffan that was good.

I might consider SWAT over AAW next year. I doubt I can justify going to SWAT this year, but I might.
 
Kent Reisdorph said:
I might consider SWAT over AAW next year. I doubt I can justify going to SWAT this year, but I might.
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If you can’t swing SWAT this year, consider the OVWG symposium in October. It’s another one that many folks consider their favorite. I’ll be there, and looking forward to it.
 
Kent Reisdorph said:
I just sent this to Ted Pelfrey. I figured I would post it here as well.

Overall it was good. We (my brother and I) had a bunch of family stuff we couldn't get out of. Plus, I had to leave early Sunday morning. All of that to say that I only attended about 4 sessions. Ashley Harwood was good, but I'm not a fan. I stopped by her booth to ask a question. She answered, but seemed standoffish. If I'm going to take a week-long class, she wouldn't be my first choice just based on my experience. I attended two Richard Findlay sessions that were good.

Sessions: 10/10
Gallery: 10/10
Tradeshow Floor: 7/10 - The TAW floor was as big or bigger.
Friday Auction - I missed this but I'm sure it was good.
Saturday Banquet: 2/10 - It was downright boring. I'll not do the banquet in the future for an extra $65. They did a tribute to Richard Raffan that was good.

I might consider SWAT over AAW next year. I doubt I can justify going to SWAT this year, but I might.
Click to expand...

I really enjoyed the sessions with Emma Cook and Stuart Furini; awesome! The Mark & Mikey Show (Sffirri & Hosaluk) was great, two longtime friends cuttin' it up and making some shavings together. Derek Weidman joined them and helped create a somewhat hideous beast of an animal. All good fun.

I agree, the trade show seemed a little smaller than previous years. It sounds like the AAW charges a fee, plus the venue/union charges some kind of loading dock fee, so added to travel expenses, it reduces their profit margin. It may drive more vendors to stay away.

The banquet was pretty dull. they recognized the passing of Nick Agar, but mixed in with a whole bunch of unknowns. The woman who spoke about the Beads of Courage went WAY too long. I will skip the banquet next time as well.

It's a shame they didn't make everyone attending aware of the AAW gallery just a couple blocks away. I saw it, but many missed it.

I failed to tell my 92 year old neighbor I look after that I was leaving town for a bit. Upon my return, she said she wanted to buy a bowl to give to her daughter who was visiting from Minnesota. When I talked to her, she said lives very close and her office is right next to the Landmark Center. D'Oh!
 
Kent Reisdorph said:
I'm really bummed I didn't get to see the Gordon Pembridge piece as well as all the others.
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Incredible workmanship. Not only a skilled turner, but meticulous carver and painter as well.

I was wondering, are the in-person attendees going to get access to the virtual recordings? I've really enjoyed the videos from last year (OK, I still am) but I'd like to see some of the dsessions from this year that I missed.
 
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