Ats Conference

[Mojo Jojo]

Who has gone to a past ATS Conference?
What kinds of activities/presentations go on?
Other stuff to do when presentations not going on?
Anything else anyone wants to offer up.

Thanks

Big Dragonfly

 

[Botar]

Immortal Sin went last year. In fact, if you look at the pics on the ATS site, you can see pictures of her daughter there. When presentations aren't going on, you could hit Carlsbad Caverns, a large cave nearby, or I believe several people go out collecting inverts in the nearby uninhabited areas. Aside from that, you'll have to check w/ Holley or some of the other members who've attended.

Botar

 

[Mojo Jojo]

I know that a lot of people will probably fly there. If they go out into the field, and collect species, they can't take them back on the airplane can they?

 

[Immortal_sin]

I might as well...

post this...
I wrote this and posted it to the ATS_enthusiast mailing list after last year's conference. It's just a little bit of what we did there....
we're back!
and what a FANTASTIC time Shelby and I had!!
We met so many nice people, and did so many cool things
Here's a rundown of our trip, for anyone interested!
Thursday, Jun 20. We arrived in Carlsbad around 3pm, what a long, boring drive from El Paso! I had just checked in, when Shasta and JJ walked up, and Kerry and Stephanie pulled up in their little yellow sports car. We said hello, then went to our room for a nice refreshing shower!
Shelby and I had a room right above E Anne, and we went down to say hello. Wow....E Anne had ALOT of spiders in her room!
Then we went to meet everyone else out on the patio. Shelby immediately went around and talked to people, and took pictures. She was fascinated by Georgio's centipede that he was holding in his hand. She also liked the spider shirts that alot of people were wearing.
Then she spied the table holding some of the raffle prizes. There was a large C crayshawi in a petpal, and she went ballistic! She told me right then and there, that she just HAD to win that spider! In fact, that is pretty much ALL she talked about till Sunday . She found a guy with some millipedes that he had just caught, and he gave her one. I had no idea that there were millies like that in Carlsbad.
After meeting everyone, we went to E Anne's room, and she recruited me to sew her quilts that she had made. When I protested that I don't sew, she said that she wanted me to do it anyway! She was persuasive, so I did it. And I think she was happy with the job, unless she undid all those stitches after we left her room that evening!
SB came by to say hello, and we all sat around and compared injuries. Shelby used E Anne's laptop to create some pictures.
Friday, Jun 21...first day of the conference! We got there around 9am, and everyone was still setting up. Shelby found a guy with a table full of A hentzis, and probably held most of them. In fact, she ended up carrying one of them around on her shoulder for most of the conference. She talked to everyone that came in the door. I checked out the talks, and she socialized.
She had a blast with E Anne's terrarium workshop, and even learned how to use Photoshop in E Anne's workshop.
Then it was off to find some spiders in the desert. We only stayed out about an hour, it was so hot! We never did find any burrows, but Shasta did, and we watched while she coaxed a cute little female? out of her burrow. Then she generously gave her to Shelby. Shelby really wanted to catch a lizard, but they were way too fast!
We went and soaked in the pool. We couldn't find anyone in their rooms, and after calling around, decided that everyone was still out. We were going to go to the caverns and watch the bats, but luckily, E Anne called us and told us we were missing the party! We drove over, and got there just in time for the hisser race. It was absolutely hysterical! Some of them would run fast, and some would just sit there. Shelby's two were both party poopers, and didn't win her anything. However, people generously gave her 3 tarantulas, and a mechanical scorpian. Wow, we now had 5 'bugs' and I was starting to wonder how to get them home!
E Anne was so nice, she had Shelby stay with her while I went on a night hunt. There were about 15 or so of us...we didn't find many Ts ( I found none) but there were so many other things to see! Black widows, solfugids, wolf spiders etc. I was bitten by 3 harvester ants too! YIKES....I couldn't believe the pain! It was awful. Apparently they crawled up my pant legs as I was watching someone try to tease a T out of a burrow. I ended up taking my pants AND shirt off, right there in the middle of nowhere, and trying to get the buggers out of there! Poor Strider, I made him hold the flashlight while I jumped around and screamed for a few minutes! (Sorry you had to go through that Strider!). I found more of the nasty buggers too. Gives a whole new meaning to 'ants in the pants'!
Sat, Jun 21. Wow, time moves quickly when you're having fun! Back to the conference, with more great talks, and more of Shelby drooling over the King baboon, and walking around with a T on her shoulder. Rosemary was amazing to watch with her king baboon, and P regalis holding! In fact, her male P regalis was actually quite docile, and a few of us decided that we would be brave and hold him too! I wouldn't try this at home, but somehow it wasn't so scary!
Well, it was finally time for the raffle, and E Anne and I (along with others) decided to buy just a few more raffle tickets! Shelby was bouncing off the walls...
There were so many awesome prizes, it was incredible. First, we won 2 baby B albopilosums, and Shelby loudly said 'If I don't win that king baboon, I don't want anything'!
How embarrassing LOL.
Then we won an L cristata...NICE! She still wasn't satsified. Then, the king baboon was brought out....and OUR number was called!
Shelby was ecstatic!! Everyone clapped...I think they were glad she won, or they'd never hear the end of it
Well, our spider count was going up and up....and so I decided what the heck, we really need to go to John Hoke's suite anyway
I'm suprised I was able to restrain myself (then I remembered I have no income LOL!) so we took it easy with a E campestratus, A avic sling, and an L cristata, to replace the one Shelby traded away for two A versi babies. Well, that brought us up to 11 Ts, and one millipede. John is shipping them to us, and I"m sitting here in my spider room wondering where the heck I will put them!
All too soon, it ended, and we left town. After the flight from hell, and a Phoenix airport lockdown, we arrived home this morning at 2am, to find that one of my dogs had been sprayed by a skunk! Well, it's back to the real world folks......
We are already planning next year's trip, and we will definately spend more time there!
Thanks to EVERYONE who was so nice and generous to us, all of you totally made Shelby's trip the BEST! (and mine too!)
Holley & Shelby